Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers.
The NBA celebrates its 75th anniversary this season. To commemorate the event, they announced the 75 best players in league history. Six of the players spent all or part of their careers with the Portland Trail Blazers.
As with any sports all-time list, controversy surrounds who made it and who was left off. That’s not our call. There are already plenty of articles discussing the worthiness of various players.
Instead, Pacific Northwest Sports ranks the Rip City Six. Our basis was pretty simple, the impact each player had during their time with the Portland Trail Blazers. Of course, our rankings won’t be without controversy, but that’s where the fun starts. Here’s the countdown.
*Denotes active NBA player
NBA Career: 15 seasons. Years in Portland: 1 (1974-75).
By the time Lenny Wilkens made it to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974, his spectacular NBA career was basically over. He came in as a player-coach taking over a team that never won more than 29 games in a season. Off the floor, Wilkens led the team to 39 wins in his first season. As a player, there wasn’t much to write home about. He averaged 6.5 points and 3.8 assists as a player.
NBA Career: 19 seasons*. Years in Portland: 2 (2019-20 – 2020-21).
When injuries decimated the Blazers forwards in November of 2019, General Manager Neil Olshey signed 35-year-old Carmello Anthony to fill the void. Maybe an extra month or two was what Melo needed to recharge his batteries. In 58 games, he averaged 15.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per player. Anthony came back the following season as a bench player and still averaged 13.4 ppg.
NBA Career: 17 seasons. Years in Portland: 4 (1999-2000 – 2002-03).
Like Williams and Anthony, Scottie Pippen came to the Portland Trail Blazers in his mid-30s. Pippen certainly wasn’t the same player he was when winning six championships in Chicago. That doesn’t mean Pippen didn’t contribute. He averaged 11.4 points and 5.3 boards per contest. Those numbers increased to 13.5 and 6.5 in the postseason. Pippen was on the team that lost to Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000 Western Conference Finals.
Accolades
NBA Career: 10 seasons. Years in Portland: 4 (1974-75 – 1977-78).
Bill Walton is a Hall of Famer, and his NBA career wasn’t anywhere near where it could have been. Part of the great UCLA college basketball dynasty, the Portland Trail Blazers drafted Walton with the first overall pick in 1974. He spent his first four seasons in Portland and is the only player on this list that played on the Trail Blazers 1977 Championship team.
Before problems with his feet took several years from his career, Walton was a force of nature on the floor. He averaged 17.1 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.8 blocks, and 4.4 assists per game with Portland. After sitting out the 1978-79 season due to injury, Big Red signed with the Clippers as a free agent. At that time, free agents required compensation. One of the players Portland got back was Kermit Washington.
Accolades
NBA Career: 10 seasons*. Years in Portland: 10 (2012-13 – 2021-22).
With the sixth overall pick in 2012, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Damian Lillard from Weber State. Generally, players from mid-major schools don’t make huge impacts immediately. However, from Game 1 of his pro career, when he had 23 points and 11 assists, Lillard put the NBA on notice.
All he’s done since is become a nearly unstoppable scoring threat. Lillard is the Trail Blazers unquestioned leader on the court and is a six-time All-NBA selection. While Dame might be fire on the court, he’s got ice water in his veins. His willingness to an incredible deep shot when it’s there and the skill to knock them down is one of the reasons he’s a hero to Rip City fans.
Blazers fans won’t forget his amazing performance in the 2020 NBA Bubble when Dame Time carried the team on his back. In the final eight games, Lillard had 37.6 points and 9.6 assists. He also shot 43.6 percent from behind the arc and had four games with 42 or more points, including back-to-back games of 61 and 51 points.
To start this year, Lillard is Portland Trail Blazers’ all-time leader in points-per-game (24.6), three-point shots made (2,051), and free throw percentage (89.3). Although he’s number two on this list right now, Dame will eventually take over the top spot as long as he sticks around Rip City for another few seasons.
Accolades
NBA Career: 15 seasons. Years in Portland: 12 (1983-84 – 1994-95).
The Blazers had superstars in their history before Clyde Drexler arrived in 1984. But like the way he attacked a basket, “Clyde the Glide” took it to another level.
Drexler was drafted 14th overall by Portland in 1983. It’s safe to say a dozen teams made a mistake (can’t fault Houston for taking Ralph Sampson with the number one pick). He made the rest of the league pay time and again for passing him over.
As a rookie, Drexler played in all 82 games but only averaged 7.7 points and 17.1 minutes per game. It was the only season in his career he averaged less than 17 points or 31.9 minutes. He finished his Trail Blazers career with averages of 20.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 2.7 steals.
Maybe more importantly, aside from the year he was traded back home to Houston in 1994, the Portland Trail Blazers made the playoffs every season he was with the team. That includes back-to-back trips to the Western Conference Finals in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.
Going into the 2021-22 season, Drexler is the Portland Trail Blazers all-time leader in points (18,040), games played (867), minutes (29,496), field goals made (6,425), free throws made (3,798), steals (1,795), and triple-double (18).
Accolades
How did you rank the six Portland Trail Blazers on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.