Driving around doing some errands yesterday, I happened to catch Brian Wheeler's radio show on 95.5. During his new nightly segment, "Sports Graffiti," someone called up to say (yell), "Raise Terry Porter's jersey up to the rafters!"
This, of course, brought a huge smile to my face, and Wheels said something along the lines of, "A lot of people feel that way, and it's only a matter of time." Double huge smile. If you're in the mood for more smiles, keep reading.
Last week,I received a great email from Jason, who is currently serving in the United States Navy and is stationed in the Middle East. Here it is....
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As a long time Blazers fan (20 years now) I remember watching Porter play and one of my all time favorite memories of him was probably not one most people remember. He gets the ball at the defensive end of the court and as he turns to head up court someone had fallen down right in front of him. Quick as a cat he jumps over the guy and dribbles the ball behind his back and just keeps on going up court. At the time that was one of the most amazing plays I had ever seen and still to this day amazes me when I think about it. Its not a flashy dunk or even a flashy pass but the coordination and skill that he possesed to maintain control of the ball during that play to me was pretty incredible nonetheless, especially dribbling behind his back like that.
That one play aside, I just thought he was a great floor general for the Blazers. He distributed well and he scored enough to keep the defense honest (with some nice outburts of scoring here and there, especially from the 3 point line).
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Meanwhile, a Blazer videophile exiled away in Arizona named Brandon, who has dozens of games taped from the early 1990s, had just mailed me a Terry Porter highlight reel that he created. 330 megabytes worth of highlights!
And wouldn't you know it: here's the play that Jason remembers so vividly. I hope you agree that his mind's eye and memory captures this split-second play perfectly.
This is the collective power of the BlazersEdge community. This is the power of Terry Porter's legacy.
Please drop your thoughts and thanks to both Jason and Brandon in the comments section.
And, if you're a lurker, learn from their example and create an account so you can start contributing to this growing, global online community.
As always, email me your thoughts and memories of Terry Porter.
-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)
PS: If you're interested in trading (not selling) Blazers game tapes with Brandon, shoot me an email and I will put you in contact with him.
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