DAME of THRONES?

Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 2, 2019

Who’s the greatest player in the Trail Blazers’ 49-year history?

If you said Ha Seung-Jin, drop down and do 30 push-ups.

It comes down to a choice between two of Portland’s all-time greats — Clyde Drexler and Damian Lillard.

Six players who put on a uniform for the Blazers are members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame — Drexler, Bill Walton, Lenny Wilkens, Scottie Pippen, Arvydas Sabonis and Drazen Petrovic.

Four players have made the All-Star Game at least four times playing for Portland — Drexler, Lillard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Sidney Wicks. Drexler was chosen for the All-Star Game eight times as a Blazer; Lillard has been selected four times.

Only three players — Walton (1977-78), Drexler (1991-92) and Lillard (2017-18) — have been named first-team all-NBA.

Walton is the only Blazer to earn the league’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Drexler was runner-up to Chicago’s Michael Jordan in 1991-92, the year both were members of the Dream Team that won an Olympic gold medal for the United States in Barcelona, Spain.

Walton rose to the greatest heights as a Blazer, leading the team to its only NBA championship in 1976-77, then earning the league’s MVP award the following season. That was the campaign in which the Blazers started 50-10 before faltering due to a barrage of injuries to key players, including Walton.

But Walton played only 209 games in parts of four regular seasons with the Blazers due to injuries.

Drexler, who was with the Blazers for 11 1/2 seasons (1983-95), is the career regular-season scoring leader with 18,040 points. Lillard, who recently completed his seventh regular season, moved into second place on the career scoring list this season with 12,909 points.

Drexler averaged 20.8 points, a figure watered down by a 7.7-point average as a rookie on a veteran team. Lillard’s career average is 23.5 points; he averaged 19.0 points and was a unanimous pick for the Rookie of the Year Award.

Drexler is the franchise leader in games played (867); Lillard has moved into 10th place (549).

Drexler ranks second in rebounds (5,339) behind Aldridge and is the franchise leader in offensive rebounds (2,227) and steals (1,795). Lillard leads in 3-point baskets (1,506) and is third in assists with 3,479, behind Terry Porter (5,319) and Drexler (4,933).

Lillard’s scoring numbers benefit from the increased role the 3-point shot plays in today’s game. Lillard is a more proficient shooter than was Drexler, firing at a .368 clip from 3-point range. Drexler was a career .318 3-point shooter with the Blazers.

The 6-7 Drexler averaged 21.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 94 career playoff games with Portland, leading the Blazers to the NBA Finals in 1990 and ’92. The 6-3 Lillard has averaged 25.0 points and 5.7 assists in 40 playoff games; so far, the Blazers have not gone beyond the first round during the Lillard era.

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Geoff Petrie also is one of the all-time great Trail Blazers. The first draft pick in the inaugural 1970-71 season as a 6-5 shooting guard out of Princeton, Petrie was one of the greatest pure shooters in franchise history, a co-Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star who averaged 21.8 points in six seasons in Portland. His playing career, cut short by knee injuries, ended at age 28. He later served in the Blazers’ front office, including four years as the team’s senior vice president/operations during the Drexler era.

Petrie also spent 18 seasons in the same capacity with Sacramento, twice earning NBA Executive of the Year honors.

Petrie’s pick as the greatest Blazer is Drexler, and he puts Walton at No. 2 — for now.

“It might have been Walton as No. 1, if he’d not gotten hurt and would have had a longer career there,” says Petrie, now 71, retired and living in Sacramento. “Clyde was the best player on the team that went to the Finals twice. He was spectacular the second time (1991-92). The thing that was amazing about that year: Clyde was so much better than every other 2 guard in the league except Jordan, and Jordan was that much better than Clyde.

“Clyde had such great athleticism. His ability to score was obvious. He became a better shooter as he went along, though it never was a really pretty shot.

“His vision, his ability to make plays and see things is what made other people better. He had an uncanny ability on the break, head down, looking at the ball as he dribbled, and all of the sudden, the ball was flying to somebody for a layup.

“Once he got that left shoulder going into you going to the basket, it was all over. Rick (Adelman, the coach) put him on the post, and it was hard to double him. He’d fire it to somebody for an open shot.”

Petrie was running Sacramento basketball operations when Lillard, out of Weber State, was taken with the No. 6 pick in the draft by Portland. The Kings, who held the No. 5 pick, chose forward Thomas Robinson from Kansas.

“That’s not something you put on your resume,” Petrie says with a laugh.

Robinson, who wound up playing 1 1/2 seasons with the Blazers, averaged 4.9 points and 4.6 rebounds in five NBA seasons. He was out of the league at age 25.

“We spent a lot of time with Damian in the draft that year,” Petrie says. “He seemed like a really solid kid with some good values. I don’t know why we didn’t draft him, to be honest, other than we had two good point guards (Isaiah Thomas and Tyreke Evans), and we were weak in the frontcourt.”

Petrie respects Lillard’s body of work to date.

“Damian is a fabulous player,” Petrie says. “He is the next-best player in franchise history after those two guys at this point in his career, and he is already the best point guard the Blazers have ever had, for sure.

‘He has gotten to the point now where it’s not all about scoring, though he can pretty much score as much as he wants. He has learned how to play off the ball better, make some hard cuts. He’ll find you if you’re open. He can make a 3 from just about anywhere on the court.

“He had 25 points in a quarter (in Game 3) in the Oklahoma City playoff series. I don’t know if I ever saw a guy play a better quarter than that.”

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Harry Glickman, who founded the Blazers and served as its president and general manager for many years, has seen every player who has come through the organization. Glickman, who turns 95 on May 13, sits courtside at a good number of games every season.

“Clyde is in the Hall of Fame,” Glickman says. “At this moment, I’d have to give him the edge over Damian. A year from now, that could easily change.”

Glickman says Drexler is one of the few players he “had a true rapport with” over the years.

“Let me tell you something about Clyde,” Glickman says. “When I was in recovery from a stroke (in 2014), he flew up from Houston, rented a car, drove to my rehab facility and spent an hour with me. Do I have to say anything more than that? Not only was he a great athlete and basketball player, he’s also a great guy.

“They compare basketball to art. Clyde doing a pirouette to the basket was as good as any ballet dancer I ever saw.”

Glickman gives Lillard the nod as the No. 2 player in Blazer history.

“The only thing about Damian I worry about is, he’s a guy who wants to do it all,” he says. “Now, I don’t think Damian cares if he scores 10 or 100 points as long as they win, but he sometimes puts the load of the whole team on his shoulders. There are times when he should let other guys help him get it done. He does it sometimes because he thinks he has to.

“Everything I’ve been told, he’s a great kid, a great guy to be around, and certainly a credit to the organization. And in terms of basketball, he can do it all.”

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Bucky Buckwalter was the original scout for the Blazers, served as vice president/basketball operations from 1989-96 and was the NBA Executive of the Year in 1991. He was largely responsible for influencing the Blazers to take Drexler with the 14th pick in the 1983 draft, but he is a big Lillard fan, too.

“Wow, that is a tough one,” Buckwalter says when asked to make a choice between the two as the greatest Blazer ever. “Both of them are so special. It’s a hard one to pick. For now, I guess I’d say Clyde.”

The Blazers administered a cognitive test to their draft picks, not unlike the Wonderlic test used by NFL teams of that period.

“The gentleman who invented it administered it to thousands of athletes,” says Buckwalter, 85, who is retired and lives in Portland. “The only athlete who ever scored higher (than Drexler) was (former Dallas Cowboys quarterback) Roger Staubach.”

But it was Drexler’s athletic skills Buckwalter admired most.

“Clyde was a slasher, an open-court runner and one of the most competitive guys we’ve ever had,” Buckwalter says. “When we had a chance to draft him, we didn’t have great athletes at that time. That’s why we took him, and that’s why he was so important. Clyde was a leader simply by making his teammates follow him at fast pace. He set the tone with his athleticism.

“Early in his career, Clyde claimed he was a good shooter and didn’t have to stay after practice to shoot. After awhile, (teammate) Kiki Vandeweghe influenced him to work harder on it, and he became very adequate from long distance.”

Buckwalter has watched many Blazers games during Lillard’s career.

“Damian is one of the all-time great shooters we’ve ever had,” Buckwalter says. “I’d put Kiki second, but there’s nobody in Damian’s class, and certainly not in his range.

“He has worked very hard to make himself into a complete player. He does things around the basket — showing great balance and finishing with the left hand — that are incredible. People don’t realize how hard that is to do; he makes it look easy. Clyde was kind of a natural, but Damian has worked so hard.

“Lillard maybe takes too much upon himself, but he has won so many games. In this last year, I’d have to say he has developed as a leader and shown an ability to use the talents of the other players on the floor a little bit better.

“He is the complete package as a leader, as an influence in the community. He is the soul of this team, no question. He has the attitude of a winner.”

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Bill Schonely is the sole survivor of the first Blazers team still working for the club. The radio/TV voice of the Blazers for their first 28 years and now an ambassador and broadcaster emeritus, “the Schonz” thinks highly of both players.

“It’s a tough one to answer, because we’ve had some pretty doggone great players, including guys like Walton and Porter,” says Schonely, who turns 90 on June 1. “To this point, I’d say Clyde is No. 1 in our history.

“Clyde could do everything. He was a marvelous player, no doubt about that. If Damian retired tomorrow, he’d be right there behind Clyde. If things go right, he’ll be the No. 1 guy in the history of the franchise by the time he’s done.

“I like his demeanor. He’s into the game. He talks to his teammates. He leads like nobody’s business. He’s had more than his share of great shots. The one against Oklahoma City (to win Game 5 and end this year’s first-round series with the Thunder) might be the all-time greatest shot in Blazer history.

“I think in future years he has a great chance to get the (league’s) MVP award.”

My vote?

Drexler No. 1, Lillard No. 2 (and coming), Walton No. 3.

keggers@portlandtribune.com

@kerryeggers