I'm Still Stunned To Hear About It.

It's ironic that Kevin Duckworth died on Monday because of problems with his heart, because people often said he used his heart and passion for people the right way, by giving of himself to the fullest. He was on the Oregon Coast to participate in a free basketball clinic for kids when on Monday night, he had trouble breathing and lost consciousness. Paramedics attempted to revive him, but they were never able to wake the giant, and the Trail Blazers lost one of their special players.

I moved to Portland in 1989 after graduating from college, but had followed enough sports to know about the Trail Blazers history and key players. When I had decided to move here, one of the key reasons I came was to watch the NBA in person, and I even worked out a plan with my boss at the time to leave early from work to go get tickets to a couple of games in exchange for working through a few lunch hours. It was worth it to get to see a couple of games that year in the Memorial Coliseum, and as the year rolled on, the team continued to win and won the right to play for the NBA Title. I was amazed at how crazy this town got with Blazer Mania, and I fed into every bit of it I could. But it was not only because of the greatness on the court, but the passion and sense of community off the court that impressed me. I heard of many stories of people interacting with the players, saying how nice these guys were and how they took time from their days to give something back. Kevin Duckworth was the person I heard about the most in this respect.

He was our starting center, all 7 foot 1 inch of person, wearing double zero. While he seemed to be at the right place to pick up rebounds and tap ins for points, he also dealt effectively with opposing centers in blocking shots and being a general nuisance. He wasn't the key cog of our offense, we had players that could fill those roles, but Duckworth filled the unsung role of stopper and rebounder while other players took headlines with their spectacular plays. You never heard him complain about it, the only criticisms he took in were the ones where he had off nights in shooting and he resolved himself to do better. He struck me as a very sensitive, heady player, as evidenced by some slumps in his career that seemed to take him longer to ride out than most. Being a sensitive type myself, I can relate to the fact that we sensitive folks are often harder on ourselves that we need to be, which seemed to fit his persona. But Duckworth did his job, made a few All-Star teams, and was a key component to the Trail Blazer runs in the early 90's.

What you also saw from him was numerous community appearances and engagements. He seemed to be everywhere to help anyone that needed it. He forged a special relationship with the children at William Walker Elementary school in Beaverton near his house, often visiting them during the school year to speak. When he retired from playing, you still saw Duckworth making appearances, working at his restaurant in Vancouver WA, and being visible around town. He was at many Trail Blazer games, watching the next generation take the torch, and appearing for the team as an alumni ambassador. He seemed to relish in his role as a spokesperson, touching people with his stories, demeanor, and smile. When you read the words and stories told by his coaches and teammates, they all talk about his engaging personality and ability to make people feel comfortable.

But all was not quite right with Kevin, as evidenced in recent appearances where he had gained a tremendous amount of weight. He was never the smallest guy about, but it was obvious that he had been putting on some weight recently. But he seemed to be as active and busy as ever, until Monday when trouble developed. I don't know much about his medical history except for what I read today after his autopsy, but I know enough about health and exercise to know that if you gain a lot of weight and don't get a lot of exercise, that's not good for your body. And the autopsy released today indicated that the cause of death was congestive heart failure combined with high blood pressure and other factors. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the pieces together and figure out what happened. You wonder if the people around him had said something out of concern or love to watch what he ate, or to get more exercise, or to just watch himself. It's hard to know even if there were those conversations if anything would have changed, but what's true is that a legend has been lost.

People have been asking what is the best way to honor Duckworth's memory. The team is holding a memorial service for him on Saturday at the Memorial Coliseum, the home of many of his great games. I think that's a great start, but I think the team has a chance to do something really special here. Duck's career numbers probably don't warrant retiring his number, and I'm sure the team will don special patches for him this season, but my suggestion is to rename the community service award given by the team in Duckworth's honor. For a guy that gave so freely of himself and represented the town and the team in such a positive way for so many years, I think it's a truly fitting way to honor him in a way that I think he'd appreciate.

It's rather difficult for me to even talk about death still, as the topic still reminds me of the loss of my mom back in 2005. I was called out of the blue to come visit her in the hospital and a week later, I'm planning her funeral. We can't choose how we die, we can only build the memories of a lifetime to share with the people around us. While my mom's death was difficult for me to deal with, I learned a lot about myself and the people around me. I had dozens of friends pick me up and keep me propped up and doing things, even if my instinct was to just hide from the world. I found the love of my life amongst these amazing friends, and we were just married this past April. I've changed my life in numerous positive ways, and honestly, I'm not sure if I'd have done this otherwise. What death did for me was made me realize how important people are to me, and how important it is to them that I'm happy in whatever it is I do. I found peace, love, and acceptance from a group of soccer fans in Portland, and I can never thank them enough for what they gave me.

My hope is that while Duckworth's death is seen as a tragedy, it is also viewed as inspiration for people to live their lives to the happiest because it is truly a gift. It might inspire change, passion, or tears, but as in his life, Duckworth's presence inspires us all to be better people and give of ourselves to make our little part of the world a better place. Even though I never met him personally, I feel like I've lost a brother but I've also gained an appreciation of what life has to offer.

Chemistry

Ok, I promised that I would deal with Europe, but I had been thinking about the Trail Blazers all day after the experience last night. While the game antics had some issue, overall, I haven't been as excited about basketball in years.

I first moved to Portland in 1989, and the team had just secured Buck Williams as their starting forward, and the remaining pieces from good Trail Blazer teams in the 80's were here (Kersey, Drexler, Porter, Duckworth) plus a newly drafted Cliff Robinson. While the team was expected to do well, I got indoctrinated into Blazer Mania immediately as the team went all the way to the NBA Finals. While the team had talent on the floor, there was a passion and flair with which they played that impressed me.

Chemistry is a hard term to define, but to me, it means not only having talent and drive but you also care about your fellow teammates and are willing to do things to make them better. Chemistry also means taking this attitude to everyone you meet and everything you do. The Trail Blazers of the early 90's exemplified that with a long playoff run in 91 and another Finals run in 92. The team still had some successes in subsequent seasons, but the trouble started with firing Rick Adelman as coach. Most of the players were traded away from this era, and the team under new management started to rebuild. The final nail was Drexler being traded away to Houston and finally getting his championship ring with the Rockets.

The Trail Blazers were assembling a very talented team, but it became apparent that things were different in dealing with the fans and media. The team became distant and harder to understand, and the management moved to Seattle and remotely managed the team under the utmost secrecy. But the funny thing was the team was still winning, so many of the danger signs weren't apparent because winning will make people overlook stuff.

When the team made other playoff runs in 2000 and 2001, it brought back the Blazer Mania passion of the city until a fourth quarter against our hated rivals the Lakers. Instead of bringing the team back as a whole, there was more roster tinkering which led to harsh words and bad attitude. Over the next few years, the team imploded with malcontents, problems with the law, drug arrests, and the things labeling the team the Jail Blazers.

New management wanted to turn the corner, but it wasn't until the new coach Nate McMillian and new GM Kevin Pritchard were on board that you saw huge changes. They wanted to build a team that was bigger than themselves, and hearken back to the old Trail Blazer days of the 70s and 80s, and they set up a plan to build a team of solid talented guys who wanted to be part of something bigger and give back to the team and the town. And their plan couldn't have worked any better.

The parallels to old glory teams is apparent, as the core guys Aldridge, Roy, Blake, Webster, Frye, Pryzbilla, Sergio, Jarrett, Jones, and Outlaw have come together amazingly. The youngest team in the NBA has a 13 game winning streak to their credit, and currently own a 12 game home winning streak, doing it completely under the radar from most fans. But in hearing more about the team, you hear about their talent but also the community events, interaction with fans, and the genuine care they have for each other. This team loves playing basketball with each other, and the results show on the court. Like any fan, it's frustrating when they don't play to their potential, but right now, I wouldn't trade this team for anything.

The Portland Timbers, my other team I love, went through a similar renaissance this year after a dismal 2006 season with a coach who lacked direction and a team that struggled to find its chemistry. A new coach came in, players started believing in themselves and each other, and the results led to an undefeated home record. While chemistry in school wasn't one of my better subject, I love watching great chemistry unfold on the court and the field. Here's to 2008, where the playoffs aren't just a goal for the Timbers and Trail Blazers, but a reality..

Postscript -

• I read my post about Blaze yesterday and the kid's interaction and realized that I significantly downplayed the kid's action. The tail tugging in the fourth quarter was an attempt to spin him around by his tail not once, not twice, but three times. I'm all for mascots getting ribbed a bit and poked/prodded, but I draw the line at attempting to harm them. I must be getting soft in my older age.
• As of today, the Trail Blazers are in first place in the Northwest division. They haven't been in first place in any division for 7 years, so this is huge. Yes, they are going on a 7 game almost 2 week road trip starting on Sunday in Toronto, but right now I don't care. My team is in first place.