Back in 1990 with the Portland Trail Blazers

This week on Comcast SportsNet Northwest they've been showing Game 6 of the 1990 Western Conference finals in the NBA. Being an Oregonian and Blazer fan it brings back vivid memories. I was nearing the end of my first term away from home at Southern Oregon State College (as it was known then) in Ashland, and a large group of friends were all Blazer fans. We got together to see them on TV every game it seemed.

I remember being at my townhouse apartment I shared with my cousin, with a few guests on that great day of May 31st in '90. Man, it seemed like the greatest thing in the world when Buck Williams got the rebound at the end and heaved the ball upward like he was trying to hit the roof. The amazing thing is there were a number of segments in the series with the Phoenix Suns where Portland did not look so sharp, and even in this final game in which they came back to win.

My cousin and I made a Memorial Day weekend trip down to the Bay Area to see an Athletics game a few days before (he's an A's fan). Coming from Ashland it wasn't really that long of a drive, and we hung out with his brother's family there too. I could have my exact days wrong but it seemed like on that Friday night the Trail Blazers played one of the games in Phoenix and got DESTROYED! I forget the score but they were down a ton. Then the next day, we went to the A's baseball game. People sitting nearby said they were sorry for us after telling them we were from Oregon. Hardly anyone then thought they could come back. But the Blazers did, and went into the Finals with a lot of momentum.

(By the way, the A's won the ball game in Oakland over the Cleveland Indians. One memory was Felix Jose hitting a home run...yeah, remember him? Plus, the A's were defending World Series champions at the time. They were loaded with talent. Personally I was interested in seeing ex-New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez with the Tribe).

Getting back to the Blazers of '90, I and about everyone else in Oregon loved their chances in the Finals. Portland had not lost at home to the Detroit Pistons since 1974 or so. I was lucky enough to score tickets to the regular season matchup in PDX that year vs. the defending champs. Blazers home game tickets at that time were like gold.

After Portland split in Detroit the first two games (and I will argue with anyone they should have won both), we said, "The Finals won't go back to Detroit!!!" Thinking the Blazers would win all three games at home since they hadn't lost to them at Memorial Coliseum in years. Obviously it wasn't entirely realistic for Portland to just sweep all those games.

Sadly, the Blazers lost all three contests and the Finals did NOT return to Detroit...