Portland Trail Blazers: Counting down the 5 best Rip City teams of all-time
Rob Ryan
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#1 – 1976-77 (Dr. Jack Ramsay, 49-33)
Were there any Rip City fans that expected another team at #1? 1976-77 was the Portland Trail Blazers’ lone NBA Championship season. They were led by the big man tandem of Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas. Lionel Hollins, Larry Steele, and Bob Gross round out the rest of the starters. Key bench contributors like Dave Twardzik and Herm Gilliam were also big parts of the Blazers’ highly efficient rotation.
Portland featured a rotation with 4 of their top 7 scorers shooting over 50% from the field. Unheard of in the modern era. After going 49-33 in the regular season, The Blazers entered the playoffs as the third seed.
As an appetizer, the Blazers dispensed Chicago 2 games to 1 in the opening round. From there, they won the next three rounds playing as the underdog. This included a 4-0 sweep of the Kareem Abdul Jabbar-led Lakers and then upsetting the highly favored Philadelphia 76ers 4-2.
This team could have been back-to-back Champions, but the following season, Bill Walton injured his foot. It was a huge blow. In 1977-78 Portland was 48-10 in games in which Walton played. That injury set off a chain reaction that would derail the rest of Waltons career in Portland. Possible future performance aside, no one can take away that magical 1977 Championship season.
Feel free to share memories of your favorite Portland Trail Blazers teams in the comments section below.