Portland has one major professional sports franchise…
the Trail Blazers.
People care here.
Whoo! Blazers!
They care so deeply about the team.
They won the championship in 1977.
It's over!
It was immediately transformative,
but it's been more than 20 years,
and there hasn't been that Camelot feeling that they had in 1977.
We're number one!
And here came Rasheed Wallace,
Damon Stoudamire,
and Bonzi Wells.
It was this collection of players that,
in no way, shape, or form probably would work.
They were immature, petty,
but so good.
This was the greatest sociology experiment in sports.
The biggest opponent the Blazers must defeat are themselves.
Rasheed Wallace is the man Blazer fans are counting on
to carry their beloved team to their second title.
This was gonna be it, a chance to win a championship.
Rasheed Wallace has battled the Lakers and sometimes himself.
They might've won back-to-back NBA championships.
It was set up for them.
But it cascaded out of control.
Marijuana, cocaine, assault.
The longest period without any incident was just 17 days.
- Jail time for drunk driving. - Sucker-punched a teammate.
I'm a sportscaster. I'm not a crime reporter.
For the third time in 16 months,
Stoudamire faces drug charges.
I'm sure we got a lot of angry fans.
Risks a technical, and there it is.
Technical foul on Wallace.
They're an insult to the city.
- Most of them are kinda thugs. - You've gotta be kidding me.
For fuck's sake, can you guys just stay out of trouble?
It's a full-on fight. Look out!
Rasheed Wallace took a swing at a fan.
I've never seen a town turn on a team like this.
Shame on you, Rasheed Wallace.
I know what happened.
But this the only thing I'mma tell y'all.
Yo, I don't fucking know you. I don't care to know you.
It's your job to get to know me.
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Microsoft…
Microsoft is the world's largest software company.
Bill Gates co-founded his company with his high school buddy, Paul Allen.
Paul Allen…
Paul Allen is the third-wealthiest man in the world.
One of Allen's ideas would lead to the personal computer revolution
and launch Microsoft.
Microsoft's not just the biggest fish in the sea, they're the water we swim in.
Allen has spent his wealth on a hodgepodge of many interests,
yachts, submarines, Jimi Hendrix's guitar.
The venture capitalist now has his sights set
on the small town of Portland, Oregon.
The Trail Blazers announced today they have sold the team to Allen,
who is now the youngest owner in the NBA.
I bought the team because basketball is one of my real passions,
and I wanted to be personally involved with a championship-quality team.
Allen's big move in building a championship team?
Hiring the current NBA General Manager of the Year, Bob Whitsitt.
I see my role right now as coming to a great organization
and trying to add to what is already very, very good.
I'm coming off the best record in the NBA.
Whitsitt spent eight years turning the Seattle Supersonics into a powerhouse.
Nobody built it better than that.
I wasn't so much interested in building an entire organization
and selling tickets and educating the market on what the NBA was.
And I said, "Paul, I really only wanna build the basketball team."
So Bob Whitsitt's nickname was Trader Bob.
Trader Bob.
Trader Bob is an interesting guy.
He's computer-like, analytical.
He didn't care much about chemistry.
I'm not a chemistry major. I'm a sports major.
You have to understand… it's a very difficult thing
to be the general manager in Portland.
It's Portland… rainy, wet, tucked in the northwest, Portland.
It's small market.
It's viewed as a predominantly white community.
NBA players are not interested in that.
All you had was the draft and trade available.
Trader Bob came in at a time when the Drexler era was ending naturally.
The Drexler era… 12 years, two finals appearances,
but no championships.
He had to figure out how to deconstruct and reconstruct at the same time.
I went in there today, and there was a phone and a computer.
I was so excited. I went in, shut the door, and locked it.
With Sonics, we did not have computers. We had no technology.
If you don't have that computer literacy today… you're gonna have trouble
succeeding in the next century.
The second I got hired by Paul,
I had a laptop, I was on email…
My world got more efficient, smarter.
So Paul said to me, "It's my money. Let's go do this at all costs."
"I want to win."
"Oh, and by the way, Bob…"
"We're gonna be in the playoffs next year."
Which signaled to me… you don't have much time.
He was looking for value,
and so he was taking damaged guys, the guys that had been in trouble.
If you did your time…
I believe you should get another shot.
It's time for a new Trail Blazer chapter.
I was gonna be tested to my limit.
Can I clean this guy up,
repackage him,
and turn it into something spectacular?
Whether it's draft picks,
more cap space,
a better player…
We did all our moves, and Rasheed was my target.
After amassing players and picks, Trader Bob has made his first big move.
Portland has traded for the former fourth overall pick, 21-year-old Rasheed Wallace.
My challenge with Rasheed was trying to manage
the emotion, the adrenaline, the temperament.
You know, certain people play with certain attitudes.
You have some guys who get out on the court,
and, you know, they're calm and cool and collected,
and you have other guys who, you know, like, they're full of rage.
It's just the competitiveness, and I'm a competitive person.
Wallace's first impression raised some eyebrows with his T-shirt
that read, "'Expletive' who you know, we're still gonna kill you."
…and here they are.
At forward, number 30, Rasheed Wallace!
I tell my fellas, "Yo, I ain't no role model."
To my kids, maybe, but I still fuck up with them too.
I was the first one up there.
There wasn't none of the glitz and glamour. It was like,
"We basket-balling here, so that's what we preach,
and we don't have time for all the other stuff." I liked that.
When Rasheed arrived in Portland,
it was like someone dropped the bass on this franchise.
The NBA is desperate for a new face.
They may have found it here in Portland.
Now the Blazers are a unique team.
Rasheed Wallace, no doubt, and I think he's an emerging superstar.
Rasheed was an insane talent.
He was temperamental.
Rasheed is basketball's version of John McEnroe.
He would scream.
He was just so emotional.
He could pull up from three.
This was before the three-ball era we're in now.
Wallace… he's dynamite on the court,
but we desperately need to get him some help.
We were looking for a point guard.
At five feet, 10 inches, some people thought that Stoudamire was too small.
Damon Stoudamire, rookie of the year, high scorer, hometown boy.
Lived here my whole life, played high school ball here.
Seems like the Blazer organization is changing.
It'd only be fitting to get a hometown kid to start everything off.
I get a call from Bob Whitsitt.
It just happened.
Trader Bob is unloading the war chest.
He moved three players and three draft picks for Toronto's Damon Stoudamire.
He's from Portland. I think they got a good deal.
I'm glad to see him coming, you know? I think it'll help the team out.
This is the night.
Damon Stoudamire, the hometown boy, back home and in a Trail Blazer uniform.
Sneak in for the steal, and Rider smartly held up.
Damon Stoudamire will get it.
When Damon came to the Blazers, he was hot shit.
Stoudamire to Wallace.
It clicked with him from the top.
Portland having Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire… fast, quick guys.
…but four in this quarter. Look at Stoudamire!
And then Bonzi came along.
I got drafted by Detroit, the Detroit Pistons.
With the 11th pick, the Detroit Pistons select
Bonzi Wells from Ball State University.
Yeah, boy!
Don't talk about my suit, man, I don't want…
On my way back to Detroit, they called me, "We're 99% sure we're gonna trade you."
I was like, "Oh Lord, what did I do?"
"You're going to Portland." I was like, "Where the heck is Portland?"
"Portland, Maine? Where am I going?"
I looked at a map, like, "Man, I'm going way over here."
Hopefully we didn't give the coach too many problems bringing in more guys,
but we like to give him as many guys to work with as we can.
Me, Damon… we were the cool kids.
When Bonz first got to Portland, he wasn't one of the cool kids.
And then one game, Bonzi had a little scuffle match.
Rasheed told me, "Bonzi, if we don't win the game, let's win the fight."
Bonzi went right back at his ass.
You know, Bonzi became a cool kid then.
We're a bunch of physical guys. People don't realize that we're real.
We ain't gonna let nobody test our manhood.
And we'll test yours back.
The Blazers were a little bit the outlaws. They weren't on brand for the NBA.
Dudes were scared of us. They didn't know what we was gonna do.
That chemistry is starting to boil together more each game.
And that's what we need. And it'll only get better.
Rasheed, Bonzi, them was my boys.
It was always us three.
We were in the window,
but I needed the window to be a lot more solid.
I wanted to keep the core, but I wanted to upgrade.
And the Lakers were gunning to get Scottie.
If Scottie goes to the Lakers,
not only do we not take another step up, we're taking a step back.
And now, with six NBA world championships…
your Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are sort of this Tiffany product.
The Lakers are going for it all.
This off-season, they brought in legendary coach Phil Jackson from the Chicago Bulls.
It used to be Michael and Scottie.
Now it's Shaq and Kobe.
They had Shaq.
I consider myself a Renaissance man.
Young kid having fun just, you know, following his dreams.
Shaq
Staying out of trouble.
And they had Kobe.
And they always had stars that moved the needle.
There was a great divide between the city of Los Angeles
and little old Portland.
Portland's not a Porsche town or a sports car town. Not a real showy town.
I mean, it's counterculture.
It's sort of a wet Austin, Texas.
And it's a one newspaper town.
And this was a rivalry.
We were the underdog.
So I was ready to really put this thing in motion.
Scottie told you flat out, "I'll never go to Portland."
- Yeah, yeah. - So…
A lot of people been saying, "Scottie Pippen's gone."
I don't even listen to that bull crap.
I finally found a button.
"Gosh, Scottie, you're kind of like the fourth banana."
"You only won championships with Michael and Phil."
"And you're only gonna go win again with
Shaq and Kobe and Phil."
"Our place, you're gonna be the best player, the headliner,
and you're gonna win it without Michael and without Phil."
Scottie Pippen!
And at some point, Scottie finally said,
"Let's do it."
This team is very talented and it's very deep.
And, uh… they have a great chance of winning even without Scottie Pippen.
That's about as good as I can do.
When he got traded to Portland, if you'd have saw the smile on my face back then…
We all seen Pip as young boys.
Knew the history.
Man, we was like, "All right, shit, we got somebody on our team now
who been to the mountaintop and sipped the juice six times."
Six rings, man. Whew!
His locker was over there, and I'm sitting there.
And I'm looking at him, and he just looked like a god.
Scottie walks in, and he has security.
We said, "Man, take that old Hollywood, Chicago shit back to Chicago."
Pip saying, "No, no, no!"
Pip had security, man, for about four, five days,
then that shit was dead. Pip was one of us.
We had Scottie getting his hair braided. We had him wearing throwback jerseys.
Pip crazy. Institutionalized by the Blazers.
It's been a long time since Blazer fans have been this excited.
Thanks to Scottie, tickets are already sold out for the upcoming season.
For us, it was finals or bust. We was trying to win a championship.
Scottie Pippen has become the go-to guy on defense.
Couldn't tell us nothing. Yeah, we in there.
The Lakers were our nemesis,
but you still gotta get through the 82 games, and both teams did that.
You still gotta get through the first couple rounds. Both teams did that.
So now we're staring at each other in the conference finals.
We had them on the ropes.
A week ago today, the Lakers led the Blazers three games to one.
Only six teams in NBA history have overcome a 3-1 deficit.
It's game seven. Ain't nothing else on TV.
So you know all eyes gonna be on the game, man.
Game seven is a tough ticket to score, but celebrities have their way.
We come out and… we was smoking them.
And Pippen pulls up for three.
And Portland's off to a great start.
It's gonna be Scottie.
Haha. Got it.
The Blazers were not intimidated by the Lakers.
The Blazers have a comfortable eight-point lead.
I remember asking Phil Jackson in that series, "How do you stop Rasheed?"
And Phil Jackson paused.
"You don't."
We marvel at this young man's talent.
Leaning on him… Tough hoop!
Inside two minutes to play. Into the paint for the slam.
And the Lakers have been on their heels the entire first half.
We just took advantage of our youth, of our bodies that we threw at them.
But it just felt good for us because we was like, "These guys are legends."
We didn't fear them at all.
Fadeaway jumper.
Wallace with ten points in this quarter. With 23 points for the game.
I mean, we was rolling.
This is a 15-point game.
You see the dreary looks on their faces.
I look over at the bench a little bit, I see guys just jumping up and down.
It's like, "Yo, we almost here."
Scottie.
How big is that? And he's done that throughout…
So the Lakers bring the ball back down court.
We playing them, tough defense.
And then…
Shaw.
Overshot it and banked it in for three!
Kind of hit the side of the backboard and then went in.
And I was like, "Here go the bullshit."
But it's still a 13-point Portland lead heading into the fourth.
We were up 13 going into the fourth,
and they had nothing to answer what we were doing.
…getting his team to believe.
But then we miss a few shots.
We get the great shot. I… I kinda get on the edge,
thinking… "That's in."
It pops out!
We missed four straight shots.
Timeout.
Now we just got to make a bucket to break the run.
…with the trouble in the paint…
Who gonna make this bucket?
- …but they gotta make a basket. - These things are…
…shoo… shoo…
Shit, we need a bucket right here, stop this bleeding.
It's Wallace. Dirty dozen for Portland.
Lakers on a 12-0 run and the Trail Blazers…
Is there a jinx going on?
Pippen for three!
Was it a fucked up game?
Shaw.
Ties it at 75!
Yeah.
We end up missing 13 shots in a row at the worst time possible.
I missed like six or seven of them.
But man, all I remember is that it culminated with the lob.
Bryant… to Shaq!
That shit was just over from there.
We was like, "Damn."
That's it.
I'm not sure if the Lakers won as much as they escaped.
That's… the nature of sports.
Sometimes you need a little luck.
And on that particular day, in that particular quarter…
we had the worst luck.
You took time off and you still, you know, thought about…
We gonna get them next year. We gonna run this thing back.
And that's when every… …everything started happening.
There was so much change going on in the NBA
where the salaries were starting to escalate beyond anybody's wildest dreams.
Money got out of control.
And so guys was getting money.
We moved into Lake Oswego.
The thriving city of Lake Oswego, just minutes from downtown Portland,
is centered around Oswego Lake.
The large private lake, a boating playground,
is surrounded by beautiful homes with stunning views.
They were young, rich, and wanted everyone in Lake Oswego to know it.
You'd see a nice car. You're always like, "That must be a Blazer."
Right here where me and the boys play a lot of football at.
Over there where we were at, it was myself…
Little waterfall right here. This is real relaxing.
…Damon…
Hi, everybody. I'm Damon Stoudamire. And welcome to my crib.
Bonzi was in the little neighborhood too.
It was the rich, white side of Portland.
Now, other than my son, I want y'all to see my two babies.
There are some people, white people,
maybe even some other people of color that don't like seeing
young African-American men making a lot of money so quickly.
It's like, "They didn't earn that."
The '96 Bronco right here. A lot of my teammates and stuff call me "O.J."
A majority of the police didn't want us out there.
You definitely gotta make sure you're doing the speed limit.
I got, in the back, I got a couple speakers.
You know, I love music.
It gets me pumped up before basketball games.
One particular day in the summer, I got pulled over three times.
In one day.
I just never say it out loud, but we used to call it "Lake No Negro."
Lake No Negro.
It's Lake No Negro.
You see so much whiteness there
that it takes a little getting used to.
They were used to the guys who would come to the games in the suits,
the Magic Johnsons,
the Michael Jordans.
Here we come. We're loud, boisterous, riding around in our big cars,
smoking weed, so we're…
We're definitely the opposite of that bullshit.
It was the bling-bling era. Everybody was turnt up with the jewelry.
- Too awesome. The real Iceman. - The real Iceman.
We wearing baggy clothes, we wearing big jerseys
and all this type of stuff to pay homage to our past.
Our shirts was baggy. Fucking Karl Kani jeans.
The guy wears one X, he's got on three X jeans.
Jeans, white tees, hats, Air Force Ones.
Portland has its own beat.
And those young NBA players had their own beat.
And it didn't always coincide.
It was a culture shock.
Now here's Michael Thompson!
Welcome to The 5th Quarter on this Sonic boom of a Saturday
as those booms were heard
echoing all the way down here from the Key Arena in Seattle.
This was a major game on the schedule tonight.
You had the two Northwest rivals squaring off…
So…
driving back from Seattle.
We just got finished playing the Sonics.
We were so close that,
you know, some family members drove up from Portland.
So, um, one of Big's guys drives up.
So Biggie's my nickname.
And I say, "Yo, Big… shit, I'll just ride back with you."
Spark a jay up or some shit.
Just enjoy the little two and a half hour ride.
So we driving.
Boom, I roll up… smoke.
I want to get high
Bigs rolled up something. You know, he smoked.
I'm just saying, that was a good time.
Just as soon as we finish smoking,
Big's guy's speeding up.
I told my man, I was like, "Yo, slow down, dog, like…"
- "This a yellow Hummer, man." - He told him twice.
He told his buddy to slow down.
- Yo, slow down. - Fucking 11:30 at night.
Yo, slow down.
You know, it's like, "Just drive, man. We got time, man. We ain't rushing."
Yo, slow down.
Right when Damon told him to slow down?
We get pulled over. And I was just like, "Man, ain't this about a bitch, man."
And so it obviously still reeked a little bit of the weed.
"Where's the weed at? I smell it!"
We smoked it.
Man, we don't got nothing.
Ain't even really talked to the guy who was driving.
Just talking with me and Damon.
You know, I heard dude in the car, like when they was on the dispatch.
"That's Damon Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace."
Like, I'm listening.
He wanted to threaten us. "Oh, we'll bring the dogs out."
"Tear the car apart."
Man, they got the dogs done jumped through the car.
- They ain't find shit. - Nothing.
All they found was fucking crumbs in the car.
So me and Damon just standing on the side of the road. We like… ugh.
Dog, who comes down the road?
The fucking team bus.
I'm like, "Are y'all serious, man?"
I'm like, "Is that a yellow Hummer?"
"Is that…?"
The slo-mo joint. It's like, you know, when you watching the movies, it's just…
All slow motion?
I swear that's how that bus rode by.
And I could just read everybody's face on there.
So high
I'm like, "Damn."
Man, I just can't believe this shit.
We end up, they give us a speeding ticket.
Big's like, "You think this shit gonna be on the news or something?"
I'm like, "Dog, it's routine."
Sheed like, "Ain't nothing gonna happen." I said, "Yes, it is."
- "Man, what you talking about?" - "It's gonna be on the news, bruh."
Like, "All right, bet." Go home, go to sleep.
I wake up to my wife hitting me.
"Get up! Get up!"
"What you do?"
"What you do last night? What happened?"
"Whoa, what you talking about? I ain't do nothing. I just woke up."
I'm like, "Yo, what are you talking about?"
Just before midnight, Stoudamire and Wallace were pulled over for speeding.
This morning, they've been cited for marijuana possession.
Yo! Like, really?
Centralia Police's K-9 unit, Bak, came out to check the car for drugs.
All over the god-dang TV, man.
…teammate Rasheed Wallace were cited for pot…
…Damon Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace for marijuana possession.
I think they should be disciplined for it. Definitely.
We actually had a pretty long talk about drugs today as a result of it.
Athletes should live by the same standard as the rest of us.
Mother called, father called, "You're all on the radio."
Next caller, you're on the air.
Maybe smoking all this weed is why we missed so many shots.
When you wake up this morning and you learn about that,
it's very frustrating.
It's very disappointing.
It's unfortunate. That's poor examples for a lot of people,
and young kids who look up to them.
So, it's too bad.
Nowadays, we know so much about NBA players…
I'm chilling in the bed, you know.
At the time I'm married. My wife's there with me.
Chappelle's Show came out, the hottest fucking shit on TV.
And every time I do something sweet or cool, I would… "Jordan!"
So, they said a couple NBA names, so it's "ha, ha, ha."
Kobe!
And he come up to a car that's full of smoke and taps on the glass.
You're under arrest!
And when Charlie Murphy rolled that window down and said…
- "Rasheed Wallace!" - Rasheed Wallace!
Damon Stoudamire!
My wife like, "Yo, that shit ain't funny!"
In my head, you know what I said to myself?
"Mama, I made it!"
"I made it, yes!"
But no, I was crying, like…
Just kept rewinding and rewinding.
I just can't get mad at this shit. It's comedy.
Like, it's f… It's funny shit.
"Nah, fuck that! Fuck this show!"
I'm like, "Nah, you can't say that, baby." Like, "This nigga's funny right here."
Being from Portland, I never wanted to play the race card because I'd had
as many white friends as I had Black friends.
You know? So…
It wasn't in my face.
Right?
And so I was all right with that.
And even as I was with the Blazers, I still don't think…
I still don't think
that stuff was racial.
There were racial undertones.
But I… I wasn't calling it racial.
But there was one time… that I was particularly bothered.
I come home.
I was like…
"Somebody been in my place."
I live by myself.
There was things that just was out of place.
So I was like, "Man, this is just weird." Like…
"This is weird. Like, this is weird"
And an hour later,
the police came to my house.
Police were called to Stoudamire's home in Lake Oswego
after something tripped the home's burglar alarm.
Officers responded to a burglar alarm
and entered the home without a search warrant.
Once inside, sources tell us that the police began searching the home
and found one pound of marijuana behind an attic access door.
They broke into his house saying that… something about his alarm was going off.
So they went into the house to check
to see if it was any burglars, and this and that.
And came across this marijuana. And now he's under arrest, this and that.
Like, "Man, get the fuck out of here with that bullshit."
I was like, you know, "Y'all gotta talk to my lawyers."
My lawyer did his homework.
You know, I had to go turn myself in.
According to the Clackamas County DA,
a Lake Oswego police report contains allegations
of felony drug possession against Damon Stoudamire.
First degree felony, had me like I was a drug dealer and all the different stuff.
Any comment for your fans, Damon?
How you holding up?
After posting $50,000 bail, the star point guard sprinted home
around two in the morning as reporters swarmed.
This case will be presented to a grand jury for their consideration.
I just couldn't understand why they would treat a hometown kid that way.
It's been difficult, but, you know, I'm gonna hang in there and, uh…
I'm gonna be fine.
Flanked by attorneys and his father, Trail Blazers star,
Damon Stoudamire walks into court facing a felony drug possession charge.
It's very hard for players to come home and play in their hometown.
You're dealing with the scrutiny of a tremendous spotlight on you,
very, very intense.
You're on the only stage in town,
and people are judging you unrealistically.
I wanted to be someone that inspired, like, everybody in the neighborhood
and the people around that was coming up, like, "Man, we can be seen on TV too."
I wanted to be a role model.
Even though Stoudamire has yet to be proven guilty,
the damage is already done.
I don't know if I'll look at him the same way. He just…
I don't… I don't know. I don't…
He's not my role model, not anymore.
Please rise.
Please be seated.
Throughout the day, arguments from the defense
and prosecution were heard.
But in the end, it was the police who committed a crime.
A Portland judge ruled that the entry into Stoudamire's home was illegal.
I felt like the police was trying to find something.
They was trying to make an example of somebody or another.
If you can go in somebody's house
because you got a badge and go in when they gone…
Any comment, Damon or Stephen?
No comments today. Thank you very much, sir.
I was like, "Man, this is not it for me."
Like, I used to be around there paranoid.
Man, it got bad.
And so I never went back to the spot, and I just sold it.
A lot of this stuff, this is the first time
that I'm even saying anything. It's like therapy.
That's why I stayed away from home for so long.
People are like, "Man, why you stay away from home?" I was like, "Man, I'm…" Like…
It's weirdo stuff.
It's so hard to build a team
and climb the mountain.
You don't get close very often. And when you get to taste it…
it makes you want to have it even more.
I told Paul, "This is the year."
When we lost to the Lakers in 2000, that could have went either way.
Run it back.
Give us one more year to kinda figure it out.
Let's go back to the drawing board. We was this close.
I will say this…
And I'll say it today.
And I would have said it 40 years ago.
And I'll say it ten years from now.
You need to be innovative.
You need to stay young in your thinking.
You need to be ahead of the curve.
I guess what I'm saying is don't break it if it's not broken,
but if you stay status quo, you'll never get ahead.
In a flurry of moves this August,
Trader Bob has retooled one of the best rosters in the league.
Yeah, he brought in a couple extra veteran players,
got rid of some of the glue to the team, some of the glue to the bench.
The biggest fish is undoubtedly the three-team deal
that brought Trader Bob's former Seattle Sonics star, Shawn Kemp, to Portland.
Bob drafted me, so we had always stayed in touch and had conversations.
You know, it just shows you… that he wanted to win that badly.
And I think that's what excited me at the time.
Shawn Kemp.
Now, we don't need to go too much into Shawn Kemp's reputation or exploits.
This week, Shawn Kemp publicly addressed the issue
of his chronic lateness and irresponsibility.
He denied speculation that he had a drinking problem.
Here's what you need to know.
Kemp was drafted by Whitsitt.
He was a former All-Star.
A thundering overhead…
And I underline former All-Star
because he was carrying so much weight that he could barely dunk.
He was overweight.
He didn't have the same game he had before.
But I'm willing to risk that in a second.
Can I roll seven again?
I think that's the key to success.
You have to keep pushing forward in an aggressive way,
knowing that not everything you do will work out.
You begin to suspect that they have a type instead of a plan.
…to get it under control.
- Tries to find Rasheed Wallace. - I swear to God, man!
- Better not blow that whistle no more! - And heads up here.
Rasheed Wallace quickly gets it back under control.
No, he doesn't.
Surprise, surprise.
A technical on Rasheed Wallace.
This is just unbelievable by Rasheed Wallace.
One thing we were trying to manage during our championship window
was one of our best players that we needed to stay on the court…
…was getting many more technical fouls than he should have gotten.
Portland's biggest problem all season long has been trying to find a way
to keep Rasheed Wallace in the games and under control.
I was more of a loose cannon.
I wouldn't necessarily say I played with hate,
but… I'm trying to go at your neck.
He trash-talked officials more than he trash-talked other guys.
- And a technical foul! - Somehow he's gotta control himself.
Now, some nights, yeah, I did deserve it. I might call him, you know,
a couple curse words or some shit like that.
Yeah, for sure.
Risks a technical.
- And there it is. - Number 17.
- Technical. - Technical.
Technical on who else but Rasheed Wallace.
And he's out of the game.
Rasheed Wallace in a 30-point game
gets a technical foul here?
That's embarrassing.
But, other nights, it's just… look at him.
"Mmm! Oh, tech."
Whack, get out.
Come on, cut that shit out.
Well, Doug, can you get tossed for looking at a guy funny?
People were okay with him battling emotionally for the game,
and even getting technicals because we didn't like the refs either.
But he would never shut up.
It could cost him a possible chance of a championship
if he does not control his emotions.
Dr. John Givi is a sports psychologist.
He says Rasheed's behavior crosses the line.
His conduct at this point is,
uh, detrimental to him, detrimental to his team.
When you're known for yelling and cussing at the referees,
sometimes people lose faith in you.
They look at you like you're the problem.
Recently, Wallace was at the airport
when a mother and son came asking for an autograph.
Held out my magazine and my pen. He shook away and said "No."
I ripped the picture of Rasheed out of the magazine
and crumpled it up, and I threw it at his feet.
He threw it right back, and hit me in the face,
and said, "Ooh!"
Fuck it, I might as well say how I feel.
We got the nod that Sports Illustrated was coming to do an article on us.
The controversy centers around the latest Sports Illustrated article,
where Bonzi Wells is quoted as saying,
"We're not really gonna worry about what the hell the fans think about us."
"They really don't matter to us."
"They can boo us every day,
but they're still gonna ask for our autographs if they see us on the street."
"That's why they're fans,
and we're NBA players."
It reflects an arrogance that this team has taken this town for granted.
It was a hot topic.
You know, you just can't go public in that way.
The Blazers had lost the fan base.
When you say things like that, it doesn't inspire people
to really even wanna go and see the game.
Fans are the stockholders. They're the customers, you know?
And it's ridiculous to spit in the face of fans.
These fans turned on me like…
That doesn't help the cause. It doesn't help anybody's cause.
It's a stupid quote. I mean, what else can you say?
The fans were fed up. They were already fed up
with some of the stuff that was going on, like the yellow Hummer.
Smoking weed.
There were problems, and red flags,
and issues, especially with Shawn Kemp.
Trader Bob's big signing is ending his season early.
Shawn Kemp has entered rehab for cocaine abuse.
Scottie Pippen said that the acquisition of Shawn Kemp
was the worst move ever in the history of pro sports.
That's kind of taking a bull's eye at your general manager.
We all wanna be known as winners, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.
We were aggressive, made sense.
I failed.
Rasheed Wallace, wanted to foul him.
Felt he was bumped and now he gets a T.
He's going at him, that's two.
I felt like the alignment was all the way messed up.
After a promising start, Blazers finish the season going 15 and 17.
- Team's in a lot of turmoil right now. - They're always losing. I'm wondering why.
The drug rehab slam dunk from Blazer Shawn Kemp has left fans
wondering about the championship.
- I think it's just an atrocity. - The guy's a total loser.
Then we get to the damn playoffs, who we see first round? Lakers.
Blazer turnover. And here comes Bryant.
Front court, moving quickly. Throws to Shaq and he dunks it.
Blazers wanted a travel on Bryant. They don't get it.
Final score, the Lakers 99, the Blazers 86.
L.A. wins the series, three games to none.
We got swept, and so it was just one of them things, man.
You just wanna decompress, you know, 'cause the way the year ended,
it was just like, "Man, this is crazy."
You had local Portland media bitching and complaining, some of them punks.
I just got tired of all my shit just getting misconstrued.
So I was like, "Man, stop fucking with y'all, period."
Do you consider yourself a role model to all the fans that show up at the games?
There's a car behind you. Watch it.
"Why you aren't talking?" "Because your reporters
only report negativity."
Just keep shooting.
Yo, I don't fucking know you.
I don't care to know you.
It's your job to get to know me.
He didn't appreciate how the media in Portland was portraying him.
I understood.
Because I remember walking into the locker room.
Almost all white reporters.
"Geoffrey Arnold, with The Oregonian." "Oregonian has black reporters?"
He was like, "Yo, you mind if I do a story on you?"
"You know, it's not gonna be about a lot of the negativity."
I'm like, "All right, no problem."
He said, "Do you mind if I record and write everything you say?"
I'm like, "No, I ain't got shit to hide. I'm not trying to sugarcoat nothing."
"Just say it." Now, the part that did surprise me… I ain't know he was gonna put
all the "motherfuckers" and "niggas" in there that I said, though.
I thought it was an opportunity to get to know him
and for others to get to know him.
Not the Rasheed technical foul,
not the Rasheed screaming at the referee.
There was another side.
You don't know where I come from. You don't understand me at all.
You want me to be that good Martin Luther King.
As great of a person he was, I'm not Martin Luther King.
I'm more in that spirit of a Medgar Evers or a Malcolm X.
He's not going to conform.
He just wasn't gonna do that because that's not who he is.
And one of the things I always respected about Rasheed was that he was who he was.
Some people think the pen is mightier than the sword.
Here's the thing, the pen isn't mightier than right.
The article in The Oregonian titled "Raw 'Sheed"
has caught the attention of many across America.
The article even made its way to the office of NBA Commissioner David Stern.
"Mr. Wallace's hateful diatribe was ignorant
and offensive to all NBA players."
You're entitled to your opinion, but don't go overboard with it.
Know what I'm sayin'? I respect your opinion.
No matter what it is, you call me "a fucking nigger" and "oh this and that."
Da-da-da… All right. You said your piece.
Keep it moving. 'Cause if you keep reiterating shit and reiterating things,
and trying to come back at me, all right, well now…
Yeah, the nigga gonna come out.
When things started shaking and crumbling,
everybody said we need a cultural change.
So instead what they did is double down.
I'm a fan first.
And as a fan, I want my team to win.
And I told everybody,
"We got to stop the Lakers."
He's known as the Kobe Stopper.
- The Kobe Stopper. - The Kobe Stopper.
He didn't back down from Kobe, I'll tell you that. He played Kobe hard.
Kobe even said that.
Bob's like, "We're not a free agent market."
We don't have top-five picks.
I'm trying to effin' beat Kobe and Shaq.
I got to get players and length.
And those teams won't get Ruben Patterson.
There's no one answer as to what you look for with any one player.
Trail Blazer Ruben Patterson, the NBA's first registered sex offender.
There are people that deserve second chances,
and Ruben is definitely one of those people.
And I think as an organization we're open-minded that way.
You know, his transgressions happened with another team…
uh, at another time.
Patterson's victim was a 23-year-old woman we will call Jenny.
In January 2000, she was hired by Patterson's fiancée, Shannon, as a nanny.
She told police Patterson forced her to perform oral sex.
I'm not saying it was the greatest signing we ever did.
I'm not suggesting that at all.
I'm saying when we did it, we weighed a lot of factors,
but…
the real risk, honestly, was
a certain amount of cash.
You had a registered sex offender in a Blazers uniform.
You were holding him up as part of the team.
That's not good. Like, you can't do that.
You can't be that franchise that's okay with that at any cost.
Fine day, isn't it?
The Blazers' PR department, in the midst of an aggressive campaign
aimed at reconnecting with the fans, has pulled the plug on its current TV ads.
The focus now is damage control.
I'd like to have a team that I could stand behind and be proud of.
I don't feel that way.
I think we need like kind of a role model, a new good guy for the Blazers.
'Cause most of them are kinda thugs.
That came in fucking the chemistry up,
of the team.
And, um, yeah, I would say that's the only time that,
mmm… I truly, you know,
could say was mad with Bob or a little upset with Bob.
Since the trade for sex offender Ruben Patterson,
the antagonistic on-court behavior
and drug incidents with multiple players,
the front office has received numerous calls from fans,
some of them hoping to cancel season tickets.
With Ruben, what's the need to bring in somebody with this history?
I don't think there's a shortage of guys in the league
who can occupy Ruben Pattererson's--
- Well, let's stop there. You're wrong. - Okay.
Go… Go back… Go…
Go back at that time, in that free agent class,
and tell me who all those players are.
And I'll be the first to say you're right.
So I'll wait right now for you to start listing those players.
- Don't have it off the top of my head. - And you won't have them. Okay?
And if his character was such, he did not act up at all while he was in Portland.
I was in Arizona going to school, you know, getting my degree.
So… I'm going to New Orleans.
This is Tucson International Airport's security screening area.
And this is where Damon Stoudamire ran into trouble.
According to the sheriff's department report,
Stoudamire removed a package wrapped in aluminum foil
before he walked through a metal detector.
Sheriff's deputies searched Stoudamire, finding 39.95 grams,
or 1.4 ounces, of marijuana.
I had to go to David Stern's office.
David Stern sit across from me, like, "Don't fuck my league up, now."
For the third time in 16 months, Stoudamire faces drug charges.
I wished they'd stop getting in trouble
'cause I was tired of fucking covering news conferences about non-basketball.
Well, Portland's Rasheed Wallace has tied the NBA record that he set last season.
It's a bit of a dubious distinction. 38 technical fouls.
Somebody should go and tell Rasheed Wallace to sit down
and just be quiet here.
I thought that it was, at times…
a lack of awareness…
for when and when not to, on his behalf.
This is a major problem for this franchise with so much pride
and dignity and class to have this young man,
this star, with an $80 million contract setting a record for technical fouls.
End up leading the league. So that record still stands to this day.
Setting a league record for technical fouls,
throwing a towel in the teammate's face.
These are not criminal offenses.
The biggest opponent the Blazers must defeat are themselves.
This is sports, but in the end, you are perpetuating the legacy.
And you're perpetuating that brand. We all know how strong a brand can be.
And unfortunately the Blazers brand got pushed in that direction,
and the momentum never stopped.
Trader Bob's latest draft pick, Zach Randolph,
was arrested Tuesday morning for underage drinking.
Look, not only does Bob Whitsitt trade for problematic players,
Bob Whitsitt is almost an addict now drafting problematic players.
Making matters worse, instead of fighting for a playoff spot,
the team seems to be fighting with itself.
Zach Randolph sucker punched teammate Ruben Patterson during a practice.
Officers note they found two loaded handguns in the car,
one with a bullet in the chamber, and say Randolph smelled of marijuana.
When Bob made another deal with a player that had had troubles, it was like, "Ugh…"
It's been a rough week for Qyntel Woods.
Monday, he watched detectives
and animal control officers search his home for evidence of dogfighting.
I'm a sportscaster. I'm not a crime reporter.
…and Bonzi Wells pushing and shoving.
It's a full-on fight, and look out.
The benches have cleared.
Rasheed Wallace took a swing at a fan.
The fans were pouring something on him.
I think they're an insult to the city. I have no interest in them winning.
I'd just as soon they lose.
- What's your name? - Shannon. My husband is Ruben Patterson.
- All right. And is he still there? - Yeah.
- Where is he? - I need to leave.
He just tried to choke me.
At the Washington County Courthouse, Blazer Ruben Patterson met
his probation officer to discuss his latest arrest.
Patterson faces felony domestic assault charges
after an altercation with his wife Monday night.
I don't want our players even in a situation
that makes us even have to talk about it.
That's what bothers me right now more than anything.
A visibly frustrated Bob Whitsitt told the media today,
"I take all responsibility for anything that happens
with the Portland Trail Blazers."
The timing, the city,
it just kind of all went together, and it hit all at once.
After charges of drugs, dog fighting, loaded guns, and assault
the team is now being called the "Jail Blazers."
That was just the beginning of the end for myself, Rasheed, and Damon in Portland.
Some say the Blazers' criminal record off the court
is causing the team's lowest attendance at the Rose Garden ever.
For the third straight year,
the Blazers are facing the Lakers in the playoffs.
What was once a matchup between two ascending teams
has turned into two teams headed in two very different directions.
There is a three by Kobe!
And he got it.
A woman and her eight-year-old stepson were thrown out of
the Blazers' playoff game yesterday.
It all had to do with a sign they were holding.
This is the sign.
Katherine Topaz and her stepson, Will Abeles,
say they had to leave at the half
because they aren't fans of the team's general manager.
Will believes there's only one reason he had to leave.
I think it was Bob Whitsitt.
It was a real roller coaster ride for us,
and boom, we fast-forward to next year.
I wasn't talking to the media.
Rasheed was getting fined for not speaking to the media,
and the numbers started to get big.
The Blazers forward was fined $10,000
for failing to cooperate with the media after Sunday's game
and another $20,000 on Monday.
I was getting bombarded by the league. It's my job to make him talk.
I don't know why it became my job, but it is, 'cause I'm the guy in charge.
So I'd start meeting with Rasheed.
"If you don't say nothing to the media, you're gonna get fined."
- I'm like, "All right." - He understood.
But he also made it clear, "I don't like them."
I would fucking love to go to their job right now and heckle the shit out of them.
"Boo! You can't write!"
"You can't write!"
"What? You didn't put the abbreviation there where it's supposed to be? No!"
So now the Blazers are also getting fined.
The league said, "Next move is we're gonna suspend Rasheed,
so that's even more money, and we'll fine the team."
"But now, Rasheed, if you get suspended, you're hurting the team."
"Well, how about this? You want me to say what you want me to say?"
"Have your secretary write up a dictation, and I'll say what you want me to say
since you wanna put words in my mouth."
If a media person says,
"Hey, I heard your teammate got arrested for speeding last night on the highway."
"What do you think?" You don't have to answer that question.
You just simply say, "Both teams played hard."
Both teams played hard. So sure enough…
I guess that registered. So I'm watching the post-game press conference.
Great, he's at the podium.
That's all I needed. And here come the questions.
Rasheed, you think it was a good game?
Both teams played hard.
So I kept saying that, the whole joint.
Both teams played hard.
- Sheed don't talk to the media. - Both teams played hard.
"Both teams played hard."
So somebody asked another question.
He was like… "Both teams played hard, my man."
Both teams played hard, my man.
I said, "This boy a damn fool."
God bless and good night.
We got fined for that.
"God bless and good night."
We made the playoffs that year,
but from a basketball standpoint,
you know, we weren't that good anymore.
You could see the bottom falling out.
Nash out to Nowitzki. He's open. He got it!
But where is Bonzi Wells and Rasheed Wallace?
They have phoned this one in.
It was pretty busy before and after games.
People coming in, having a good time, excited.
And now what's it like?
We don't really have too many people coming in excited anymore.
For the third straight year, the Blazers' season ends
with a first-round playoff loss.
I was like, man, the window up.
Fans say the problem starts in the front office.
- Get rid of Whitsitt while they're at it. - I think they should fire Bob Whitsitt.
He's not…
He's made a lot of… He gives away good players.
The owner, Paul Allen,
was one of the wealthiest men in the world.
One day, he bought the Seahawks.
Paul says, "Oh, and by the way,
but you, Bob, have to be the president and run the team."
And I go, "Well, I can't do that."
"I'm running all your businesses in Portland."
What started out as just going to Portland
only to run the basketball side…
I'm now running all of the Blazers' basketball,
the Rose Garden Arena,
a WNBA team, radio stations, all kinds of businesses in Portland.
And I'm the full-time president of the Seahawks.
Eventually, I said to Paul,
"This is dysfunctional."
"I've told you, you need more people running these things,
and you won't do that, so this is my last year in Portland."
So long, Trader Bob. The beleaguered GM announced
he's stepping down today.
When I left, we averaged 50 wins a year
for nine years, and made the playoffs every year.
What an accomplishment for the Portland community.
Most fans we spoke with are happy to see Whitsitt go,
but Ken Boddie has the perspective of two former Blazer fans.
One who was on the inside
and another who feels she was pushed out.
I thought it was about time. It should have been done some time ago,
as far as I was concerned.
The last 40 or 50 years in the NBA,
there's only been three teams that have a moniker.
You got the Showtime Lakers.
Then you got the Bad Boy Pistons.
And then you got the Jail Blazers.
Mr. Whitsitt didn't get Portland. He didn't get it,
the whole idea of community
and what we want out of the team.
You can't have a moniker with a bad team,
a lousy team, a non-playoff team.
You gotta have a team that's really good,
has some personality, has some excitement.
I think the majority of Portland would rather have a team that's not winning
and have a bunch of people that we can support.
By far, the biggest regret I have for my time in Portland
is that we didn't get to hang the championship banner for our fans.
That's what haunts me.
The Blazers was moving into a different phase.
You know, Paul, he had for the most part turned into an absentee owner.
Then they got rid of Whitsitt, and put John Nash in there.
A new era begins today.
New GM John Nash met with the press at the team's practice facility.
For right now, what you see is what you get, and, um…
we're kinda pleased with where we stand.
We were in training camp.
Sheed walked in, and he was just waving bye to everybody.
"Bye! Bonzi, start saying bye! Dame." Like, what you talking about, Sheed?
I said, "You see that motherfucker right there standing next to Mo?"
That motherfucker's about to trade me.
- They're like, "What you talking about?" - He was Sheed's general manager in D.C.
"He'll trade me before he trade one of y'all."
Started giving everybody some dap, the little bro hug.
I'm like, "Yo, I'm out of this, bitch. I'm gone."
And what happened?
John Nash traded my ass up out of there.
We recognized that at some point in time that the Portland Trail Blazers
and Rasheed Wallace were gonna have to part ways.
Yeah, that's all she wrote.
Next thing you know, I'm at the crib.
"Bonzi Wells, guard forward, traded to Memphis Grizzlies."
They didn't give me the courtesy to call me.
They didn't say nothing to me. I found out on SportsCenter.
Memphis' Bonzi Wells is making his first return to Portland tonight.
- How do you feel about coming back, Bonz? - Good.
- What you expect from the crowd tonight? - I don't.
I never left home in my life until I went to Portland, Oregon.
That's 2,500 miles away from Indiana.
I turned into a man out there, and then they gave up on me,
and… and that hurt me more than anything.
The Last of the Mohicans, man.
We had a totally different group of guys.
You know, I finished out the year, and I made the best of it.
It was fun, 'cause I got a chance to help the young guys and shit like that, but…
like I said, man, I was checked out.
Damon Stoudamire!
Sometimes, parting ways is the best…
It's just time.
In that last game, it was just like… a tear come to my eye, 'cause I'm like,
"These people tried to break me."
I won't say I was ready to get it over with,
but I was ready to close that chapter.
New, fresh start.
Was excited. Detroit had a good team.
I was like, "Shit, we could probably be good contenders in about a year or two,
once we really get to know."
Little did I know.
Detroit Pistons…
have just shocked the Los Angeles Lakers.
He was meant to be there.
I was happy for him.
At least one of us got to, you know, get that feeling.
It was joyous.
It's what I came into the NBA to do, is to win a championship.
And I think for me, it made it sweet, because we beat the Lakers.
And for the Lakers,
it truly will be the end of a particular era.
They've had the three championships…
I was jealous. You know, being honest.
I'll keep it real. But I was happy. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for him,
but when I saw him smiling with teammates that wasn't me…
I felt like we should have done that with him.
Rasheed Wallace!
He put a little more swagger into an already very confident team.
When I went back to Portland after we won it,
I knew I was gonna get booed…
…but I didn't think I was gonna get booed like that.
I was like, "Damn."
And everybody on the Pistons, we cracking up.
They like, "Man, damn, Sheed, they really hated you out here, huh?"
This and that… I was like, "Dog, I'm telling y'all, y'all just don't know
what I've been going through out here."
This sociology experiment did not work.
The message was, "We're going back to our roots. We're pivoting."
"Character matters all of a sudden."
This is really about reclaiming the brand,
uh, and the Trail Blazers for Portland and the great fans of this community.
You go from Trail Blazers to Jail Blazers.
That moniker was very catchy.
But Damon, Bonzi, and Rasheed,
they didn't go to jail.
And most of these things, they were… fined or released or there was no charges.
Basically, to me, it came down to conformity.
Why aren't they doing what we want them to do?
Now, if they had won a championship,
maybe the fans would say, "Well, we'll hold our nose and clap for them,
but we can't forget all the things that they did."
But they didn't win it.
So that's why
none of them have come back to the Rose Garden.
Do you think they'll ever get to a point where they'll invite them back?
- Nope. - Why?
They'd rather forget that era altogether.
Good morning. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hello.
- We had big breaking Blazer news. - What is it?
The Blazers have announced a Rip City reunion
with members of the 1999-2000 Portland Trail Blazers.
Dude, that team could've won a title.
The last time a Blazer team made me cry…
This place looks so different to me now.
It used to look like home to me. Now it looks like I'm such a visitor here.
I used to know these streets front, back, side to side. Knew where to go.
I knew where to eat.
Now it's just like, "Man, this looks so weird to me."
Are we cool with Bonzi? Is there water under that bridge?
We hated him at the end when he was a Blazer.
- Yeah, he flipped us off. - Yeah. It didn't end well.
It didn't really end well for any of them.
To the people who didn't support me
and wanted me gone…
Fuck 'em.
I left.
Yeah, and you're still mad.
You know, I'm not mad.
You're still mad.
So… sleep on that one.
Hey, my boy. What's up, family?
- Chillin'. Chillin'. - Man, we back.
- What's up? What you up here doing? - Aw, man. Just getting my mind right.
I'm getting ready.
Here I am, man. Coaching college.
Coaching kids, on the highest level.
I've been through some shit.
And so it makes it a lot easier for them to understand me
because it's not cookie cutter for me, you know?
Because I wasn't perfect.
And as I tell them, "I wasn't perfect. Just Google me."
"I wasn't perfect. You can Google me."
I don't know, man. I'm getting older. I get all nostalgic.
I be thinking back to a lot of stuff,
and it's going to be interesting to see how them people receive us over there
at the arena tonight.
I'm excited, but I hope that we're received the right way.
That's my biggest thing. I hope we're received the right way.
Fans, it's a Rip City Reunion here at the Moda tonight,
as we celebrate the 1999-2000 Trail Blazers team.
We're honored to have representatives from the front office and team here tonight.
So let's reintroduce them to you now.
So, Bob Whitsitt.
I think most people in Portland would consider him the black sheep.
I see Bob a little different.
He had an open checkbook and he did what he thought he needed to do
to bring a championship.
General manager, Bob Whitsitt!
There's a human element to everybody.
I'll be honest, I haven't shared this to you,
but I only did this for you.
And the reason I did it for you is because you grew up here.
You learned a lot of your firsts here.
You know, I think that this… this meant a lot to you.
Man, you almost got me in tears over here, bro, because, you know,
that Sports Illustrated thing killed my career.
It's been 20 years I've been trying to change my narrative on it
one person at a time.
Bonzi was misunderstood his whole time in Portland.
The man never got in trouble.
He got a couple quotes that they hung onto.
For whatever reason, they lumped him in.
Number 6, Bonzi Wells!
It's just almost like… not closure, but it just makes you like,
"Okay. Let me let go and move forward."
"Let me let go of the past hurts and all that stuff that we went through."
We didn't have the personalities of the teams that came before us.
We had our own personalities and our own identity.
And I think that made us the group that we were.
Number 3,
Damon Stoudamire!
It wasn't easy coaching this group back here.
We had… We had a lot… We had a lot of egos that we had to put to the side
to come together for one common goal.
And that was to ultimately try to win a championship.
We did not succeed in that.
But some of the best years that this franchise has had
was with this group of gentlemen right here.