A Big Man Has Passed On
By Kevin Duckworth died last night while vacationing on the Oregon coast. Duckworth played center for the great Trailblazer teams of the early 1990s, including the Western Conference Championship squads of 1990 and 1992. Those teams also had Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Buck Williams, and of course the great Clyde Drexler, with Cliff Robinson coming off the bench. Duckworth was, it’s fair to say, the weak link on that team; he could shoot, but wasn’t much of a defender, and had a lot of trouble with conditioning. Because of this, Duck was the least popular member of the starting five, which turned me into his apologist.
Like Erik, I’ll always have a warm spot in my heart for those Trailblazer teams, right next to the Bill Musgrave led Ducks of the late 1980s and the 2000-2003 Seattle Mariners. The devastating conclusions of the 1990, 1991, and 1992 seasons taught me an early lesson in hopelessness, frustration, and futility; oddly enough, the experience of the 2000-era Mariners would serve as a refresher course in that regard…
RIP, Duck.