Good News and Bad News

Catherine Goldberg, born March 9, 1928, died December 21, 2024.

She survived the Great Depression, the Nazi occupation of her homeland,

and 70 years of living in New York City.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is, 2024 is over. The year we lost:

* From acting: David Soul of Starsky & Hutch, Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, Carl Weathers, Louis Gossett Jr., Dabney Coleman, Donald Sutherland, Martin Mull, Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith. Also, talk-show hosts Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Phil Donahue, exercise expert Richard Simmons, game show host Peter Marshall.

* From music: Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss, folksinger Melanie Safka, Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts, guitarist Duane Eddy, Four Tops singer Duke Fakir, singer James Darren, singer Tito Jackson, songwriter J.D. Souther, Kris Kristofferson and Quincy Jones.

* From politics: President Jimmy Carter; Senators Jean Carnahan, Fred Harris, Bob Graham, David Pryor, Jim Sasser and Tim Johnson; Representative Sheila Jackson Lee; Russian dissident Alexei Navalny; political matriarch Ethel Kennedy; and civil rights figures Dexter Scott King and Thelma Mothershed Wair.

* From journalism: Charles Osgood of CBS, Robert MacNeil of PBS, and Aaron Brown of ABC and CNN.

* From sports: Baseball players Willie Mays, Carl Erskine, Rocky Colavito, Orlando Cepeda, Luis Tiant, Fernando Valenzuela and Rickey Henderson, and manager Whitey Herzog; football players Jimmy Johnson, Jim Otto, Larry Allen, Joe Schmidt and Billy Shaw; basketball players Jerry West, Bill Walton and Dikembe Mutombo, and coach Lou Carnesecca; hockey star Johnny Gaudreau; soccer legends Mário Zagallo, Gigi Riva, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Neeskens, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and George Eastham, and managers César Luis Menotti and Sven-Göran Eriksson; broadcaster Chris Mortensen. (But also sports pariahs Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson.) 

And, in my own family, a beloved dog, Carly the Hug-a-Pug, age 12; and my great aunt, Catherine Goldberg, 96, the last surviving family member from my grandparents' generation. (For perspective: The last survivor from my great-grandparents' generation passed away in 1966, 58 years ago, before I was even born.)

And we lost the White House to Donald Trump again. 

And I had two nasty colds this year.

And, while the New York Liberty won their sport's final, the New York Yankees and the New York Red Bulls lost theirs.

So, yes, 2024 is over. That's the good news.

The bad news is, 2025 isn't looking much better.

As an old Christmas song put it, we'll have to muddle through somehow.

Bill Walton, 1952-2024

If Bill Walton had never existed, and someone tried to create a fictional character based on him, no one would believe it.

William Theodore Walton III was born on November 5, 1952 in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, California. His older brother Bruce (1951-2019) was a guard for the Dallas Cowboys from 1973 to 1975, his last game being Super Bowl X, which they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Like Bruce, his younger sister Cathy, and youngest brother Andy, he went to Helix High School in La Mesa. Other notable Helix graduates include football players Reggie Bush and Alex Smith, and actor Dennis Hopper. Between his sophomore and junior years, he grew from 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-7; by the time he graduated, he was 6-foot-11.

But his injury curse had already began: At Helix, he broke an ankle, a leg, and several bones in his feet. Before his sophomore season, he underwent surgery to repair torn cartilage on his left knee. He still managed to lead Helix to 49 straight wins and 2 State Championships.

Bill Walton was a loner, Dottie. A rebel. Yet he wanted to play basketball for the best coach in the college game, John Wooden of the University of California at Los Angeles. Having already led UCLA to the National Championship in 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970, Wooden wanted him, too, and may have been the only coach who could make him fulfill his potential.

Until 1972, NCAA rules prohibited freshmen from playing on varsity teams, except in emergency conditions; so Wooden won the 1971 National Championship without Walton. Together, they won the National Championship in 1972 and 1973, and forged an 88-game winning streak from January 23, 1971 to January 19, 1974 that remains the record for men's college basketball. This included Walton's 21-for-22 shooting in the 1973 Final against Memphis State. In 1973, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) gave him the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award, as America's outstanding amateur athlete.

This was in spite of Walton's choice not to play for the U.S. team in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. At the time, it was thought to be because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. But it wasn't true: It was due to his bad experience at the 1970 World Championships, in Yugoslavia, under coach Hal Fisher. In a 2004 interview with ESPN, Walton said, "For the first time in my life, I was exposed to negative coaching and the berating of players, and the foul language, and the threatening of people who didn't perform."

In the men's basketball final, the U.S. controversially lost to the Soviet Union, 51-50. According to Russian sports historian Robert Edelman, "When they saw who was and wasn't on the U.S. team, that's when they started feeling like they'd actually have a chance. They followed American basketball closely, and they knew that no Walton was going to be a big deal." James Forbes was on that U.S. team, and he said, "If he plays, all of this becomes academic." Much like, that same month, if Bobby Orr hadn't been hurt, or if the NHL had led WHA defector Bobby Hull play for Canada, that hockey "Summit Series" doesn't go to the last minute of the last game.

(Speaking of Edelman: I heavily recommend his 2012 book about one of the world's great soccer teams, also a good work of Soviet national history: Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State.)

A joke went around that "UCLA" stood for "U Can't Lose to Anybody." On January 19, 1974, UCLA traveled to play Notre Dame away. Coached by Richard "Digger" Phelps, and led by a freshman from Washington, D.C. named Adrian Dantley, the Fighting Irish -- who, 3 years earlier, were the last team to beat UCLA -- were 9-0, and ranked Number 2. Unlike UCLA's 1968 loss to the University of Houston at a packed Astrodome, this game was not billed beforehand as a "Game of the Century."

Had it been, it would have lived up to the hype. UCLA led by 11 points with 4 minutes to play. But Notre Dame went on a tear, and, with 6 seconds to go, took their 1st lead of the game, 71-70. One last-gasp effort by Walton missed, and the streak was over. (The University of Connecticut women's team broke the record with a 90-game streak, 2008-10.)

People who met Bill Walton were advised to never, ever mention this game to him. In his 1993 memoir Nothing But Net, he said it still bothered him. He complained about it many times afterward.

One week later, on January 26, there was a rematch at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, and UCLA got its revenge, 94-75. Notre Dame finished the season 26-3, losing to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament's round of 16.

UCLA would get to the Semifinal, then lose to a North Carolina State team led by David Thompson. N.C. State then beat Marquette for the title. Without the graduating Walton, Wooden led UCLA to 1 last National Championship in 1975, and retired, winning 10 in 12 years. No other school has won that many. UCLA has since won an 11th title, in 1995.

Did I mention that Walton was a rebel? He wanted to grow his hair long, and to grow a beard. Wooden told him no. Walton took the high road, and calmly explained to Wooden that he was an adult, over age 18, and had the right to express himself that way; and, as an employee of a State university, Wooden had no right to stop him.

Wooden -- who also continued to call his previous big star, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly named Lew Alcindor, "Lewis," and Kareem let him because of his high regard for him -- said, "William, I respect your right to express yourself. I'm sorry to see you go." Wooden was right: He did have the right to set rules for his players, and that if Walton wanted to break those rules, he would not play.

Walton's senior year, 1973-74, was the time of Watergate. He took a sheet of stationery with the UCLA masthead on it, wrote a letter on it, demanding that President Richard Nixon resign, and got all the UCLA basketball players to sign it. He then gave it to Wooden to sign. Wooden wouldn't sign it. Not because he thought Nixon should stay in office, but because the letter was on official UCLA stationery, and sending it would be tantamount to the school making the resignation demand its official policy. And Wooden was not willing to compromise the school that way. Walton understood.

*

Walton was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers. At first, he looked like tennis star Bjorn Borg: The Swede had long blond hair, wore a headband, and, just as some hockey players grow "playoff beards," he grew a beard only during Wimbledon. Walton had red hair, but the Blazers' red jerseys and a matching red headband were even redder than the hair and beard he was finally allowed to grow.

But hippie-ish Portland was his kind of place. He rode a bicycle from his apartment to the Portland Memorial Coliseum. He became a vegetarian, and began meditating. He began leaving tickets for his favorite band, the epitome of hippiedom: The Grateful Dead. He claimed to have seen them play over 850 concerts, including joining them on drums in a 1978 concert. At the Pyramids in Egypt. The band nicknamed him "Grateful Red."

Walton would later compare the Dead to a basketball team: There were five of them, they were a team, people traveled around to watch them perform, and their performances often included improvisation. "Of course," he said, "unlike a basketball team, the Grateful Dead have no opponents, unless you consider the police."

But the injury bug struck him again. He played only 35 games in 1974-75, rendering him unable to win the NBA's Rookie of the Year. (His UCLA teammate, Jamaal Wilkes, won it.) He was limited to 51 games in 1975-76. And he played 65 out of the 82 games in 1976-77.

But it was enough. The Blazers' head coached was Dr. Jack Ramsay, a Philadelphia native with a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania. He had been the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers when they won the 1967 NBA Championship. Blazers owner Larry Weinberg and general manager Harry Glickman hired Ramsay away from the Buffalo Braves in 1976.

And that 1st season in Portland, even more than the 68-13 1966-67 title season in Philadelphia, was Ramsay's masterstroke. A record of 49-33 was not particularly outstanding. But, talent-wise, they were: With Bill Walton at center; Maurice Lucas, Bob Gross, Corky Calhoun, Larry Steele and Lloyd Neal as forwards; and Lionel Hollins, Johnny Davis and Dave "Pinball" Twardzik as guards, the Blazers played the kind of artistic basketball that had rarely been seen: By the early 1970s New York Knicks, or maybe by one team or another in the ABA, but that was it.

In the Playoffs, the Blazers beat the Chicago Bulls, 2 games to 1; the Denver Nuggets, 4 games to 2; and the Los Angeles Lakers in 4 straight, including a signature dunk by Walton over his fellow UCLA graduate Kareem. In the Finals, the 76ers won the 1st 2 games, but the Blazers won the last 4, including a thrilling clincher in Portland in Game 6, 109-107. Walton was named the Most Valuable Player of the Finals.

In the locker room after that game, Ramsay -- who had previously coached Wilt Chamberlain in Philadelphia -- told the media, "I've never coached a better player, I've never coached a better competitor, and I've never coached a better person than Bill Walton." Walton, who, by this point, had ditched the headband and the long hair, but not the beard, said little: He was still badly affected by a stutter that he would later overcome. But his smile told the story.

Left to right: Jack Ramsay, Larry Weinberg,

Bill Walton & NBA Commissioner Larry O'Brien.

The championship trophy is now named for O'Brien.

For 11 months, from March 29, 1977 to February 28, 1978, the Portland Trail Blazers They went 70-15, counting the Playoffs, winning the franchise's 1st (and still only) NBA Championship. Walton was named the NBA's MVP in 1978. Boston Globe columnist and ESPN correspondent Bob Ryan said that this team played the game of basketball as well as it has ever been played.

Ryan also called them "the greatest what-if story in the history of basketball. If that team stays healthy, and stays together, I think we're looking at 3 out of 4, 4 out of 6."

It may have been even better than that. The next 2 NBA Western Conference titles were won by the Seattle SuperSonics, a good team, but with only one Hall-of-Famer, and he wasn't even considered their best player yet: Dennis Johnson. The Lakers got Earvin "Magic" Johnson for the 1979-80 season, so the Blazers probably don't reach the Finals that year. But in 1981, the Houston Rockets had a losing record, and made the Playoffs as the West's 6th seed. The Blazers could have reached 3 straight Finals, and 4 out of 5, before the Lakers totally took over the West.

But on February 28, 1978, Bill Walton, the Trail Blazers' fulcrum, broke his foot. Although he returned for 2 games of the Playoffs that year, he was never the same player again, and it took the Blazers a decade to recover. He was unhappy about the way the team's medical staff handled him, and demanded a trade. They wouldn't do it, and he sat out the 1978-79 season -- not that his injury left him with another choice.

Following his retirement, Walton and the Blazer organization reconciled. But the team has never truly replaced him. Their quest for another dominating big man led them in 1984 to draft Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan, and in 2007 to draft Greg Oden instead of Kevin Durant. As with Walton, both Bowie and Oden had already had a major injury, and both would see their pro careers ruined by additional injuries.

When ESPN did an episode of The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... on drafting Bowie instead of Jordan, one of the reasons was "The Curse of Bill Walton." Walton was interviewed for the show, and, with a smile, knowing that it wasn't a curse that he'd actually placed on the team, he said, "Blame me." 

*

His contract having run out, he signed with his hometown team, the San Diego Clippers. But his injuries recurred. In 1979-80, Walton played only 14 games. He missed the 1980-81 season. He missed the 1981-82 season. He played 33 games in 1982-83. In other words, from February 28, 1978 to October 28, 1983, 5 1/2 years, he played only 47 of a possible 443 games -- 10.6 percent. As he said in 1981, after one of his surgeries, "Minor surgery is what they do to someone else."

He managed to get into 55 games in 1983-84. But it was too late for the team. A healthy hometown hero might have brought a sellout of 14,000 fans to the San Diego Sports Arena (now named the Pechanga Arena) for every game. But without the key figure, no one wanted to spend their money to watch professional basketball.

Number 7 is Bobby "Bingo" Smith.

Both men would get their numbers retired:
Smith by Cleveland, Walton by Portland,

and neither by the Clippers.

"When you fail in your hometown, that's as bad as it gets, and I love my hometown," Walton said. "I wish we had NBA basketball here, and we don't, because of me. It's my greatest failure as a professional in my entire life: I could not get the job done in my hometown. It is a stain and stigma on my soul that is indelible. I'll never be able to wash that off, and I carry it with me forever."

Walton was a bit hard on himself. He didn't get hurt on purpose. But if he had been healthy, maybe the Clippers would have survived in San Diego, instead of being moved to Los Angeles, where they were a joke franchise for nearly 30 years, and have still only reached the Conference Finals once in 54 seasons, in 3 cities: In 2021, losing to the Phoenix Suns.

He played 67 games for the Clippers in 1984-85, their 1st season in Los Angeles. Then Red Auerbach, president of the Boston Celtics, pulled off his last great transaction: He sent the Clippers Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell and a 1st-round draft pick, eventually wasted on Arvydas Sabonis, then stuck behind the Iron Curtain, for Walton.

In the 1985-86 season, the Celtics went 67-15, including 40-1 at the Boston Garden. Ironically, it was Portland who dealt them their only home loss, on December 6. Walton, now 33, saw that Kevin McHale, a future Hall-of-Famer, was wearing his usual Number 32. So he added 3 plus 2, and wore Number 5.

Walton backed up center Robert Parish, with forwards McHale and Larry Bird, the on-court leader of that team, and the most popular player in Celtic history. The guards were Danny Ainge and the aforementioned Dennis Johnson. Also notable on that team was guard Rick Carlisle, who went on to coach the Dallas Mavericks to the 2011 NBA Championship, and the Indiana Pacers into this year's Eastern Conference Finals.

On a 1996 ESPN broadcast to debate the greatest NBA team ever, in which he also made the aforementioned comments about the '77 Blazers, Ryan nominated the '86 Celtics, calling them "the team that could beat you the most different ways. He said his best argument was that it was the only team that ever brought a healthy Bill Walton off the bench. Being the backup center was key for Walton: Not having the burden of being the starter, and averaging 19 minutes per game, instead of the 33 he usually averaged when healthy, he was able to play in 80 of the 82 regular-season games.

He also played in 14 of the 16 Playoff games: In all 3 of the Celtics' 3-game sweep of the Bulls, in all 5 of the Celtics' win over the Atlanta Hawks, in all 4 of the Celtics' 4-game sweep of the Milwaukee Bucks, and in 4 of the 6 games in the Finals, where the Celtics beat the Rockets, for their 16th NBA Championship, their 3rd in 6 years, and Walton's 2nd, making him one of the few players to win with 2 different teams.

Between them, the 7-foot-1 Parish and the 6-foot-11 Walton had little trouble against the Rockets' "Twin Towers" of 7-feet-even Hakeem Olajuwon and the 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson. Sampson, next to Walton, is the patron saint of great college players whose injuries kept them from reaching their true pro potential.

Ryan called Walton "the most influential player ever to lace up a pair of sneakers." Walton was an all-time great, but Ryan knows better than that: He is old enough to have seen Bill Russell and Bob Cousy play against Wilt Chamberlain. Theoretically, he's old enough to have seen George Mikan play. But Ryan also said that Bird and Walton, playing together, "It was sinful. It was almost pathetic." He said, "They raised basketball to the level of something almost spiritual." Walton himself said, "Playing basketball with Larry Bird is like singing with Jerry Garcia."

Left to right: Walton, Bird, Parish

But it was only to be for that 1 season. He was injured again the next season, and played only 10 regular-season games. He played in the 1987 Finals, which the Celtics lost to the Lakers. He was 34 years old. He never played again. He still held out hope of a comeback, but finally announced his retirement in 1990.

"I would love to play one more game", Walton said he wished. "But then I would want to play another one. And another one. But I will take one."

*

The fact that he became a broadcaster surprised people who knew him. He credited the 1st great NBA broadcaster, Marty Glickman, with helping him overcome it. As Walton said:

I'm a stutterer. I never spoke to anybody. I lived most of my life by myself. But as soon as I got on the court, I was fine. But in life, being so self-conscious, red hair, big nose, freckles and goofy, nerdy looking face, and can't talk at all. I was incredibly shy and never said a word. Then, when I was 28, I learned how to speak. It's become my greatest accomplishment of my life, and everybody else's biggest nightmare.

He worked for CBS in 1990 and 1991, NBC from 1990 to 2002, the Clippers from 1990 to 2002, and ABC/ESPN from 2002 to 2009. He had to step aside due to terrible back pain and the subsequent spinal-fusion surgery. It was so bad, he could not walk into the hospital.

He was able to return to broadcasting in 2010, 2 seasons for the Sacramento Kings. In 2012, he returned to ESPN, and also joined the Pac-12 Network, broadcasting games on the West Coast, to stay close to home in San Diego. His hippie mindset led to some odd opinions on the air, endearing him to some, but not all.

Walton and his 1st wife, Susie, were married from 1979 to 1989. They had 4 sons: Adam, Nathan, Luke and Chris. In 1991, Bill married Lori Matsuoka, and they were together until death did they part.

Luke Walton, 6-foot-8, was a forward, was with the Lakers when they won the 2009 and 2010 NBA Championships. The Waltons thus became the 3rd father-son tandem to both win NBA titles, following the Matt Guokasas (Sr., 1947 Philadelphia Warriors; Jr., 1967 Philadelphia 76ers) and the Barrys (Rick, 1975 Golden State Warriors; Brent, 2005 and 2007 San Antonio Spurs). Luke was an assistant coach to Steve Kerr on the Golden State Warriors' 2015 title, was the Lakers' head coach from 2016 until 2019, and was the Sacramento Kings' head coach from then until 2021. Since 2022, he has been an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Bill Walton was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The NBA named him to its 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players and its 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players. UCLA made its 1st 2 basketball retired numbers Kareem's Number 33 and Walton's Number 32. The Trail Blazers also retired his Number 32. (The Celtics retired Number 5, but for a later player, Kevin Garnett.)

He was elected to the San Diego Hall of Champions, the California Sports Hall of Fame, and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. In 2016, a statue of him was unveiled at Ski Beach Park in the Mission Bay section of San Diego.

In his life, he underwent 39 surgeries. Still, echoing baseball icon Lou Gehrig, he said, "I'm the luckiest guy on Earth." 

Bill Walton moved to a new plane of existence today, May 27, 2024. He was 71 years old, and had cancer.

Kareem's tribute

 

Hosting ESPN's Around the Horn today, Tony Reali said, "He will be lovingly referred to as an American original. I would like to respectfully question that, because that would mean that he was from this planet. And we all know Bill traveled intergalactically and on a multiverse plane."

On that same show, Clinton Yates pointed out that it was "almost poetically memorable" that Walton passed away at the same time as the league in which UCLA played, and for whom he broadcast, known in its last few years as the Pac-12.

Some other tributes:

* Larry Bird: "I am very sorry about my good friend, Bill Walton. I love him as a friend and teammate. It was a thrill for me to play with my childhood idol and together we earned an NBA Championship in 1986. He is one of the greatest ever to play the game. I am sure that all of my teammates are as grateful as I am that we were able to know Bill, he was such a joy to know and he will be sorely missed."

* Magic Johnson: "From shooting jump shots to making incredible passes, he was one of the smartest basketball players to ever live. Bill was a great ambassador for college basketball and the NBA, and he will be sorely missed."

* Julius Erving, another playing and style icon turned broadcaster: "I am sad today hearing that my comrade & one of the sports worlds most beloved champions & characters has passed. Bill Walton enjoyed life in every way. To compete against him & to work with him was a blessing in my life. Sorry for your loss Walton family. We’ll miss him too."

* John Fogerty, leader of rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival: "So sad that our friend Bill Walton has passed away. He was truly a very special and joyful person and his megawatt smile made everyone smile! His enthusiasm for life and all things rock and roll was unstoppable and we miss you Bill! Our love and prayers to Lori and family."

* Barack Obama, former President, basketball fan: "Bill Walton was one of the greatest basketball players of all time – a champion at every level and the embodiment of unselfish team play. He was also a wonderful spirit full of curiosity, humor and kindness. We are poorer for his passing."

Once, appearing on an ESPN broadcast, tie-dyed T-shirt on, a Hawaiian lei around his neck, he said, "It doesn't get any better than this."

We all have our definitions of that. But who am I to try to convince Bill Walton of mine?

January 19, 1974: Notre Dame Ends UCLA's 88-Game Winning Streak

January 19, 1974, 50 years ago: UCLA loses a basketball game. This is a big deal: It hadn't happened in 3 years.

The basketball team at the University of California at Los Angeles had been coached by John Wooden since 1949. In 1962, he got them into the Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament -- what we would now call the Final Four -- for the 1st time. In 1964, he guided them to an undefeated season and the National Championship. He won another in 1965. He won another in 1967, undefeated. He won another in 1968. He won another in 1969. In those last 3 seasons, led by Lew Alcindor, later to change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the UCLA Bruins went 88-2.

Losing the future Kareem didn't stop UCLA: They won another National Championship in 1970. On January 23, 1971, they were 14-0, and traveled to South Bend, Indiana to play the University of Notre Dame. They lost, 89-82. This was a surprise, but not a shock: Notre Dame, although (then as now) far better known for football, was then ranked Number 9 in the country, and had the home-court advantage at the Athletic & Convocation Center.

Wooden got the Bruins to shake it off, and they won another National Championship. In 1972, with a new star center, sophomore Bill Walton from San Diego, they went undefeated and won another National Championship. In 1973, they went undefeated and won another National Championship. A joke went around that "UCLA" stood for "U Can't Lose to Anybody."

On January 19, 1974, they were 13-0, having an 88-game winning streak, the longest in college basketball history, when, again, they traveled to play Notre Dame away. Coached by Richard "Digger" Phelps, and led by a freshman from Washington, D.C. named Adrian Dantley, the Fighting Irish were 9-0, and ranked Number 2. Unlike UCLA's 1968 loss to the University of Houston at a packed Astrodome, this game was not billed beforehand as a "Game of the Century."

Had it been, it would have lived up to the hype. UCLA led by 11 points with 4 minutes to play. But Notre Dame went on a tear, and, with 6 seconds to go, took their 1st lead of the game, 71-70. One last-gasp effort by Walton missed, and the streak was over.

In the event that you should ever meet Bill Walton, never, ever mention this game to him. In his 1993 memoir Nothing But Net, he said it still bothered him. He has complained about it many times since. (UPDATE: You no longer have to worry about that: Walton died on May 27, 2024.)

One week later, on January 26, there was a rematch at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, and UCLA got its revenge, 94-75. Notre Dame finished the season 26-3, losing to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament's round of 16.

UCLA would get to the Semifinal, then lose to a North Carolina State team led by David Thompson. N.C. State then beat Marquette for the title. Without the graduating Walton, Wooden led UCLA to 1 last National Championship in 1975, and retired, winning 10 in 12 years. No other school has won that many. UCLA has since won an 11th title, in 1995.

Renamed the Joyce Center in 1987, in honor of school administrator Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, Notre Dame's basketball arena is a house of upsets. In addition to the 2 noteworthy wins over UCLA, Notre Dame also upset the basketball team then ranked Number 1 in the nation in 1977 (the University of San Francisco), 1980 (DePaul), 1987 (North Carolina), 1991 (UCLA again), 2012 (Syracuse), and 2016 (North Carolina again).

No men's basketball team has seriously approached UCLA's 88-game winning streak. UNLV, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, has the longest streak since, 45, in 1990 and '91, including the 1990 NCAA Final over Duke, who then ended the streak in the 1991 NCAA Semifinal.

But the women's team at the University of Connecticut now has 2 longer winning streaks: 90 straight from 2008 to 2011, and 111 straight from 2016 to 2018. 

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame Donald Sterling for Moving the San Diego Clippers to Los Angeles

April 14, 1984: The San Diego Clippers beat the Utah Jazz, 146-128. But they finish 30-52, and miss the Playoffs.

It turns out to be the last game they ever played. In the off-season, team owner Donald Sterling moved them up the Pacific Coast to Los Angeles. San Diego has never had another NBA team, or any other indoor major league sports team, since.

Sterling bought the Clippers in 1981, on the advice of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, with whom he'd dealt in real estate. Even in 1982, he was ready to move the team to Los Angeles, which led to an investigation of him by the NBA. In 1984, Sterling and the league settled: Sterling would pay a $6 million fine, and be allowed to move the team.

He must have hated that, but must also have considered it the price of doing business. Certainly, he didn't like paying his players. The best one he ever had, San Diego native Bill Walton, said, "The checks bounced higher than the basketballs when Donald Sterling took over. The basketball was awful, and the business side was immoral, dishonest, corrupt and illegal. Other than that, it was all fine."

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame the San Diego Clippers for Moving to Los Angeles

5. Al Davis. Sterling admitted being inspired by Davis moving the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles in 1982. The NFL tried to stop Davis, and failed. Sterling believed that if he were as steadfast in his attempt to move as Davis was in his, he would win. It wasn't pretty, and it did cost him $6 million, but he got what he wanted.

"Just do whatever the hell you want, baby.

Whatta they gonna do, huh? Sue you?"

4. The San Diego Sports Arena. It opened in 1966, and in spite of its age, this building, now named the Pechanga Arena, is considered one of the best arenas of its size in America. But it only seats 14,600 people, and that was already too small for an NBA arena. Now, with luxury suites being paramount, it would never host a new NBA or NHL team, except maybe as a stopgap facility while a new arena is built.

In addition, the location is far from ideal: While the area around it is safe, it's 5 miles northwest of downtown. If you don't have a car, you'd need to take a trolley and a bus to get there.

Oddly, Buss did not let Sterling share The Forum with the Lakers, so he rented out the even older Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Finally, in 1999, with the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) going up, Sterling made a deal with Buss for the Clippers to play there. There were still doing so when Sterling was forced to sell the team in 2014. New owner Steve Ballmer is building the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, near The Forum and SoFi Stadium, with the hopes of opening for the 2024-25 season.

3. Los Angeles. It was home to Sterling. He was born in Chicago, but he grew up in Boyle Heights, in East L.A., now an almost entirely Mexican-American neighborhood. He went to Theodore Roosevelt High School in that neighborhood. He went to Cal State-Los Angeles, and then to Southwestern University School of Law, also in L.A.

He practiced law in L.A., but soon found that the biggest way to make money in Southern California was in real estate. He bought an apartment building in Beverly Hills, and later made a killing in Westwood. If he weren't so cheap, Sterling probably could have done what the Clippers are doing now: Build them their own arena in Inglewood, next to SoFi Stadium, the new home of the Rams and the Chargers. Or he could have bought The Forum, modernized it, and moved the Clippers there.

Sterling owes his success to being a product of Los Angeles. He owed San Diego nothing.

2. Bill Walton's Injuries. For 11 months, from March 29, 1977 to February 28, 1978, the Portland Trail Blazers went 70-15, counting the Playoffs, winning the franchise's 1st (and still only) NBA Championship.

With Bill Walton at center; Maurice Lucas, Bob Gross, Corky Calhoun, Larry Steele and Lloyd Neal as forwards; and Lionel Hollins, Johnny Davis and Dave "Pinball" Twardzik as guards, the Blazers played the kind of artistic basketball that had rarely been seen: By the early 1970s New York Knicks, or maybe by one team or another in the ABA, but that was it.

But on February 28, Walton, the team's fulcrum, broke his foot. Although he returned for 2 games of the Playoffs that year, he was never the same player again, and it took the Blazers a decade to recover. He was unhappy about the way the team's medical staff handled him, and demanded a trade. They wouldn't do it, and he sat out the 1978-79 season -- not that his injury left him with another choice. His contract having run out, he signed with his hometown team, the San Diego Clippers.

But his injuries recurred. In 1979-80, Walton played only 14 games. He missed the 1980-81 season. He missed the 1981-82 season. He played 33 games in 1982-83. In other words, from February 28, 1978 to October 28, 1983, 5 1/2 years, he played only 47 of a possible 443 games -- 10.6 percent. As he said in 1981, after one of his surgeries, "Minor surgery is what they do to someone else."

He managed to get into 55 games in 1983-84. But it was too late for the team. A healthy hometown hero might have brought a sellout of 14,000 fans to the San Diego Sports Arena for every game. But without the key figure, no one wanted to spend their money to watch professional basketball.

"When you fail in your hometown, that's as bad as it gets, and I love my hometown," Walton has said. "I wish we had NBA basketball here, and we don't, because of me. It's my greatest failure as a professional in my entire life: I could not get the job done in my hometown. It is a stain and stigma on my soul that is indelible. I'll never be able to wash that off, and I carry it with me forever."

Walton's a bit hard on himself. He didn't get hurt on purpose. But if he had been healthy, maybe the Clippers would have survived in San Diego.

Bill says he loves his hometown. But maybe his hometown is the problem:

1. San Diego. With 1.4 million people, it's the 8th-biggest in the country. But its metropolitan area has just 3.3 million people. This ranks it 23rd in baseball. In the other sports, it would rank 21st in football, 20th in basketball, 20th in hockey and 19th in soccer. And that's after being double what it was 40 years ago, when the Clippers were there.

The city already lost its 1st NBA team, the Rockets, to Houston in 1971. They lost their American Basketball Association team, known first as the Conquistadors and then as the Sails, in 1975. They lost their World Hockey Association team, the San Diego Mariners, in 1977, despite making the Playoffs all 3 seasons, because they couldn't get fans to come and support a winning team.

They came very close to losing the Padres after the 1973 season, and might have lost them after 1998 without the Pennant that convinced people to vote for the appropriation that built Petco Park. Finally, in 2017, they lost the Chargers, when San Diego became the 1st city to face a team owner pointing a gun at them, and giving them Humphrey Bogart's line in Casablanca: "Go ahead, shoot, you'll be doing me a favor." The people were angry at losing the Chargers, but they blame owner Alex Spanos, not the City of San Diego or the County of San Diego. But now, the Padres are all they have left.

And you know what? They don't seem to care that much. Nearly every day, it's 80 degrees with little humidity and hardly any rain, and there's a beach in one direction and mountains in the other. There's less smog than in Los Angeles, and fewer earthquakes than in Los Angeles or San Francisco. People in San Diego like to spend their money on things other than professional sports. With a "great outdoors" like that, who needs an indoor sport where your city never really did anything anyway?

VERDICT: Not Guilty. Donald Sterling is a contemptible person, but he had little reason to keep his team in San Diego.

What he did that kept the team mediocre after he moved it is another story.

Be Hip to This

March 2020, after the 1st replacement,

just as COVID shut everything down

A personal note: This morning, barring a massive bureaucratic screwup, a year and a half after I finally got my right hip replaced (35 years after I was told it would be necessary, but they usually don't do it on people under 50 years old), I will get my left hip replaced (3 years after I was told that putting my weight on that leg to favor the bad hip had made replacing that one necessary).

Based on the previous experience, in a little over 2 months, I should be able to walk unaided, and with far less pain than I have now.

There is, of course, the possibility that something could go horribly wrong. But this is one of the safest surgeries there is, and, having gone through it once before, I can vouch for this.

I'm reminded of the words of basketball legend Bill Walton, who knows all too well: "Minor surgery is what they do to somebody else."

Nevertheless, I'm 99 percent sure I'll be back. Probably not tomorrow, maybe not the next day. At any rate, I have postdated some blog posts as part of my "Scores On This Historic Day" series. But if I go, say, a week without posting anything other than those, that's when you should start to worry.

But I don't think you'll have to worry about me. Not for that reason, anyway.

I just...

(Don't say it, Mike, don't say it, don't say it... )

I just wanted you to be hip to what was going on.

(He said it... )

*

Days until the next game of the U.S. National Soccer Team: 1, tomorrow night at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, against the Caribbean island nation of Martinique, at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, home of MLS team Sporting Kansas City, in the Group Stage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the continental tournament for North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. (This past Sunday, the U.S. won their opening game, beating Haiti 1-0; Argentina beat Brazil in the Final of South America's version, the Copa America; and Italy beat England in the Final of the COVID-delayed Euro 2020.)

Days until the next Yankees series against the Boston Red Sox begins: 2, on Thursday night, at Yankee Stadium II.

Days until the next Arsenal game: 3, on Saturday, 9:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time, away to Rangers F.C. at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. This is an exhibition game, what soccer fans call a "friendly," the 2nd of 2 they were set to play in Scotland. Yesterday, they played away to Hibernian, at Easter Road, in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, and lost, 2-1. Just an exhibition game...

It's been announced that, with the lifting of restrictions, Arsenal are coming to America, to compete in a tournament at the Citrus Bowl (a.k.a. Camping World Stadium) in Orlando, called the Florida Cup. On Sunday, July 25, they will play Internazionale Milano, a.k.a. Inter, in a doubleheader whose other game features Everton of Liverpool against Millonarios of Bogota, Colombia. On the following Wednesday, they will play one of the teams in the other Sunday game.

Days until the next New York Red Bulls game: 3, on Saturday night, at 7:00 PM, against Inter Miami.

Days until the Red Bulls again play a nearby rival: 11, on Sunday night, July 25, against Washington-based D.C. United, at Red Bull Arena.

Days until the COVID-delayed 2020 Olympics open in Tokyo, Japan: 9, on Friday, July 23. A little over a week.

Days until the 2021-22 Premier League season starts: 31, on Saturday, August 14. Arsenal open the season away to newly-promoted West London team Brentford.

Days until the next Rutgers University football game: 50, on Thursday, September 2, at 6:30 PM, home to Temple University. A little over 7 weeks.

Days until the next East Brunswick High School football game: 51, on Friday, September 3, at 7:00 PM, home to arch-rival Old Bridge. 

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge football game: See the previous answer.

Days until the next North London Derby: 73, on Saturday, September 25, at the Emirates Stadium. TV programming may move the date and time of the game.

Days until the New Jersey Devils again play a local rival: Unknown. The regular season is over, and they didn't make the Playoffs. Under normal circumstances, the next regular season would open on the 1st Thursday or the 1st Friday in October, and the Devils 1st game might be against either the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders or the Philadelphia Flyers. But with COVID still being in play, the 2021-22 season could start on time, but cannot yet be presumed to do so. If it does start on the 1st Thursday in October, that's October 7, and that's 85 days. Under 3 months.

Days until the next election for Governor of New Jersey and Mayor of New York City: 111, on Tuesday, November 2. Under 4 months.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: 129, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, November 20, at 12:00 noon, at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. A little over 4 months.

Days until the 1st Baseball Hall of Fame election for which Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz will be eligible, and we will know for sure whether steroid use keeps a player out, or if it's only perception that does: 195, on Tuesday, January 25, 2022. Under 7 months.

Days until the next Winter Olympics open in Beijing, China: 205, on Friday, February 4, 2022. Under 7 months.

Days until the next elections for Congress and for Governor of most States, including New York and Pennsylvania: 482, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Under a year and a half, or under 16 months.

Days until the next World Cup opens: 495, on Friday, November 21, 2022, in Doha, Qatar. Under a year and a half, or under 17 months.

Days until the next Women's World Cup opens: 726, on Friday, July 10, 2023, jointly held in the neighboring nations of Australia and New Zealand. A little under 2 years, or a little under 24 months.

Days until the next Presidential election: 1,2100, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Under 3 1/2 years, or under 40 months.

"Relax, Mike"

Today, barring a massive bureaucratic screwup -- or, God forbid, a "mass casualty event" in or near New Brunswick, New Jersey that requires all available doctors to abandon their current schedules -- I will undergo hip replacement surgery, correcting a birth defect that has caused me more pain than I would wish on anybody, with the possible exception of dictators, like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.

Within a few weeks, I should be able to walk unaided, and with far less pain than I have now.

There is, of course, the possibility that something could go horribly wrong. But I'm told that this is one of the safest surgeries there is.

I'm reminded of the words of basketball legend Bill Walton, who knows all too well: "Minor surgery is what they do to somebody else."

Naturally, the reaction is to say, "Relax, Mike."

Saying that is the easiest way to make me unrelaxed. Because I've heard it so many times before:

* Relax, Mike, this won't hurt a bit.

* Relax, Mike, I know what I'm doing.

* Relax, Mike, I've done this a million times.

* Relax, Mike, I know this guy, we can trust him.

* Relax, Mike, it's a sure thing.

* Relax, Mike, this won't cost you a dime.

* Relax, Mike, it's perfectly legal.

* Relax, Mike, I know a shortcut.

* Relax, Mike, nobody else knows about this.

* Relax, Mike, they're not gonna run out before we get there.

* Relax, Mike, (some celebrity) uses it, so it's gotta be a good (product).

* Relax, Mike, all the reviews say this movie is great.

* Relax, Mike, it's not that spicy.

* Relax, Mike, the Yankees have this game in the bag.

* Relax, Mike, she's got a great personality.

* Relax, Mike, Bush (later Trump) can't possibly be that bad.

How relaxed are you?

So, I should be okay. Based on what I've been told, I might actually be more okay than I've ever been. But if this turns out to be my last post ever, you'll know why.

I'm 99 percent sure I'll be back. Probably not tomorrow, maybe not the next day. But if I go, say, a week without posting anything, that's when you should stop relaxing.

*

Days until Arsenal play again: 1, tomorrow, at 3:00 PM New York time, in UEFA Europa League action, away to Olympiacos in Athens, Greece.

Days until the next Primary or Caucus: 3, the Saturday, the Nevada Caucus. Next up, the following Saturday, the South Carolina Primary.

Days until the New York Red Bulls play again: 11, on Sunday, March 1, at 1:00 PM, home to FC Cincinnati. Under 4 weeks.

Days until the New Jersey Devils next play a local rival: 17, on Saturday night, March 7, against the New York Rangers, a.k.a. The Scum, at Madison Square Garden. The next game against the New York Islanders will be on Saturday night, March 21, at the Prudential Center. The next game against the Philadelphia Flyers will be on Saturday afternoon, March 28, at the Prudential Center.

Days until the Yankees' 2020 Opening Day: 36, at 1:00 on Thursday, March 26, away to the Baltimore Orioles. A little over 5 weeks. And now, it feels as though we can look forward to it.

Days until the U.S. national soccer team plays again: 36, at 3:45 PM New York time on March 26, 2020, against the Netherlands, at Philips Stadion in Eindhoven, home of PSV Eindhoven.

Days until the Yankees' 2020 home opener: 43, on Thursday, April 2, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": 59, on Saturday, April 18, at 1:00 PM, against the New England Revolution, at Red Bull Arena. On Sunday, April 26, at 3:00 PM, they will play D.C. United, at Audi Field in Washington. On Sunday, May 31, at 3:00 PM, they will play New York City FC, at Yankee Stadium II. And on Saturday, June 6, at 6:00 PM, they will play the Philadelphia Union, at Red Bull Arena.

Days until the next North London Derby: 66, on Saturday, April 25, Arsenal's 1st visit to the new Tottenham Stadium, adjacent to the site of the previous White Hart Lane. A little over 9 weeks. It is currently scheduled to be on the 16th Anniversary of the 2nd time that Arsenal won the League at White Hart Lane -- but also the last time Arsenal won the League anywhere. Of course, for TV reasons, the game could be moved to another date, probably the next day.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 79, on May 8, 2020, at Yankee Stadium II. A little over 11 weeks.


Days until Euro 2020 begins, a tournament being held all over Europe instead of in a single host nation: 114, on Friday, June 12, 2020. Under 4 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympics begins in Tokyo, Japan: 156, on July 24, 2020. A little over 5 months.

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 198, on Friday night, September 4, against arch-rival Old Bridge, at the purple shit pit on Route 9. Under 7 months.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge football game: See the previous answer.

Days until Rutgers University plays football again: 199, on Saturday, September 5, at noon, home to Monmouth University, a Football Championship Subdivision School in West Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey. In other words, if they don't win this game overwhelmingly, especially now that Greg Schiano is back as head coach, it will look very, very bad.

Days until the next Presidential election, when we can dump the Trump-Pence regime and elect a real Administration: 258, on November 3, 2020. Under 9 months.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: 283, on Saturday, November 28, at home. A little over 9 months.

Days until a fully-Democratic-controlled Congress can convene, and the Republicans can do nothing about it: 319, on January 3, 2021. Under 11 months.

Days until Liberation Day: 336, at noon on January 20, 2021. A little over 11 months. Note that this is liberation from the Republican Party, not just from Donald Trump. Having Mike Pence as President wouldn't be better, just differently bad, mixing theocracy with plutocracy, rather than mixing kleptocracy with plutocracy.

Days until Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz become eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame: 692, on January 11, 2022. Under 2 years, or under 22 months. We will then find out if it's okay for a Red Sox steroid cheat to be in the Hall, but not for a Yankee steroid cheat.

Days until the next Winter Olympics begins in Beijing, China: 716, on February 4, 2022. Under 2 years, or under 24 months.

Days until the next World Cup is scheduled to kick off in Qatar: 1,006, on November 21, 2022, in Qatar. Under 3 years, or a little over 33 months.

Days until the next Women's World Cup is scheduled to kick off: As yet unknown, but space on the international women's soccer calendar has been cleared for July 10 to August 20, 2023. So if July 10 is the tournament's starting date, that would be 1,237 days, a little under 3 1/2 years, or under 41 months. A host nation is expected to be chosen on March 20. Bids have been put in by Brazil (South America has never hosted), Colombia (ditto), Japan (Asia last hosted in 2007), and a joint bid by Australia and New Zealand (Oceania has never hosted).

How Long It's Been: The Portland Trail Blazers Won an NBA Championship

Two years ago, the Golden State Warriors ended a 40-year drought, and won their 1st NBA Championship since 1975. This past Monday night, they made it 2 out of 3. (It should have been 3 straight.)

All 3 times, they played the Cleveland Cavaliers, who'd played since 1970, and finally won their 1st title last year, after 46 years of trying.

It's now been 40 years since the Portland Trail Blazers won an NBA title, by taking Game 6 against the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-107 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. They had dropped the 1st 2 games of the Finals, but won 4 straight to take the title.

The haven't won another. That's 40 years. But not the longest current drought:

* The New York Knicks haven't won it since 1973, 44 years.

* The Milwaukee Bucks haven't won it since 1971, 46 years. That's how long it's been since any Milwaukee team has won one, although Wisconsin has since had 2 Super Bowl wins by the Green Bay Packers.

* The team now known as the Los Angeles Clippers have played since 1970, 47 years, and have never won a title.

* The Phoenix Suns have played since 1968, 49 years, and have never won a title. They were the 1st Arizona team in the major leagues, and in all that time, only 1 title has been theirs: The 2001 World Series, won by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

* The teams now known as the Brooklyn Nets, the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets have played since 1967, 50 years and have never won an NBA title. The Nets won 2 and the Pacers 3 in the ABA, and have each made at least 1 NBA Finals since the 1976 merger. The Nuggets, while usually a good team, have never gotten that far.

* The Atlanta Hawks haven't won it since 1958, 59 years -- and they were the St. Louis Hawks at the time. Atlanta has had major league sports since 1966, and only has the 1995 Braves' World Series. True, the Falcons nearly won the Super Bowl this year, but they let us down.

* And the Sacramento Kings haven't won it since 1951, 66 years -- and they were the Rochester Royals at the time. That's the last title won by any team from Western New York, unless you count the 1955 Syracuse Nationals (who became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963), and that's really Central New York, not Western.

Portland's title drought ended with the 2015 MLS Cup, won by the Portland Timbers. But the Blazers, despite usually being good since then, including Western Conference Championships in 1990 and 1992, and a Western Conference Finals berth in 2000, haven't won an NBA title in 40 years, since June 5, 1977. How long has that been?

*

Hall of Fame center Bill Walton (Number 32), Hall of Fame forward Maurice Lucas (20), forwards Bob Gross (30) and Lloyd Neal (36), and guards Dave Twardzik (13), Lionel Hollins (14) and Larry Steele (15) all had their uniform numbers retired. Number 77, the year of the title, was retired for their head coach,  Jack Ramsay. Team owner Larry Weinberg had Number 1 retired for him, and broadcaster Bill Schonely was honored with a banner with a microphone on it. That's 10 guys with "retired numbers" on just 1 team.

They played at the Portland Memorial Coliseum, 1 of only 16 buildings to have hosted concerts by both Elvis Presley and The Beatles. It still stands, next to their new arena, originally the Rose Garden, now the Moda Center. The Coliseum began to sell out during that 1976-77 "Blazermania" season, 12,880 strong, and sold out every home game until the move in 1995.

At that point, the Chicago Bulls, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Detroit Pistons (since moving from Fort Wayne, anyway), the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) and the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) all existed, but none of them had yet won an NBA Championship. Now, they all have, as have newer teams the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat.

While the Coliseum still stands, the Blazers no longer use it, except as a practice facility. In fact, only 2 teams played the 2016-17 season at the same one where they played the 1976-77 season: The Knicks at Madison Square Garden, and the Warriors at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, what's now named the Oracle Arena. Since then, every New York Tri-State Area team -- including the New Jersey Devils, who were still the hockey version of the Colorado Rockies -- has changed venues at least once.

Also still standing from that season are the venues then used by the Nets (the New York Nets played that year at the Nassau Coliseum), the Lakers (The Forum in Inglewood), the Pistons (Cobo Hall), the Houston Rockets (The Summit, now the Lakewood Church Central Campus, Joel Osteen's "megachurch"), the Phoenix Suns (the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum), the Sacramento Kings (the Kansas City Kings then played at the Kemper Arena) and the Utah Jazz (the New Orleans Jazz then played at the Superdome).

The NBA did not yet have the 3-point field goal. There were hardly any foreign-born players. There was a team in New Orleans, but it was the Jazz, not the Pelicans. Pro players were not allowed to play in the Olympics, and very few players had ever gone directly from high school to the NBA at that point.

The dominant players were Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Lakers, Julius "Dr. J" Erving of the 76ers, and the Bullets' tandem of Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld. Pete Maravich of the Jazz and Ernie DiGregorio of the Buffalo Braves were the new "great white hopes," but their pro careers would be injury-ravaged disappointments. The Knicks traded Walt Frazier, and Bill Bradley retired, leaving Earl "the Pearl" Monroe as their last remaining championship player.

Larry Bird was in college. Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Patrick Ewing were in high school. Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, Karl Malone and John Stockton were in junior high school. Shaquille O'Nearl was 5 years old. Tim Duncan was 1. Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant weren't born yet.

Current Blazers coach Terry Stotts was playing at the University of Oklahoma. Current Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek was in junior high school. Current Nets coach Kenny Atkinson had just turned 10. Terry Collins of the Mets was managing in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor-league system. Alain Vigneault of the Rangers and Todd Bowles of the Jets were in high school. Joe Girardi of the Yankees was 12. Doug Weight of the Islanders was 6. John Hynes of the Devils was 2. And Ben McAdoo of the Giants was born the next month.

The Blazers dethroned the Boston Celtics as NBA Champions. The other titleholders were the Cincinnati Reds in baseball, the Oakland Raiders in basketball, and the Montreal Canadiens in hockey. Muhammad Ali was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

The Olympic Games have since been held in America 4 times; Canada and Russia twice each; and once each in Bosnia, Korea, France, Spain, Norway, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Britain and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in America, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa and Brazil.

The President of the United States was Jimmy Carter. Former Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, their wives, and the widows of Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry Truman were still alive.

Ronald Reagan was out of office, and after his failed 1976 run for President, it looked like his political career was finished. George H.W. Bush, also out of office with the Democratic Administration in, was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the First International Bank in Houston. His son, George W. Bush, had just established Arbusto Energy -- "arbusto" being the Spanish word for "bush." Bill Clinton had just been elected to his 1st public office, Attorney General of the State of Arkansas. Barack Obama was in high school. And Donald Trump was building a record as a racist slumlord.

The Governor of the State of New York was Hugh Carey, the Mayor of the City of New York was Abe Beame (but was about to be voted out of office), and the Governor of New Jersey was Brendan Byrne (about to be re-elected against daunting odds). Andrew Cuomo was at Fordham University, and Bill de Blasio and Chris Christie were in high school.

The Mayor of Portland during the Blazers' title run was Neil Goldschmidt; He served from 1973 to 1979, and later served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Governor of Oregon. About to turn 77, his legacy is tainted by the revelation of what would once have quaintly been called a "morals charge" from his days as Mayor. The Governor of Oregon then was Robert Straub, who died in 2002. The current Mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, and the current Governor, Kate Brown, were both in high school in 1977. None of the Justices then on the Supreme Court are still on it.

Northern Ireland peace activists Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan were the holders of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was Paul VI. The current Pope, Francis, then Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was provincial superior of the Society of Jesus (a.k.a. the Jesuits) in his native Argentina.

The Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau, father of current PM Justin Trudeau (who was 6 years old); and of Britain, James Callaghan. The monarch of both nations was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- and she was celebrating her Silver Jubilee, 25 years on the throne. England's Football League and the European Cup had just been won by Liverpool FC, but Manchester United stunned them in the FA Cup Final to deny them the European Treble. There were still living veterans of the Mexican Revolution, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, the Boer War, the Philippine Campaign, the Boxer Rebellion and the Spanish-American War.

Major novels of 1977 included The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, Girl on a Bicycle by Leland Bardwell, The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, Coma by Robin Cook, The Foundling's War by Michel Deon, A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion, The Immigrants by Howard Fast, The Women's Room by Marilyn French, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch, Firefox by Craig Thomas, and The Shining by Stephen King. Jim Fixx published The Complete Book of Running. 

George R.R. Martin published his 1st novel, a science fiction piece titled Dying of the Light. Douglas Adams had not yet published his 1st Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel. J.K. Rowling was about to turn 12.

No one had yet heard of Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Kinsey Millhone, Celie Harris, Forrest Gump, Jack Ryan, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan or Katniss Everdeen.

Blazermania had nothing on Star Wars mania. The film now officially titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope had premiered 11 days before, and was the biggest cultural phenomenon of the decade, ahead of even disco music.

Other major films of the Spring of 1977 included Annie Hall, which would beat Star Wars out for Best Picture at the next year's Oscars; Smokey and the Bandit; For the Love of Benji; the World War II film A Bridge Too Far; Exorcist II: The Heretic; The Deep, Peter Benchley's follow-up to Jaws; Demon Seed (in which Julie Christie is impregnated by a living supercomputer voiced by Robert Vaughn); Viva Knievel, starring motorcycle daredevil Robert "Evel" Knievel as a fictionalized version of himself; and The Greatest, a film based on Muhammad Ali's memoir, starring the man himself.

No one had yet heard of Mad Max, Jason Voorhees, Ash Williams, John Rambo, the Terminator, the Ghostbusters, Freddy Kreuger, Marty McFly, Robocop, John McClane, Jay & Silent Bob or Austin Powers.

Plans were in motion for a new Star Trek TV series, but it would be scrapped, and turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Roger Moore was filming the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Tom Baker was playing The Doctor. Christopher Reeve had begun filming Superman: The Movie. Batman was still in his interregnum between Adam West and Michael Keaton, though Olan Soule was voicing him on the cartoon Super Friends, with Casey Kasem as Robin, Danny Dark as Superman, Shannon Farnon as Wonder Woman and Norman Alden as Aquaman.

Panelists on the episodes of Match Game that aired during the 1977 NBA Finals were Scoey Mitchell, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Elaine Joyce, Richard Dawson and Fannie Flagg.

Robert Kardashian was running the music business publication Radio & Records. He was about to marry Kris Houghton. Bruce Jenner was still basking in the glory of his Olympic Gold Medal from the previous year, and hadn't met either Robert or Kris. None of the Kardashian-Jenner children were born yet.

No one had yet heard of J.R. Ewing, Bo & Luke Duke, Blake Carrington, Michael Knight, Christine Cagney & Mary Beth Lacey, Sam Malone, Cliff Huxtable, Balki Bartokomous, the Tanner Family, Zack Morris, Hayden Fox, or any of the legendary TV characters of the 1990s and the early 21st Century.

The Number 1 song in America was "Sir Duke," Stevie Wonder's tribute to jazz legends. New York, New York was about to premiere, starring Liza Minnelli as a 1940s jazz singer and Robert De Niro as her husband, a saxophone player. Liza was the first singer to record the film's theme song, but it would be an old friend of hers through her mother, Judy Garland, who made the song an icon, 3 years later: Frank Sinatra.

Elvis Presley was on tour. No one knew it at the time, but it would be his last tour. John Lennon was in self-imposed exile as a "househusband." All the other ex-Beatles were still recording and having hits.

Michael Jackson was about to film his role as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, an all-black version of The Wizard of Oz. Bob Dylan was recording Street Legal. Billy Joel was about to release The Stranger. Bruce Springsteen had just settled a legal case that had prevented him from recording and releasing new material; by October, he would begin recording Darkness on the Edge of Town.

38 Special released their self-titled debut album, Ted Nugent Cat Scratch Fever, Heart Little Queen (including "Barracuda"), The Steve Miller Band Book of Dreams (including "Jet Airliner"), 10cc Deceptive Bends (including "The Things We Do for Love"), KISS Love Gun, and Bob Marley Exodus, his biggest album, which included "Jamming," "Waiting in Vain," "Three Little Birds," and his signature song, "One Love."

The Sex Pistols were big and scandalous in Britain, but hardly any American had heard of them: As far as we were concerned, "punk rock" meant The Ramones. Hardly anyone had yet heard of Madonna, Prince, or the members of U2 and R.E.M.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 would buy then, $4.04 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp was 13 cents, and a New York Subway ride -- if you dared ride those graffiti-festooned, crime-ridden, filthy cars -- was 50 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 59 cents, a cup of coffee 69 cents, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $1.65, a movie ticket $2.21, a new car $3,500, and a new house $54,300. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 912.23.

There were mobile telephones, but they were big and bulky, and hardly anybody had them. VCRs, home video game systems, and personal computers were recent arrivals, and hadn't yet become common. There was no Internet as we now understand it: Bill Gates was just starting out. Just 5 days after the Blazers won the title, 22-year-old Steve Jobs introduced the Apple II. Six days after that, The Oracle Corporation was founded. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra.

In the Spring of 1977, the Likud Party won the Israeli federal election, giving the country its 1st right-of-center government, toppling Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and elevating Menachem Begin to the office. Rabin would be back, however. The Taksim Square Massacre took place in Istanbul, Turkey. There was a coup in the Seychelles. And Spain had its 1st democratic election since 1936. 

In America, while Star Wars mania and Blazermania were going on, Victoria's Secret was founded in San Francisco, and the 1st Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre opened in nearby San Jose. The Space Mountain indoor rollercoaster opened at Walt Disney World. The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky caught fire, killing 165 people. Voters in Miami-Dade County, Florida repealed a gay rights ordinance. And "Human Fly" George Willig climbed the outside of 2 World Trade Center.

Ludwig Ehard, and James Jones, and Joan Crawford died. Kanye West, and soccer star Massimo Ambrosini, and pitching ace Roy Halladay were born.

June 5, 1977. The Portland Trail Blazers won the NBA Championship. They have never won another.

Led by Damian Lillard, they were a 41-41 team in 2016-17, although they did make the Playoffs. But at the rate the Golden State Warriors are going, and with the San Antonio Spurs having survived the retirement of Tim Duncan fairly well, it may be some time before the Blazers approach another title.