RealGM

Here's a very rare game I had in my vault that I decided to dust off and recap. It's a Chick Hearn/Laker broadcast of a game at Porty. Local LA footage from 81/82 is supremely rare in itself, but any old Blazer gms from this era are even rarer. Therefore, I'm gonna share it. And maybe Porty wins this game.... I dunno, you'll have to watch for yourself. This was probably Magic's worst game against the Blazers of his career, 6 TOs. He was angry with some changes by Paul Westhead that made them a slower, more plodding team and Westhead wound up getting fired a couple weeks later. When they announced Riles was taking over, there was a bizarre moment where Jerry Buss said Jerry West would return as coach and West got up to the podium and corrected that situation right on the spot by saying, "Pat Riley is the new head coach of the LAL.". They went with this temporary situation with Riley as HC and West sitting there as a silent assistant to make sure Riles could hack it. Buss wasn't even sure about Riley as HC. Magic got a lot of grief in the media for that. Getting a coach fired or being perceived by the fans as the cause was NOT popular in 81. It's not even today in many cases, but it was heresy then, so Earv quickly got on Riley's side.

https://youtu.be/EGEeWkygK9Q?t=3

Thank you, NPZ! That was a fun watch!

Moonbeam wrote:Thank you, NPZ! That was a fun watch!

1982. Same year the album "1999" was dropped. The Revolution. Love that era of Prince too.

That was the only Blazer team in the last quarter of the 20th century that did not make the playoffs (finished 8th in the west when only 6 got in).