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In February 1978, the Portland Trail Blazers appeared on their way to repeating as NBA champions.
Future Hall of Famer Bill Walton starred at center for the Blazers as they dominated the league for three-quarters of the 1977-78 season with a 50-10 record. A second consecutive championship—and with it, a legitimate claim to a dynasty—seemed possible.
But on Feb. 28, 1978, Walton decided the pain that plagued his feet and legs was too great. He took himself out of a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, whom Portland had defeated to win its 1977 championship, after playing just 13 minutes and scoring five points.
He sat out the final 22 games of the regular season. The Blazers went 8-14, limping into the playoffs.
"Without him, a brilliant team became a less-than-ordinary team," David Halberstam wrote in The Breaks of the Game, his seminal 1981 book about the Blazers' 1979-80 season.
Walton would never play another regular-season game for Portland. And Portland would win no more championships.
The Blazers' loss to the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1978 Western Conference semifinals wasn't the worst of it. Walton, who had been shot up with painkillers, sued the team doctor, demanded to leave Portland and irreparably shattered a unit that Halberstam considered a "team of destiny."
The Blazers and their fans have endured many accursed moments since—the collapse of Brandon Roy, the disastrous decision to draft Greg Oden over Kevin Durant in 2007, and the choice of Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan in 1984.
But Bill Simmons' encyclopedic The Book of Basketball puts the Walton injury in its proper context. He sums it up as "the drive-by shooting of the Blazers" and writes, "Walton was blessed with a gift and cursed with a body that couldn't handle that gift. The curse trumped the gift.''
Blazers fans have suffered since. Suffering, in fact, has come to define us.
Hank Stern was managing news editor at Willamette Week from March 2005 until April 2011. He has been a Trail Blazers fan since the team's inception in 1970 and assiduously saved his money from lawn-mowing and babysitting to afford part of a season-ticket package during the 1977-78 season.
From the Archives:
November 4, 2009: "My PDX: Bill Walton"
1974: Mt. Hood Freeway Killed
1975: Soccer City, USA | A Vet Shuts Down Nuclear Power
1976: A Home for Refugees | Intel Changes the Economy
1978: Bill Walton Sits Down
1979: Busing Ends in Portland Schools | Oregon Wine Gets Famous
1982: Courts Pave Way for Nudie Bars | The Other Daily Paper Folds
1984: Satyricon's First Show | A Bartender Becomes Mayor | The Air Jordan Saves Nike
1985: First Female Police Chief Ousted | Wieden+Kennedy's Most Important Ad
1986: Dark Horse Comics' First Issue
1988: Inaugural Oregon Brewers' Fest | Rise of Hate Groups
1989: NW Rowhouses Burn | Gus Van Sant's Portland Hits Screen
1990: Our First Great Restaurant | Oregon's Longest Tax Revolt
1991: Cleaning up the Willamette
1995: Bicyclists Sue Portland
1996: Vera Katz Builds a Wall | March to Save City Nightclub | Powell's Rebuffs Amazon
1997: Path Cleared for Pearl District
1999: Stumptown Coffee Opens | Fight Club Hits DVD
2000: Largest Union Pension Fraud Ever
2003: Fred Meets Carrie | Suicide of Elliott Smith
2004: Gay Marriage Legalized (Briefly) | Goldschmidt Exposed | Eastside Portland Rises
2006: The Death of James Chasse Jr.
2008: Our Fanciest Restaurant Ever Bombs
2009: Sam Adams Admits Lying
2011: Occupy Portland
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