# Bucky Buckwalter



## SolidGuy3 (Apr 23, 2005)

If any of you don't know this guy, he was the person who was very important in the Blazers success in the early 90's. He drafted Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Cliff Robinson, etc. Does anybody know if he is still with the Blazers or is too old? He even had the guts to go after Arvydas Sabonis and draft him 1986.

I found this article on the Internet. It looks like Sabonis was here in 1988 in Portland. It says he already had his Oregon drivers license, went deep-sea fishing and bought fancy suits. It seems to me we already had Sabonis ready to play for us the next upcoming year. What the **** went wrong?

http://www.sabonis.com/archive/articles/prenba/courting.html


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## tradetheo (Feb 24, 2005)

SolidGuy3 said:


> If any of you don't know this guy, he was the person who was very important in the Blazers success in the early 90's. He drafted Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Cliff Robinson, etc. Does anybody know if he is still with the Blazers or is too old? He even had the guts to go after Arvydas Sabonis and draft him 1986.
> 
> I found this article on the Internet. It looks like Sabonis was here in 1988 in Portland. It says he already had his Oregon drivers license, went deep-sea fishing and bought fancy suits. It seems to me we already had Sabonis ready to play for us the next upcoming year. What the **** went wrong?
> 
> http://www.sabonis.com/archive/articles/prenba/courting.html


i dont know, but could you imagine that team we would have had. a very good scoring team, not to mention passing team. i think clyde could have won a few mvps, with his cuts to the basket and passes from sabas, or alley oops. same with porter.


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## Talkhard (May 13, 2003)

I read an interview with Sabonis years ago in which he admitted that he didn't come to the NBA earlier because he was afraid of the competition. He knew he could dominate in Europe, but he wasn't so sure about the NBA. All he saw on TV at home were the highlights of all the great plays, and he thought all the NBA players were as good as Dr. J, Kareem, the Big O, etc.


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## MARIS61 (Apr 28, 2003)

SolidGuy3 said:


> He even had the guts to go after Arvydas Sabonis and draft him 1986.
> 
> It looks like Sabonis was here in 1988 in Portland. It says he already had his Oregon drivers license, went deep-sea fishing and bought fancy suits. It seems to me we already had Sabonis ready to play for us the next upcoming year. What the **** went wrong?
> 
> http://www.sabonis.com/archive/articles/prenba/courting.html


To understand fully requires a basic knowledge of the lingering effects of the "Cold War", the collapse of the Soviet system, and the pervasive anti-Soviet sentiments within the league and it's fans at that time.


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## RedHot&Rolling (Jun 26, 2004)

Even though we drafted Sabonis in 1986 - he wasn't allowed to come to the NBA because the USSR was still alive. Eventually, those restrictions were eased. He came here in the 80's to rehab his torn achilles tendon (IIRC). We helped rehab him and he helped beat us (USA) in the Olympics.

Buckwalters genius was securing the extra draft pick in 1986 to select him. We traded Darnell Valentine to Clippers for the pick.

I have no doubt that we'd have one a Championship or more if Sabonis had been on the team in '90 - '93. He is/was more mentally tough than Duckworth and would have made us better defensively.

Last I heard, Buckwalter is no longer involved with the Blazers on decisions. I think I've heard he lives in Central Oregon somewhere and is pretty much retired.

He was a fabulous judge of talent. He is missed.

There's also this link of audio: http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/jason_quick/index.ssf?/live/blazers/quick_110305.html


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## HOWIE (Dec 30, 2002)

What I thought was funny is that Atlanta picked Sabonis in 1985 but he was to young to be drafted and wasn't allowed to come to the NBA. Not sure if Atlanta lost the pick or what, but they were the first to select Sabonis. Yes Buckwalter did his homework and it would have been awesome to have Sabonis here with the early 90 Blazers. Does anyone remember when the NBA dropped the age requirement?


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## Trader Ed (Jun 17, 2002)

Bucky lives in LaGrande I believe

I was at a game in the MC when Sabonis first came to Portland to rehab and he sat with Bucky at the game. Needless to say he got a big ovation even if he was rehabbing


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## CelticPagan (Aug 23, 2004)

PG- Terry Porter
SG- Michael Jordan
C- Arvydas Sabonis
PF- Moses Malone
SF- Clyde Drexler

I'm going to go throw up now.
http://www.ukfans.net/jps/uk/bowie.html
But here's a good page that explains why the blazers drafted Bowie. They already had Paxon and Drexler, and in 84, everyone thought you needed a good big man to win the title. Bowie was going to be a good defensive presense and a great passer with an outside shot(essentially Bill Walton - some offense).

It even mentions that the Bulls were looking to trade the pick for Jack Smitka, and hints that they themselves would have drafted Bowie if they had the chance.


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## OntheRocks (Jun 15, 2005)

CelticPagan said:


> PG- Terry Porter
> SG- Michael Jordan
> C- Arvydas Sabonis
> PF- Moses Malone
> ...




Haha. 

That's just sick and wrong.


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## crandc (Sep 15, 2004)

Well, Houston blew it big time as well. Everyone knew they'd take Olajuwon with the #1 pick. That made Ralph Sampson superfluous. Portland offered their #3 pick and Clyde for Sampson; Houston said no. That would have given the Rockets
c: Hakeem Olajuwon
sf: Clyde Drexler
pf:
pg:
sg: Michael Jordan

With those 3, who cares who the other 2 guys are?


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## CelticPagan (Aug 23, 2004)

The Sonics also traded Scottie Pippen for Olden Polynice. Pippen would have defenitly shifted the power from the Bulls to the Sonics, making Seattle the superpower of the mid 90's.

We could have had back to back Northwest Dynasties! That would have given David Stern hemroids.


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## Schilly (Dec 30, 2002)

HOWIE said:


> What I thought was funny is that Atlanta picked Sabonis in 1985 but he was to young to be drafted and wasn't allowed to come to the NBA. Not sure if Atlanta lost the pick or what, but they were the first to select Sabonis. Yes Buckwalter did his homework and it would have been awesome to have Sabonis here with the early 90 Blazers. Does anyone remember when the NBA dropped the age requirement?


He was selected by Atlanta in the 3rd or 4th Round (yes they went that deep back then) and IIRC teams weren't able to retain rights to Players drafted that deep.


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## HOWIE (Dec 30, 2002)

Schilly said:


> He was selected by Atlanta in the 3rd or 4th Round (yes they went that deep back then) and IIRC teams weren't able to retain rights to Players drafted that deep.


Selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the fourth round (77th pick overall) of the 1985 NBA Draft; the pick was later disallowed by NBA officials, who found Sabonis to be too young to be eligible for the draft. Selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round (24th pick overall) of the 1986 NBA Draft. Played in the USSR for Zalgiris Kaunas (1984-85 to 1986-87, 1988-89) and TEKA Moscu (1987-88). Played in Spain (1989-90 to 1994-95). 

linkage 

Wow, I remembered something, I better write it down before I forget! 

Question.......when did they change the age limit rule?


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