Bob Whitsitt Era
The 1994-95 season was also the first in the reign of "Trader" Bob Whitsitt. At the time, Whitsitt was viewed (throughout the NBA) as one of the brightest executives in the league. He was a master of the salary cap (and other details of the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players) and was widely viewed as the prime architect of the Seattle SuperSonics. After a falling-out with Sonics' owner Barry Ackerley, Whitsitt was hired by Paul Allen and set about rebuilding the team.
The 1994-95 campaign was the last for a key member of the Blazers' squad for the previous 11 years: Drexler was traded in the middle of the season to the Houston Rockets for Otis Thorpe and a draft pick (where he, along with center Hakeem Olajuwon would lead the Rockets to a second consecutive NBA title). His number was retired in 2001, and he is widely regarded as one of the best Blazers ever along with Bill Walton. The 1994–95 campaign was also the last year in the Memorial Coliseum.
The Blazers that year were an above-average defensive team but a poor offensive one. They posted a 44–38 record and were swept by Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs.
The next year (1995–96), the team moved into their new home, the Rose Garden. The team was led in scoring by Robinson; that year also saw Lithuanian center Arvydas Sabonis join the Blazers nearly ten years after he was drafted by the team (he was originally drafted in 1986, but was barred by Soviet authorities from going to the United States). Sabonis, although a shadow of his former self due to age and injury, was still a dominating force in the middle for the team. However, the season also saw the rise of tensions between Carlesimo and Strickland; Strickland disliked Carlesimo's rather vocal and intense style.
The 1995–96 Blazers posted an identical 44-38 record that year, and were defeated by Utah 3-2 in the first round. In game five against the Jazz, the Blazers were defeated 102–64, setting a record (since broken, ironically by the Jazz) for the fewest points scored in a playoff game. The season marked the last in Portland for forward Buck Williams, an important member of the team's two Finals runs.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Portland Trail Blazers
Famous quotes containing the words bob and/or era:
“It was because of me. Rumors reached Inman that I had made a deal with Bob Dole whereby Dole would fill a paper sack full of doggie poo, set it on fire, put it on Inman’s porch, ring the doorbell, and then we would hide in the bushes and giggle when Inman came to stamp out the fire. I am not proud of this. But this is what we do in journalism.”
—Roger Simon, U.S. syndicated columnist. Quoted in Newsweek, p. 15 (January 31, 1990)
“The great pagan world of which Egypt and Greece were the last living terms ... once had a vast and perhaps perfect science of its own, a science in terms of life. In our era this science crumbled into magic and charlatanry. But even wisdom crumbles.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)