Blazermania Review
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BlazerMania Review By: Wayne Thompson "BlazerMania: This Is Our Story" is the official history of the Portland Trail Blazers, a smartly designed and edited coffee-table book full of gorgeous photographs that show how the team and the city have grown up together. There's one document, stuck on a page that shows fans celebrating the Blazers' only championship, that's worth more than a thousand pictures or 100,000 words. It's the score sheet from game six of the NBA Finals, and on one line is the reason why thousands of fans poured into the streets to celebrate on June 5, 1977, a warm day in late spring: In 42 minutes against the Philadelphia 76ers, Bill Walton had 20 points, 23 rebounds, 8 blocked shots and 7 assists. All the talk about the 1977 Blazers being one of the greatest teams in NBA history is true. The 76ers were full of future coaches (Henry Bibby, Doug Collins, Mike Dunleavy) who marveled at how balanced and unselfish the Blazers were, but Julius Erving was a little disingenuous when he talked about Portland and said "no part was greater than the whole." The Blazers did play the way basketball is meant to be played, with precision and flair and a one-for-all attitude, but they weren't going anywhere without Walton. Wayne Thompson, the author of "BlazerMania" and a former beat reporter for The Oregonian who has seen more than 2,000 Blazer games, rightly calls Walton "an all-time winner." In high school in San Diego, in college at UCLA, and in a pro career that included championships in Portland and Boston, Walton was all about the team. There is a direct relationship between his success and the Blazers': When he was healthy, they won a championship. After he got hurt, no more titles. Walton wrote a foreword to "BlazerMania" that shows the depth of his feelings for the championship season. He starts by comparing team founder Harry Glickman to Lewis and Clark, Magellan, Captain Cook and Charles Darwin, and that's just the warm-up. Owners Herman Sarkowsky, Larry Weinberg and Paul Allen are "supreme field commanders," radio 1 / 2 BlazerMania Review announcer Bill Schonely is "the man who makes it possible for all of us to believe," and Thompson, the team and the book are "basically better than perfect." From there, the story of the Blazers' first 40 years unfolds in a stunning series of photos edited by Bruce Ely, a photographer at The Oregonian. Thompson's text is informative and he occasionally sneaks in an amusing fact, such as how two of the 12 original Blazers smoked cigarettes and that Walton and his roommates held a victory party when a federal judge dismissed charges against leaders of the American Indian Movement. There's a two-page photo of the parade up Southwest Broadway after the Blazers won the championship. Coach Jack Ramsay, riding in an open car with his family, has a fist raised in triumph. Walton, one car behind, is holding a basketball over his head with two hands, the same way he did on the court before he fired an outlet pass. Between them, there's a sign that reads "Way To Go Mighty Mo! Luke!!!" The reference, of course, is to Maurice Lucas, the power forward who recently died of cancer. Ramsay spoke eloquently at the public memorial service for Lucas. Walton, who thought so much of Lucas that he named one of his sons after him, attended the private service on his birthday to honor the man he called the greatest Blazer of them all. At their first meeting as teammates, Lucas told Walton they would win the championship that season. "He was right," Walton wrote in a tribute on the team's website. "He was always right." 2 / 2.