NBA VAULT: 1977 Portland Trail Blazers

[@benkizer9509]

The passing and ball movement is absolutely beautiful. What a lost art.

[@jamesmoss3424]

The 1977 Portland Trail Blazers kick ass. 😀👍🏀

[@jingqi9106]

That Blazerr team some of the best team basketball I've ever seen. They were unselfish, moved the basketball and their fast break was as good as anybody in history. Bill Walton, of course, was the best player in the NBA when he was healthy and had so many high level skills.

[@lloydkline1518]

Bill walton was a white bill russell who could score ; bill russell underated scorer: bill.walton outlet passing ; outlet rebounder ; great defender erc etc

[@jingqi9106]

@@lloydkline1518 Agree

[@wmden1]

A healthy Walton was among my top 5 favorites to watch play the game, but I didn't get to watch him much, until he went to the Celtics. He and Bird, and the rest of the team, also, were something else to watch, for that championship year.

[@jingqi9106]

@@wmden1 That '86 Celtics team was as good a basketball team as I've ever seen play.

[@philippesauvie639]

Living in Portland and watching six years of selfish losing basketball from the Blazers I knew that when they traded Petrie and Wicks in the summer of 76 and acquired Maurice Lucas, Dave Twardzik and Moses Malone and then saw them play in preseason, it was like night and day. I remember early on seeing their fast Break against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Blazers beat them by I think 50 points that they were going to make some noise and they sure did all the way to the NBA title. A few of the highlights for me we’re regular season games against the Celtics and Chicago Bulls where the Blazers won on the road. Then the toughest series for them had to of been the first playoff series, a three-game affair with the Bulls and Artis Gilmore and Wilbur Holland. Then it was the Denver Nuggets fresh out of the ABA with David Thompson, Dan Issel and Bobby Jones, followed by a four-game sweep of the Lakers and watching A titanic duel between Walton and Abdul Jabbar, in his prime! You showed a video of Walton faking at the top of the key and driving the lane to dunk over Jabbar. That does the moment no justice whatsoever. I was in memorial coliseum that night and I have been in many sport events since then but my recollection was that was the loudest I’ve ever heard human beings cheer. Then the team went on to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers and Dr. J. The greatest moment of the playoffs however really wasn’t during the course of a game. It was the moment that after a game to fight in Philadelphia between Maurice Lucas and Darrell Dawkins that during the player introductions in game three, Lucas went over and shook the hand of Dawkins. It totally threw the 76ers off and the Blazers went on to win for straight from there and the championship. it was like watching ballet at its highest level when watching this team play. The following year the Blazers we’re 50-10 during the regular season and then injuries struck key players including Walton and they lost to the Sonics in the first round of the playoffs. When I look back I often wonder what this team would’ve been had management decided to keep Moses Malone and not trade him before the championship season began! with legendary coach Jack Ramsay at the helm that team had dynasty written all over it! Rest in peace Dr. Jack!

[@stevenyates4535]

They should have kept Malone

[@philippesauvie639]

@@stevenyates4535 I wish they could have but it came out later that the owner of the Blazers didn’t see any point keeping the untried Malone and paying his $200,000 a year salary when you had Walton, Lloyd Neil and Maurice Lucas playing in front of him. Hindsight says they should’ve kept him somehow! I saw Moses play for the Blazers in preseason and he was like no other player I had ever seen literally vacuuming up rebounds and putting them back in the basket. Just incredible!

[@squeegeedaniels2105]

Rest in Peace to the Legend Bill Walton. Took us to heaven in 77. Now you get to see it for real. Rest easy Champion.

[@Amick44]

An absolutely beautiful team to watch and appreciate. All pulling for ONE goal and ..... quite talented as well.

[@swami1]

Walton’s recurrent foot problems were stress fractures which doctors could not diagnose back then. People thought he was jaking it, but he had legitimate injuries.

[@cameronhood40]

Working at UPS I had a handful of talks with Herm Gilliam. What a great guy and it was great to hear his stories about the game and even current players at the time. RIP.

[@swami1]

Cameron Hood Herm the worm!

[@wmden1]

Goodrich was quite the scorer, himself, on his own, but he and Wilt teamed up for a lot of points, mostly from Wilt's passing and Goodrich's cuts. Fun to watch.

[@oshinboii555]

They beat the nuggets in the 2nd round in 1977..this is the year blazers. CHIP TIME ⌚️

[@EtoGenesis]

Insanely interesting team compared to the others from the post Russell era up to that point. They had 7 players in double figure ppg and 2 who averaged 8. Walton averaged 18.9p 13.2r 5a 2.5b 1s a game. Great assist numbers all around and their advanced stats were sneaky good outside of Bill’s dominance. Shame how it fell apart considering they won a title in their first ever playoff appearance going through all timers, there had to be loud whispers that this could become a dynasty at the time. Seeds were planted for Bills exit early tho with the way they had treated him before that season.

[@randolfgarejo81]

The best...

[@michaelsyverson8018]

Only title in Portland

[@swami1]

This wasn’t the best Portland team. The Blazers of the next season, ‘77-‘78, were the most dominant team I’ve ever seen. They crushed their opponents, running everyone out of the building. They ran up W-L records of 40-8 and 50-10...then they broke down, man by man.

[@Cody-sk2dr]

so, it was not the best

[@swami1]

No, it was the best I’ve ever seen for an extended time. Understand now?

[@dennisc8117]

An outstanding team no doubt, the 1977-78 Blazers; they actually had won 44-straight at home over two seasons and bolted out to a 50-10 start. Consider the 72-win 1995-96 Bulls started 50-6. The Blazers may have had one of the quickest NBA teams ever. If you doubt how good they were, look up an old Sports Illustrated Vault article “Going Like Blazers” by Curry Kirkpatrick from 1978. In the article, Don Nelson and Rick Barry at the time stated the Blazers were as good as any team they’d seen or played on (or words to that effect).

[@aaadj2744]

Bill Walton injury in that season really affect the team journey. I think they could've had won back to back title

[@lloydkline1518]

Bill russell was a white bill russell loutlet passing & outlet rebounder : great defender ; passing ; scoing points

[@andyvelasquez9488]

I was born in 77

[@zacharythomason7359]

Congratulations

[@MikeHL78]

Does anyone know what the piece of production library music heard from 15:50 to 16:23 is? I used to hear it in various sports highlight videos fairly often (usually NBA but sometimes MLB) without ever knowing what it was.

[@GetBenched2010]

David Stern thumbed this down.

[@adamdorgant9454]

Probably so!!!!

[@cooper482011]

RIP Bill Walton

[@ericwright2594]

rip bill walton aka big red

[@chrisrenshaw6291]

Have not won a title sense then