Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #16: Sidney Wicks vs. Bob Gross

[Moonbeam]

The list so far is here.

Project Guidelines:

Spoiler:

1. Each thread will be open for 48 hours. After 48 hours have passed, the thread will close if a single player receives a majority of the votes. If not, the top 2-3 candidates will enter a runoff period of 24 hours. During this period, you may switch your vote to one of the reduced list of candidates if you voted for someone else.

2. When making a formal vote, please include the player's name in bold. This helps me keep track. Please include a justification for your choice. It may be brief, but simply writing the name of your choice will not be a counted vote.

3. You may switch your vote, but please emphasize this in bold.

4. Please only consider each player's performance with Portland.

5. We all have our favorites, and we all have our own criteria. I believe the discussion and learning from this project will be more important than the placement of the individual players.

6. Have fun!

Runoff Guidelines:

Spoiler:

If at the end of 48 hours, no single player has more than 50% of the votes cast, the top 2* candidates will enter a runoff vote.

1. Original votes for one of these 2 players still count.

2. Those who voted for one of the candidates outside of the top 2 must cast a vote for one of the top 2 candidates for their votes to count.

3. Those who did not vote in the first 48 hours are still welcome to vote in the runoff.

4. Anyone is welcome to change his/her vote if swayed by the arguments of others.

* If there is a tie, more than 2 candidates may enter the runoff. In this case, please list your preferred order among all of the candidates, and a point system will determine the victor. The points will be allocated as follows (using a 3-player runoff as an example): 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place. If votes don't make a preference beyond #1, the remaining candidates will get the average points for the other ranks. If at the end of this process, there is a tie, the winner will be the player with the most preferences in a 1 on 1 comparison.

It should be wide open at this point. For now, we'll stick with the same voting system (list your choice plus explanation), but I'd like your feedback on a potential move to a listing of your top 3 choices (with explanations). I don't want to discourage voting if someone has to explain 3 choices, but it may help to quicken the pace.

[PDXKnight]

I'm gonna go with zbo here. I wasn't a huge fan of his but based on talent alomg I feel inclined to vote for him here

[Masterfully]

I think the time is right for a third member of the championship team to get some credit. Problem is it's so close between a few guys. After minutes of painstaking research I feel confident giving my vote to Bob Gross. Besides bringing home the hardware, Gross also managed to accumulate a respectable 30.2 WS and .120 WS/48. A solid all around player that never faltered when the moment got huge.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I agree Masterfully. Hollins, Davis, Twardzik or Gross should be in the discussion.

I'll go with Hollins for his leadership ability and skill. And he's the guy who got the last rebound and dribbled up court as time ran out in Game 6!!!

[kdawg32086]

I'll go with Sidney Wicks here. Rookie of the year, all rookie team, and 4x all star with the Blazers. Averaged 22 and 10 over the 5 years he was a Blazer, before we sold him.

[a_sensei]

I'm going to vote for Sidney Wicks here. I never saw Wicks play, and held off on voting for him because I have heard he was a bit of a locker room cancer and the teams were not very good. A lot like prime pdx Z-Bo but he kept it up for a longer time. His numbers are great. 22/9 for five seasons.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Steve Johnson-all star with the Blazers 54%fg as a Blazer

[JasonStern]

vote: Sidney Wicks for the reasons kdawg outlined.

[mojomarc]

Kiki Vandeweghe. Wicks and Zbo were both cancers in their own right, and no matter what their stats I can't consider them in a top 20 greatest conversation. Calling them "greatest" would be like saying "cancer is awesome--I really wanted to lose 20lbs anyway!"

Vandeweghe was a terrible defender, but he was an amazing scoring machine who helped us get out of the post-Walton doldrums and into playoff contention. The team learned how to win more than 45 games a season in large part because Kiki and Clyde were running up points on other teams.

[Moonbeam]

Sorry for the delay - I've been sick.

Tough choice for me with Vandeweghe, Wicks, Hollins, Gross, Duckworth, Cliffy, Pippen, Stoudamire, Z-Bo, Matthews, and Batum.

I came very close to voting for Wes, but I'm going with Bob Gross. He has a similar statistical profile and seemed to come up huge for Portland in their title run. Wesley came up big against Houston, but I'll default to the guy who did it over a larger playoff sample.

[Moonbeam]

Tally:

Sidney Wicks (3): kdawg32086, a_sensei, JasonStern

Bob Gross (2): Masterfully, Moonbeam

Zach Randolph (1): Oden2

Lionel Hollins (1): DaVoiceMaster

Steve Johnson (1): Brandon-Clyde

Kiki Vandeweghe (1): mojomarc

We've got a Wicks/Gross runoff!

[The Sebastian Express]

Hm. Hm. I'm going to go with Wicks.

[Norm2953]

Wicks was a major cancer so I'll vote for Gross but I find it curious the lack of votes for Larry Steele who's number is retired in the rafters and had a career similar with Portland to Jerome Kersey.

[Masterfully]

I find it curious the lack of votes for Larry Steele who's number is retired in the rafters and had a career similar with Portland to Jerome Kersey.

You mean over Gross? The same could be said for Hollins or Neal or Twardzik. All five are fairly even. In my opinion Gross was the best of the bunch.

[PDXKnight]

I am gonna go with sidney wicks in support of simple democracy

[Norm2953]

I find it curious the lack of votes for Larry Steele who's number is retired in the rafters and had a career similar with Portland to Jerome Kersey.

You mean over Gross? The same could be said for Hollins or Neal or Twardzik. All five are fairly even. In my opinion Gross was the best of the bunch.

Who's number is in the rafters in the MC? Gross and Hollins are in the rafters but much later than Steele
who along Dave Twardzik were perhaps the most fan favorites on the Walton teams but Steele had a
longer career due to Twardzik's pinball style of play. I like Gross but he played off of Walton and Lucas'
all-star caliber of play and faded Bill left as a FA. Lloyd Neal was a fine player but undersized with a bad
knee who unfortunately with his fine play cost us Moses Malone who management felt was a luxury
to keep.

One small anecdote about Lloyd Neal came in 1978 for he was sitting out a game due to injury but
when the team was struggling, suited up in the second half and put up double double numbers.

[Moonbeam]

I find it curious the lack of votes for Larry Steele who's number is retired in the rafters and had a career similar with Portland to Jerome Kersey.

You mean over Gross? The same could be said for Hollins or Neal or Twardzik. All five are fairly even. In my opinion Gross was the best of the bunch.

Who's number is in the rafters in the MC? Gross and Hollins are in the rafters but much later than Steele
who along Dave Twardzik were perhaps the most fan favorites on the Walton teams but Steele had a
longer career due to Twardzik's pinball style of play. I like Gross but he played off of Walton and Lucas'
all-star caliber of play and faded Bill left as a FA. Lloyd Neal was a fine player but undersized with a bad
knee who unfortunately with his fine play cost us Moses Malone who management felt was a luxury
to keep.

One small anecdote about Lloyd Neal came in 1978 for he was sitting out a game due to injury but
when the team was struggling, suited up in the second half and put up double double numbers.

I LOVE this kind of information. Thank you for sharing it!

[Moonbeam]

Final tally:

Sidney Wicks (5): kdawg32086, a_sensei, JasonStern, The Sebastian Express, Oden2

Bob Gross (3): Masterfully, Moonbeam, Norm2953

Sidney Wicks gets the nod!