Portland Blazers making the Finals in 1990?

[L.Kizzle]

Is this the biggest surprise of a team making the NBA Finals? Even with Kareem out of the league, was everyone still looking at the Lakers to make it to the Finals once again? Was Drexler considered a Super Star yet? Other young teams like the Jazz, Spurs and Suns were right were right behind the Blazers in the standings.


Yes, in 1990 they finished the season one game below winning 60 games, but the year before they were 39-43 and he 8th seed getting swept by the Lakers. In 87 and 88, they avg 51 wins in those 2 years, yet never got passed the first round losing to Utah and Houston. They seemed like pretenders ...


Than all of a sudden got over the hump. Drexler avg 23/7/6/2 and made his 4th All-Star Game while being named All-NBA 3rd Team.


They beat Dallas, Spurs and Phoenix in the West to go on and meet up with the Pistons.


How was it looked at with Drexler making it to the Finals before Michael Jordan? Did anyone even care? ISH would have exploded had this happened in current times.

[coolhandsteve]

Is this the biggest surprise of a team making the NBA Finals? Even with Kareem out of the league, was everyone still looking at the Lakers to make it to the Finals once again? Was Drexler considered a Super Star yet? Other young teams like the Jazz, Spurs and Suns were right were right behind the Blazers in the standings.


Yes, in 1990 they finished the season one game below winning 60 games, but the year before they were 39-43 and he 8th seed getting swept by the Lakers. In 87 and 88, they avg 51 wins in those 2 years, yet never got passed the first round losing to Utah and Houston. They seemed like pretenders ...


Than all of a sudden got over the hump. Drexler avg 23/7/6/2 and made his 4th All-Star Game while being named All-NBA 3rd Team.


They beat Dallas, Spurs and Phoenix in the West to go on and meet up with the Pistons.


How was it looked at with Drexler making it to the Finals before Michael Jordan? Did anyone even care? ISH would have exploded had this happened in current times.

It had to be one of the bigger surprises at that time because other than in '81 & '86, the Purple & Gold represented the West in the Finals every year since 1980, plus they went 63-19 in '90 so they had to be the favorites. So many guys had a phenomenal season that year & if I remember correctly Drexler didn't start that All-Star Game. If he was considered a superstar then quite a few other guys were too. He was the 2nd best SG after Michael, people knew that.

ISH probably would've gone crazy..Mike was considered the best player in the game but had a rep of being a selfish player, so that would've given the haters something to talk about.

IDK about anyone else though, but I'm of the belief that Portland should be fortunate they didn't have to play Magic and the Lakers in the '90 playoffs (knocked off by Phoenix) and the watered down out of it version of the Lakers in the '92 playoffs (obviously without Magic), if for nothing else because of what happened when they did play the Lakers with Magic. That's just me though.

[Odinn]

It was no surprise. They were the most talented team in that season. They were the front-runner contender.

[Smook A.]

Clyde Drexler is so underrated. I personally feel he's a top 5 SG all-time. He took a Portland team to the finals 2 times in 1990 and 1992 and then won a championship with the Houston Rockets in 1995. Without him, Hakeem wouldn't of had that 2nd championship

[Myth]

2nd best record in the West (tied for 2nd best in the league) with 59 wins and you think that is the biggest shock?

You realize an 8th seeded Knicks made it to the Finals, with an injured Ewing. I'm not even saying that is the biggest shock, but it is an example of a MUCH bigger shock than Portland.

[RedBlackAttack]

They had arguably the best offensive team in the league for the previous several years, always in the Top 5 in just about every offensive category... and that was in the seasons leading up to '90 with one of the youngest, most talent-laden rosters in the league.

Anyone who was paying attention to basketball during that period knew that Portland was eventually going to rule the WC. It was just a matter of when their defense would start catching up to their offense.

I don't really understand where you're coming from, Kizzle. If anything, I was shocked the Lakers were able to muster up that last Finals appearance in '91. That was much more surprising to me than the Blazers making it in '90.

That was a really great Blazers team that will probably never get their due.

Hell, they took two games from the Bulls in Jordan's absolute peak. It was overshadowed a bit by the Knicks tough performance in the ECF, but the Blazers put up a damn good fight too.

[Myth]

If anything, I was shocked the Lakers were able to muster up that last Finals appearance in '91. That was much more surprising to me than the Blazers making it in '90.

Agreed. The '91 Blazers was supposed to be the best of their 90-92 seasons, but that Lakers series took an unexpected turn.

[L.Kizzle]

I was mainly calling it a surprise because of their 39-43 record the previous season and their first round exits in 87 and 88 when they won 49 and 53 games.

[houston]

buck willams addition did wonders,,,,,,,,,,,,another rick adelman choke job

[97 bulls]

They had arguably the best offensive team in the league for the previous several years, always in the Top 5 in just about every offensive category... and that was in the seasons leading up to '90 with one of the youngest, most talent-laden rosters in the league.

Anyone who was paying attention to basketball during that period knew that Portland was eventually going to rule the WC. It was just a matter of when their defense would start catching up to their offense.

I don't really understand where you're coming from, Kizzle. If anything, I was shocked the Lakers were able to muster up that last Finals appearance in '91. That was much more surprising to me than the Blazers making it in '90.

That was a really great Blazers team that will probably never get their due.

Hell, they took two games from the Bulls in Jordan's absolute peak. It was overshadowed a bit by the Knicks tough performance in the ECF, but the Blazers put up a damn good fight too.

Why do so many people treat that Laker team as if they were decrepit has beens? Worthy, Scott, Green, and Magic were still in their primes. They lost Jabaar, but Jabaar had been finished since 88. Probably 87. And they replaced him with very good young Centers in Vlade Divac and Sam Perkins. Both of whom were better than the 88 Jabaar that was the starting Center of that championship roster.

Granted. They never replaced Coop sufficiently. But damn was Cooper that valuable?

[Da_Realist]

How was it looked at with Drexler making it to the Finals before Michael Jordan? Did anyone even care? ISH would have exploded had this happened in current times.

Everyone knew who the 2nd best team in the league was. They just had the misfortune of being in the same division as the best.