Darnell Valentine left his mark on the Portland Trail Blazers

Darnell Valentine left his mark on the Portland Trail Blazers during his four and half seasons after being a first-round draft choice (No. 16 overall pick) in 1981. Valentine endeared himself to coach Jack Ramsay, his teammates, and fans with his non-stop hustle, tenacious defense, gritty determination, great playmaking and charming personality.

The 6-1 point guard and former KU All-American averaged 9.8 points, 5.4 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals while shooting 44.9 percent from the field in 300 regular-season games. Not great numbers, but his game simply transcended statistics.

Just listen to Ramsay, who wrote about Valentine in his 2004 book, Dr. Jack’s Leadership Lessons Learned From A Lifetime In Basketball. Under the caption, “Heart of a Champion,” Ramsay gushed over Valentine.

“Many of the players I coached who weren’t among the team’s most gifted players were the hardest workers and made maximum use of their skills. Darnell Valentine was perhaps the most self-disciplined player I ever dealt with.

“DV — who had watermelon-sized quads, a strong upper body and excellent quickness handling the ball and defending — worked fanatically on his conditioning. He was on the floor an hour before practice, working on his defensive footwork, pull-up jumpers, or full-court drives to the hoop. Then he would stretch for about 15 minutes before the team practice began. He was also extremely careful about his diet. He ate primarily foods high in carbohydrates and supplemented them with enough protein and fat to fuel his extraordinary energy level. Valentine even brought his own food blender with him on road trips and often boarded the team bus carrying large bags of fruit and veggies, which he offered to everyone. In addition to his fierce work ethic, relentless self-discipline and powerful will to win, he always wore a smile and was one of the best team players I ever coached.”

And just listen to Stu Inman, the Blazers longtime director of player personnel. Steve Duin of The Oregonian wrote on Jan. 31, 2007 after Inman died that “he understood what the Jerome Kerseys, Darnell Valentines and Terry Porters brought to a franchise...He had an eye for talent and a gift for labeling it in a manner you never forgot. 

“Valentine? ‘He has a beautiful relationship with a loose ball,’” Inman once said.

Indeed, he did. Valentine never saw a loose ball or a steal he didn’t like. He carved his name as one of the best defensive guards in Blazer history. And his effort and dedication were second to none. Nobody worked any harder than Darnell Terrell Valentine.

The Oregonian ranked Valentine the No. 33 best player in franchise history in 2009. Jason Quick wrote that “whenever the playoffs rolled around for the Trail Blazers in the early 1980s, that usually meant it was time for Darnell Valentine to heat up...A point guard with tree-trunk sized thighs, Valentine had some of the most prolific passing nights in team history during the postseason. He shares the team record for assists in a playoff game with 15, set in a Game 2 loss at the Lakers in the 1983 Western Conference semifinals. In Game 3, an overtime loss, he had 14. The next season, in a first-round series with Phoenix, Valentine had 13 assists in a Game 4 win and scored 29 points in a Game 3 loss.

“In all three seasons he reached the playoffs, he raised his assists averages significantly and had a big series against Phoenix in 1984 when he averaged 18.4 points and 8.4 assists. He also ranks fifth all time in team history in playoff assists.

"I was never the greatest player during the season," Valentine said. "But when it got to playoffs, I think teams were so intent on stopping our strengths – (Jim) Paxson and (Calvin) Natt – that it allowed me to make things happen."

Quick called him “an old-school point guard, one who consumed himself with defense, passing and leadership.”

He continued:

“(Valentine) says he looks back fondly at his time with the Blazers, even though it was sprinkled with adversity and constant battles for the starting job. He was the 16th overall pick out of Kansas in the 1981 draft, and the team saw enough of him in his rookie season that they traded former starter Kelvin Ransey.

“But in the following years, Valentine battled a broken foot and a broken hand, and soon, it was Valentine who was the hunted. He eventually lost his starting role. A newcomer named Terry Porter and another upstart, Steve Colter, created a three-way battle for the starting job in the 1985-1986 season.

"It was an open competition in training camp, and I came out the starter," Valentine said. "I was playing well, but then they wanted to change directions."

A trade to Indiana “fell through.”

"Then I was a lame duck," Valentine said. "Everything was so abrupt. So I passed the baton to Terry."

Valentine, who has lived in Portland since being drafted by the franchise, loved his time as a player in Rip City, where he played in front of energized sellout home crowds of 12,666 every game at Memorial Coliseum. The Blazers were the only professional sports team in Portland, so fans were crazy about their team.

"Coming out of Kansas, I was afraid that the NBA would be an overwhelming challenge," Valentine said. "But the Blazers — the Stu Inmans, the Harry Glickmans — they embraced and cared about us, and I think that eventually was reflected in the community. And it's amazing how that regenerates itself. Portland is a special place. I could feel that right from the start.”

Valentine has a favorite story about his time in Portland.

"I had those big legs, which were probably my rite to passage,” he said. “Well, there was another player in the league who had big legs too – World B. Free – and Mychal Thompson would never let me hear the end of it. He always wondered why I couldn't jump like World B. Free. So he always called me 'Ground Jordan'."

Valentine was extremely proud of his “big legs.” John Chanson of The Oregonian wrote in 2014 about his yearly uniform fitting with Donna Millak, who had sewn Portland’s jerseys for over four decades.

"I had to shorten his shorts every year,” Millak said. “He'd say, 'I have beautiful legs. I can't hide these things.' So I'd shorten the shorts, and he'd try them on and have to go find a mirror in the back of the shop because I didn't have one at my station.

"Darnell would parade around the shop in those shorts until we got it right." 

While Valentine might have been vain about his legs, he was selfless on the court. Valentine certainly had a special relationship with Ramsay, who always emphasized team basketball. When I interviewed Valentine with a group of reporters before his jersey retirement ceremony at Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 1, 2005, I relayed to him that Ramsay said he was “one of the best team players (he) ever coached.”

Valentine was extremely humbled by Ramsay’s words.

“Coming from him, that’s an incredible compliment. I appreciate that,” Valentine said. “We did a lot of things alike. We thought alike. Even when I was traded to the Clippers, I understand the business of basketball now, sometimes it’s not about the coach and it’s not about your playing. It’s a business. Sometimes, things are done by committee. Jack and I, we had a great relationship.”

Valentine and Ramsay were both fitness fanatics and once went on a long bike ride together. D.V. spoke more about Ramsay to Canzano on his 750 The Game radio show in 2014 after his former coach died.

“He was a great, great man,” Valentine said. “He just touched everybody in such a personable way that I had nothing but respect. I remember me being a player trying to find my way here and trying to find whatever advantages I could to compete because I wasn’t the fastest, I didn’t jump the highest, I wasn’t the biggest guy. He invited me to go on a bike ride. The bike ride was from Portland to Seaside (about 79 miles). He never stopped. I was on the sideline, I was on the side of the street hoping some wind would hit me because I was resting and he would never stop. He shared his conditioning and getting the most out of yourself is beyond just basketball condition. 

“He was a triathlete, he trained as a triathlete. He would swim, bike, his discipline, his consistency, doing it every day after practice, coaching. To this day, I bought into being a well-rounded conditioned person. I wouldn’t define myself as an athlete anymore, but just my quality of life and him touching me at that time has paid dividends for me today. I’m active and still doing the things that he indebted to me at that time. He’s way beyond just a basketball coach and I think the number of people he touched and changed their lives, just too many to number. He was like the father of Portland. 

“... He’s reverenced. It’s a sad day in Portland today.”

Valentine added that Ramsay had “a sense of humor, but he was disciplined. He wanted plays run the way he wanted them to be run.”

And Valentine was the consummate point guard to run Ramsay’s complex offensive system. Unlike at KU, he always thought pass and team first and getting the ball to scorers like Paxson, Natt, Clyde Drexler and Kiki Vandeweghe.

Blazers Edge’s Dave Deckard ranked Valentine No. 55 among Portland top’s players, executives and other influencers on April 12, 2020.

Under the headline: “The Invisible Point Guard,” Deckard wrote:

“Legendary Portland Trail Blazers Coach Jack Ramsay was a physical fitness buff. He encouraged players to run, develop endurance, and stay fit as part of their regimen. With point guard Darnell Valentine, he needn’t have bothered. The 1981 draftee was way ahead of the program.

“Valentine played with a chiseled body, massive legs, and a commitment to playing the game the way it was meant to be played. For a point guard that meant passing, defense, and having a head on swivel. Valentine seldom failed in any of those departments. He may not have been the best point guard on the roster at any given time. At various times Kelvin Ransey, Fat Lever, Steve Colter, and Terry Porter all shared a locker room with Darnell. Like BBQ chips and those colored wedding mints, the Blazers couldn’t stop themselves from going back for more Valentine.

"Efficiency typified Valentine’s game. He didn’t score a ton because he didn’t take a lot of shots. His 45% average from the field indicated not just shooting skill, but a sharp eye for when and how to get his looks. His per-minute assist and steals rates were equal to, sometimes above, Lever’s. And oh, what he did in the playoffs. The combination of stamina and smarts served him well when everybody else was playing their 92nd game of the season. 

“In 1983-84 against a STACKED Phoenix Suns team, Valentine would average 18.4 points, 8.4 assists, 1.8 steals, and 50% shooting...all above his regular-season numbers. He knew when, and how, to turn it on while still fitting in with all the higher-rotation players around him. Despite the constant swirl of point guards around him, Valentine’s playing time increased through 1985, but he battled injuries throughout. When Porter came on board, the writing was on the wall. The Blazers traded Valentine to the Los Angeles Clippers for a draft pick that would later become Arvydas Sabonis...one last assist on the way out the door. In the early Brandon Roy years, Valentine would return to the franchise, working with the young Blazers on personal development. He was also active with the NBA Players Association for many years.

“For being the right guy in so many different situations, providing an example of old-school point guard ethic, and the marvelous playoffs runs, Darnell Valentine earns the 55th spot in our Top 100 List of Trail Blazers players and influencers.”

Some readers and Blazer fans posted comments online after reading the article. One wrote: “I’m going to be happy with his ranking here. My memory of Darnell was of a dedicated worker. He worked hard on the court, and also worked hard as an athlete off the court. I think Jack Ramsay liked Darnell because they both shared similar work out ethics and approach. Darnell was a great athlete. If you were ranking ONLY that characteristic, he would be near the top.”

Another fan agreed:

“That’s exactly what I remember too. He was text book when it came to his shooting. Perfect form and great rotation on the ball. Everything he did was exactly how you would want to teach your kids how to play basketball.”

With his unwavering work ethic, tremendous self-discipline, great playoff performances and positive attitude, Valentine left his legacy in Portland and remains one of the franchise’s most popular players. And this Kansas native still feels the love in his adopted home while working as an employee specialist for Precision Castparts since 2007, a Fortune 500 company and worldwide manufacturer of complex metal components and products.

“Once you’ve played there, it’s like you’re always a member of the Portland Trail Blazers,” Valentine said in 2005 at Allen Fieldhouse.

“There's not a more supportive community for players in the NBA than Portland,” Valentine added to the Portland Tribune in 2017. “There are no better fans or people. That's the first thing that resonated with me. I love the positivity here. I'm a West Coast kind of guy, and I'm from Kansas, so I love Portland's weather. I love the city. My wife is from here. Portland has been an anchor for me. And I love what I do with Precision Castparts.”

Portland trades former Jayhawk great Darnell Valentine to Los Angeles Clippers

The Portland Trail Blazers had a habit of drafting point guards in the early 1980s. The franchise selected Kelvin Ransey (1980), Darnell Valentine (1981) and Fat Lever (1982) during the first round, and then Steve Colter (1984) in the second round.

With Valentine and Colter still in Portland, would the Blazers pull the trigger and select yet another point guard in the first round of the 1985 NBA Draft?

That’s exactly what they did when Portland picked Terry Porter from Wisconsin-Stevens Point, an NCAA Division III school, with the 24th overall selection and last pick in the first round. The Blazers saw something they liked out of this promising guard and future Portland great, despite playing forward at just 6-3 in college and at times guarding the opposing team’s center.

Now, with three point guards on the roster, it appeared someone had to go. With Colter’s emergence last season and Valentine entering the last year on his contract and becoming a free agent next year, he seemed to be a marked man. Portland was looking to trade him before the season began, with his most likely destination the Chicago Bulls, who had just selected budding superstar Michael Jordan in last year’s draft, the reigning Rookie of the Year who averaged 28.2 points per game in 1984-85.

In a Sept. 24, 1985 article in the Chicago Tribune, Bob Sakamoto wrote:

“If the Bulls have the heart, they may get their Valentine. The Bulls are looking to acquire the Portland Trail Blazers’ Darnell Valentine to fill a gaping hole at point guard. But the price for the four-year veteran could be power forward Sidney Green, which may be too steep.”

Sakamoto continued:

“Portland has three point guards and a shortage of power forwards. The Bulls have three power forwards and zero point guards. It’s a natural.”

But there were complications in the possible trade.

“A National Basketball Association source close to Portland said the Bulls are hesitant to part with Green,” Sakamoto wrote. “What Chicago is doing, he said, is waiting it out until Portland realizes it must move Valentine. Then the Bulls will offer the Blazers two second-round picks in the 1986 draft, their own and one they got from Dallas, for Valentine.

“But how long do the Bulls wait? There are indications Valentine will be traded before the season begins in late October.”

''There are only so many minutes for our point guards,'' Portland general manager Stu Inman said. ''We like all of them, but there is only room for two. If we were to make a trade, it would be for a player in the category of a Sidney Green. We would go that way. If we couldn't get a big forward, we would settle for draft choices.''

Sakamoto reported that “the Blazers like second-year playmaker Steve Colter and have big plans for first-round draft choice Terry Porter of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. That would seem to leave Valentine, who was born in Chicago, as the odd man out.”

''He is the kind of selfless guard who stands out defensively and can get the ball to the right people,'' Inman said. ''He has a decent outside shot. If you leave him wide open, he will hit it, absolutely.''

“Darnell Valentine is looking to move, and Chicago is his No. 1 choice,'' the NBA source said. ''He is just the player Chicago needs. Don’t let (Bulls’ vice president of operations) Jerry Krause fool you. They’re not going to play Jordan and (Quintin) Dailey together. That`s just what all the other teams in the NBA would love to see.''

Sakamoto wrote that with “new Bulls’ coach Stan Albeck emphasizing a fast-paced, transition offense, opening up the court for Jordan and forward Orlando Woolridge, Valentine would fit better than either (Jon) Paxson or (Kyle) Macy, with whom the Bulls have also talked.”

''He is more geared to an uptempo game,'' Inman said about Valentine.

However, the trade never happened with Valentine. The Bulls eventually acquired Paxson on Oct. 29 as a free agent with the San Antonio Spurs receiving cash as compensation.

So Valentine began his fifth season in Portland, while he didn’t know how long he’d still be a Blazer. He actually started the first 27 games before Portland coach Jack Ramsay replaced him in the starting lineup with Colter on Dec. 17. Ramsay said Valentine wouldn’t play anymore and the Blazers were looking to move him. Valentine requested not to accompany the team on road trips.

“I feel like a man without a country,” the former KU standout said while out of action for a month before playing one more game against New York on Jan. 11, 1986.

He played OK during those 28 games, but his game slipped. Valentine averaged career lows in points (9.1 ppg) and assists (5.0 apg) in 26.2 minutes per game, while also averaging 1.8 steals per game. He shot 44.7 percent from the field and a career low 71.0 percent at the charity stripe.

Valentine scored in double digits the first five of seven games of the season, and then scored in double figures six of his next eight games from Nov. 19 to Dec. 3, capping that stretch with a season-high 18 points against Washington. He also scored 16 points three times in 28 games. Suddenly, after Dec. 3, Valentine’s playing time diminished and he went seven games without scoring in double digits.

He then went from Dec. 13 without playing a game until Jan. 11 versus the Knicks, only because Jim Paxson was out with a minor injury. Valentine played just six minutes and scored two points.

Finally, on Jan. 14, 1986, Valentine and Portland got their wish; the Blazers traded the veteran point guard to the Los Angeles Clippers for L.A.’s first-round draft pick in 1986. The teams also swapped 1988 second-round picks.

At last, Valentine had a new home.

“'I wish it would have happened smoother,” Valentine told the UPI on Jan. 15. “But now I can continue with my career.”

“I'm happy for Darnell,” Portland coach Jack Ramsay said. “He's going to a team that wants him. We came out of it with about as much as we could have hoped for.”

Valentine loved his time in Portland, but wished this could have been dealt better.

“The organization has been great to me,” he said. “However, it was unfortunate the way things unwound. It wasn't handled as well as I would have liked, but I'm happy to be out. It was like I was a marked guy, everyone knew the situation. I'm happy it's done and I can go about my career.

“The only part about me leaving and going to a team that is struggling is that Portland is going to be a great team,” Valentine added.

Sam McManis of the Los Angeles Times reported that  Clippers general manager Carl Scheer said “it took him ‘no more than a second’ to complete Tuesday’s trade, which management and Coach Don Chaney agreed upon after a quick evaluation of the Clippers’ 1-6 record on the trip.”

“This franchise is not going to be successful until it gets good players,” said Scheer, “who had been talking to Portland about Valentine for three weeks.”

“Point guard is not our most pressing area, but we would not have gotten a player of Valentine’s quality with Boston’s pick (which figures to be either 22nd or 23rd),” Scheer added.

The Clippers already boasted All-Star point guard Norm Nixon. But, McManis wrote that “Nixon, 30, has been inconsistent after missing nearly a month of the season during his free-agent holdout and is not considered to be as good a defensive player as Valentine, 26.”

The Clippers also had Franklin Edwards, a third point guard, who was backing up Nixon.

McManis added that “Nixon and Valentine will have to co-exist. Nixon, when asked recently about the possibility of splitting playing time with Valentine, expressed concern.”

“If this team was 27-12 instead of 12-27 and was breaking up a good combination, I’d be concerned with the fact that Norm is concerned, if, in fact, he is. Nixon is concerned with winning, and, with Valentine, we’re improving our team,” Scheer said.

McManis wrote “there are several reasons why Valentine became expendable. Ramsay felt that second-year man Steve Colter and rookie Terry Porter fit into his plans more than Valentine, and the coach also has had recent success using the tandem of big guards Jim Paxson and Clyde Drexler. Another factor is that Valentine will become a free agent after this season and would have sought a more lucrative contract.”

Valentine’s salary was worth $265,000 ($175,000 cash).

He was eager for new beginnings in L.A, despite going from a perennial playoff team to a lowly franchise.

“I'm excited to be a part of the Clipper organization now,” Valentine said. “I'm looking forward to getting down to L.A. and having the opportunity to play.”

Darnell Valentine has another solid season with Portland in Year 4, but receives competition from rookie point guard Steve Colter

Darnell Valentine entered his fourth season in the NBA with a new lease on life and his career. For the second time in three years, Portland had traded a point guard (Kelvin Ransey in 1982 and Fat Lever in 1984) and kept Valentine.

This showed Valentine that Portland coach Jack Ramsay and Blazer management and ownership had faith in this former KU All-American.

“(Ramsay) did believe in me,” Valentine told The Oregonian’s John Canzano on 750 The Game radio show in 2014 after Ramsay died. “After they traded Kelvin Ransey the year after I got here, I was able to start those three years or so but then I kept getting hurt. But he did believe in me, absolutely he did.”

Valentine said Ramsay tried to shape his teams into Portland’s 1977 championship squad.

“The ‘77 team was very successful. It was like a basketball model that the team was trying to recreate. I think in some way shape or form, I was supposed to be Dave Twardzik,” Valentine said with a laugh to Canzano about the gritty point guard and playmaker. 

“We had Mychal Thompson, the passing center like Bill Walton. We had Calvin Natt (before he was traded to Denver after last season), he was Maurice Lucas. We had Jim Paxson, he was kind of like Bobby Gross.”

Now, with Lever gone, the question would be: Would Portland draft another point guard in the first round as Valentine’s backup? Portland had drafted point guards in the first round in 1980 (Ransey), 1981 (Valentine) and 1982 with Lever.

With the second pick in the famed 1984 NBA Draft, the Trail Blazers selected 7-foot center Sam Bowie from Kentucky, a choice which would be criticized for decades when a rising young star named Michael Jordan from North Carolina was still on the board. But Portland already had a future star in 6-6 swingman Clyde Drexler, and couldn’t pass up the chance to land a potential franchise big man in Bowie, despite his injury history at UK.

So Bowie went to Portland at No. 2 and Chicago picked Jordan with the next pick, who would become the NBA’s franchise player and later enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

With the 19th pick, Portland opted not for a point guard, but a relatively unknown 6-6 small forward from Fresno State named Bernard Thompson. In the second round, with the 33rd overall pick, the Blazers then selected another little known prospect — point guard Steve Colter from New Mexico State, a fast player and good outside shooter, something Valentine was not.

During the 1945-85 season, I became fascinated with KU coach Larry Brown’s Hawk Talk radio show. I listened every week to my idol Brown and taped all the shows. My first question I ever asked him is why he didn’t draft Valentine when he was the New Jersey Nets head coach. I only asked this because I heard reports before the 1981 NBA Draft that the Nets were interested in Valentine.

After I asked Brown this question, host of the show and voice of the Jayhawks Bob Davis said: 

“They never let you forget.”

I got a chuckle out of that.

After drafting power forward Buck Williams from Maryland with the third pick in 1981, Brown selected 6-6 forward Albert King at No. 10, also a Maryland product.

“I thought Albert at the time was one of the great college players in the country, and I was thrilled to death that we had the opportunity,” Brown told me. “We didn’t need Darnell Valentine. We had Ray Williams and Otis Birdsong in the backcourt with a kid named Darwin Cook and Foots Walker (as backups). Our needs were up front, and Albert King, to me, was a great player and played great for me and did a heck of a job. Had he not been available there, we had talked about drafting (Rolando, K-State big guard) Blackman as a possibility or Darnell. They were two of the better players.

“I think he’s terrific,” Brown added about Valentine. “I think he’s one of the better young players in the game. The thing that excites me about Darnell is he comes out every night and gives exactly 100 percent. I think he’s one of the better point guards. He doesn’t shoot the ball very well yet, but he’s worked extremely hard on it. He defends extremely well. I think he’s terrific. He’s not a first-team NBA All-Star, but I doubt there’s any team in the league that wouldn’t like to have him, and I think he’s capable of starting for just about anybody.”

Valentine had started the last two years in Portland and played well, always elevating his game in the playoffs when the games mattered most. That had to impress Ramsay and the Blazer brass.

But how would he perform in Year 4 with rookie Steve Colter now pushing him for playing time, just as Lever did the last two years?

Valentine started the first 59 games before becoming injured once again and missing two weeks. Colter replaced him in the starting lineup the remainder of the regular season and played very well, scoring in double figures in 12 of his first 13 starts. The rookie scored 25 points against Utah on March 3, 1985, 35 points versus Washington on March 6, and 25 points against Chicago on March 26.

Then Colter might have hit the rookie wall, scoring in double digits just once in his last nine games.

Valentine started 59 of 75 contests and had another solid season with a career-high 30.4 minutes per game, averaging 11.6 points (second highest of his career), a career-best 7.0 assists and 1.9 steals (No. 2 best of career) per contest, while shooting a career-high 47.3 percent from the field and 79.3 percent at the free throw line (tied for second best of his career). 

He scored a season-high 26 points in a Blazers 110-99 win over the Clippers on Feb. 26, 1985, shooting a sizzling 13 of 15 from the field. On Nov. 1, 1984, he played a season-high 50 minutes in a 139-131 triple overtime loss to the Suns.

Portland, whose depth was diminished by trading Natt, Lever and Wayne Cooper to Denver last offseason for Kiki Vandeweghe (team-high 22.4 ppg), finished just 42-40, a six-game slide from last year and 20 games behind the Lakers for second place in the Pacific Division.

In the playoffs, Valentine replaced Colter in the lineup and started all nine games but failed to match his postseason performance of last season, when he averaged 18.4 points and 8.7 assists in a five-game series loss against Phoenix. However, Valentine played very well, averaging 12.8 points, 6.4 assists and 1.8 steals in 27.1 minutes per contest, while shooting 48.9 percent from the field and a scorching 93.5 percent (29-31 FT) at the charity stripe. In Portland’s first game with Dallas (139-131 loss in double overtime), Valentine posted 24 points and 13 assists in 46 minutes. The Trail Blazers won that series 3-1, but were overmatched by the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, losing 4-1.

Valentine shined in the Game 5 139-120 loss to L.A., scoring 15 points and posting 10 assists. D.V. scored in double figures in seven of nine games in the playoffs.

Ramsay, who favored Valentine over Colter, appeared to feel pressure from ownership to play the rookie more during the latter part of the regular season. In Ramsay’s 2004 book, Dr. Jack’s Leadership Lessons Learned From A Lifetime In Basketball, the Portland coach wrote that (Larry) "Weinberg, the owner...had an assistant in his Beverly Hills office, Harley Frankel, who was a real ‘Basketball Benny,’ (a fanatical follower of the game). Frankel liked to dabble with computerized player statistics for minutes played in a game, comparing the team’s point production with various combination of players.

“He had taken a liking to a young Blazer point guard, Steve Colter, who as a rookie got in the game late or with a pressing team when the team needed a different look. I liked Steve, too. He was a free spirit who hustled on defense and had long-range shooting ability. I put him in some games when the Blazers were trailing, and he knocked down some three-pointers and sometimes he scored pretty well with the pressing group. But Colter lacked the playmaking and defensive skills of the starting point guard, Darnell Valentine. Frankel had compiled numbers that showed that the team was more productive with Colter in the game than with Valentine, and sent me dispatches by mail and called on the phone to talk with me about the matter.

“I didn’t have the time to explain to him that the numbers were deceptive. Colter played a lot of minutes in ‘garbage time,’ when games were already decided and opposing defenses loosened up, and he also benefited from playing with the pressing team, whose job it was to force the action for short segments of the game. When I turned Frankel off, he pursued the matter with Rick Adelman, my assistant. I assumed that all of this was done with Weinberg’s approval.”

Ramsay, who admitted to feeling heat and “discontent” from Weinberg, wrote that “the winds of change were blowing (Stu Inman, Blazers’ outstanding director of player personnel since the team’s “inception,” was forced to resign) and I sensed that my name was next on the list (to be fired).”

With Ramsay’s future in Portland uncertain heading into the offseason, so was Valentine. With the emergence and potential of Colter, along with Valentine entering the fifth and final year of his contract next season and pressure on Ramsay to play Colter, D.V’s future in Portland remained in question.

It would be an intriguing summer in Portland.

Recalling former KU standout forward Alonzo Jamison

In my June 29, 2019 blog,  https://davidgarfieldshoopheaven.blogspot.com/search?q=Alonzo+Jamison, I wrote about former KU standout forward Alonzo Jamison and included my Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him in 2002 for Jayhawk Insider.

Now, I include some more information on “Zo” from our great interview, starting with his recruitment to Kansas.

After a standout high school career at Valley High School in Santa Ana, Calif., and junior college career at Rancho Santiago in Santa Ana, Jamison signed a scholarship with KU in May 1988 after originally signing with Oregon State.

Jamison, a quick and muscular 6-6. 225-pound forward, became one of the best defensive players in coach Roy Williams’ 15 years at KU and actually in KU history. A true defensive stopper, he posted career averages of 9.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.1 steals in 22.8 minutes per game. Jamison shot a scorching 58.0 percent from the field and 56.4 percent at the free throw line. He was the consummate team player, a fan favorite, and endeared himself to Williams and the coaching staff.

...

“I signed with Oregon State, and they were one of the last universities in the nation to actually start school. I was under probation, actually. They were still going over my transcript, and making sure I had the requirements. I actually didn’t, and that’s why I went back to Rancho Santiago Junior College for a year. No, KU didn’t recruit me until the year later I was in junior college. Under Prop 48, I had passed, but just some of my core cirriculum courses didn’t transfer. I signed in ‘88, when they won it all. After a while, coach Williams had told me he would recruit me again if I wanted to go back to junior college another year. I decided it would be a lot better if I went in that one year and sat a year and learned the system and try to help the team out the year after.

“I was the last Larry Brown recruit. There’s no hard feelings there. It was just one of those things where I didn’t know what was the scenario. I had reporters telling me he was leaving without hearing from the school at all. I signed in May and he left a month and a half later (to become San Antonio Spurs head coach). Your mind runs the whole gamut. I had the chance to go back to junior college another year and be recruited again or go to different colleges. But it was one of those things, as soon as I came to KU, it was about two weeks after they won it (national title). I saw the campus and met the people. Actually, Scooter Barry and Milt Newton were my hosts. I knew that was the place I wanted to be. I didn’t know (I’d have to sit out a year until coach Williams told me and said he “would recruit him again”). That’s when I knew he was genuine and really on a level that you don’t see that often in Division I. I thought I was going to step in and play the next year; that was the last time when I sent the papers off, the former administration had told me they received the papers. That was the last thing I heard from them, until coach Williams came in and told me what was going on.”

“Actually, baseball was (my favorite sport). That was the first sport I ever played;  it will always be near and dear to my heart. I was playing (basketball) on the varsity when I was a sophomore. I sort of took that in stride and said, ‘Hey, I can get something out of this.’ Dr. J, Darryl Dawkins (were my heroes growing up). That’s about it. Magic (Johnson) was until--he was the one that came back in (after injury from the Lakers) and I was the one that got cut. You were (my hero) but you just took six digits out of my pocket.”

On his career game against Arkansas in the Elite Eight in 1991 in Charlotte, N.C., when he scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds while named the Southeast Regional Most Outstanding Player:

”To tell you the truth, I don’t remember a lot,” Jamison said. “I was more in a zone. People get in a zone and they don’t think about what you’re doing. You just react. I just felt the rim was a little big bigger that what everybody else was looking at. (We were) the underdog. (We were) down by 12 (at halftime), and we won by 12. (I remember) Sean Tunstall’s 3-pointer when Oliver Miller was laying on the floor. We went up by four or five, and never looked back after that.  It was a team game then.”

On being at the Final Four in Indianapolis:

 I was in awe still,” Jamison recalled. “The regional finals were big, but it wasn’t as big obviously as the Final Four. There’s a lot more hoopla and a lot more media and a lot more interviews that you have to give. I think that took a lot away from us. You can’t be prepared for those things.”  (I was) 1 for 10 against Duke (in the national championship game). I was off that game. That was not a very good sign for me. Roy was pulling for Vegas (against Duke in the Final Four). Duke was one of those teams that scared you. (I was) rooting for Duke, not wanting to play Vegas, (a) squad that could beat 40 percent of NBA teams.”

On the 1991 team’s run to the Final Four and how it came on strong at the end of season:

“We lost 3 of last 6 games (before the NCAA’s),” he said. ”I think we started believing in what coach was saying. We believed in what was going on out there. We knew if we lost, our season was over.”

On Williams’ comment once when he said that Jamison and Steve Woodberry were the two best defensive players he ever coached: 

”Steve was a great player. To even be associated with that is special. He’s had a lot of of good defensive players. He’s had a lot of good players period. To even be mentioned in that type of context is kind of special. I had it in my mind that it was one of those things that I almost go out there and do what I need to do to shut this person down. It was more of a team game. Anybody could score. At least that was my mentality. It was one of those things where it takes a very special person to go out and shut somebody down.” 

On ranking in the top 10 in career steals at KU with 175. Jamison also ranks tied for second with Nick Bradford and Russell Robinson for most steals in a game (eight twice against Marquette in 1990 and Pepperdine in 1992). Jamison, who led KU in steals in 1991 and 1992, is a also tied for fifth in KU annals with Darnell Jackson with highest career field goal percentage (58.0).

“I was just there to help the team win,” Jamison said. "All the accolades afterwards, that’s great, but having that 1990-91 team go to the Final Four when there’s only maybe four or five teams that actually did that in the history of KU basketball, that’s special in itself,” he said.

On coach Roy Williams’ comment in 1992 at the awards banquet that he would give the shirt off his back to Jamison:

”It’s one of those things that is still in my mind. He’s a very special person,” Jamison said. “For somebody to believe in me and my skills when he didn’t even know me to tell me he would recruit me again out of loyalty not only from him but for the university, coach is probably one of my best friends.”

“It was rocky (at first),” he added about their relationship. “All friendships are going to have a rocky stage. Ours was at the beginning. I’m just glad he saw something in me that he liked, and we just persevered.” 

On one of his favorite memories as a Jayhawk:

“Beating Oklahoma State my junior and senior year at home (against) Byron Houston, Big Country (Bryant Reeves). (It was a) tight score with three minutes left (his senior year on March 2, 1992 during a 77-64 KU victory). That was the loudest I’ve ever heard it in the fieldhouse.”

On sitting at KU for a year and a half after being declared academically ineligible:

”At that time, it was just another obstacle in my way. Perseverance was the thing that was on my mind. Going to junior college that one year and overcoming that hurdle and getting signed by a Division I team, that was another hurdle. And then finding out I was academically ineligible, just a couple different hurdles I had to overcome. I sat out an extra semester. My GPA was half-point low. That’s when I finally knew I was going to have to buckle down and do my job. It sort of prepared me for life. Nobody really cares. After you play ball, you’re a has-been. You got to make your own way in life. Nobody’s going to do it for you.”

On playing for KU and why he didn’t drive to the hoop very much?

“I’m glad I had the opportunity to play. I wish I would have had the green light like Paul (Pierce), Adonis (Jordan), Rex (Walters),” Jamison said. “(Mark) Randall and (Mike) Maddox, stayed inside, not a lot of driving we could have done. In high school, I always posted up, taking my game out to the wing (at KU) is what I really liked. I think I had a quick first step.”

On whether he should have shot more at KU? He averaged only 6.6 field goal attempts per game.

“Some people have said that. Hindsight is 20-20. You never know what could have happened if I was the one that shot so much,” Jamison said. "My percentage might have been down, or we would have not went as far as we went maybe in the Final Four or wouldn’t have been a number one seed my senior year. I can’t say what if I would have did this or what if I did that. If I would have did that, it would have driven me crazy.” 

On his versatility in playing small forward and power forward:

“I think I was the first one to actually play more than one position. You’d have to ask coach Williams that.” 

 On thinking if he could play in the NBA and a national broadcaster’s comment during his college career that he could see Jamison having a 10-year pro career:

“I did at one time, but after senior year (when I went to) camps, it’s completely different from what college was,” Jamison said. “I was so instilled with the team atmosphere and team game in college, I couldn’t take myself out of that realm and put it towards the individual one-on-one type of game. Defensively, I could. But offensively, I just couldn’t do that. I think that was my biggest downfall.

“(I was) not really thinking about it at that time,” he added about the NBA while he was in college. “I really didn’t. I just wanted to get done with what I was doing then and not really worrying about what was going to happen.” 

On his NBA tryouts and playing overseas:

“ (I was) undrafted (and spent) rookie camp with Denver, veterans camp with Lakers, cut when Magic came back,” Jamison said. "I had tendon surgery on left knee after Lakers. I ruptured my Achilles two years after that. (I played) overseas in Sweden for six months, a couple of games in France. I had surgery again (when I ruptured Achilles) and hung it up after that. It was pretty difficult at the time. It was one of those things where my body was falling apart pretty good so there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. The mind was willing, but the body wasn’t. ... The professional level is completely different than the college level. For college, your playing for pride of the school. Professionally, it’s a business.”

Alonzo, thanks for the memories. I loved watching you play!

Ted Owens fired after 19 years as KU head basketball coach

Ted Owens restored the glory to the rich Kansas basketball tradition in his first seven years from 1964-71, leading the Jayhawks to three Big Eight titles, one Final Four, and five Big 8 Holiday Tournament Championships.

Owens’ 1965-66 team and 1970-71 squad were two of the finest in KU basketball history; his ‘71 team was the first team in Big Eight history to go 14-0 en route to Owens’ first Final Four.

In seven years, Owens posted a stellar 149-43 record (.776). He had gained national respect among his peers and the future seemed very bright at Mount Oread.

But during the 1970s, his teams struggled with consistency. He and his staff were very inconsistent recruiters, as Owens found himself on the hot seat after repeated two straight down seasons, followed by a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

After the 1971 team reached the Final Four with a 27-3 record, his next two teams went just 11-15 and a dismal 8-18 (worst record in KU history). So Owens found himself on the hot seat, only to be rescued by a dramatic turnaround in 1973-74, when KU went 13-1 in Big Eight play, won the league championship, and advanced to the Final Four. Kansas won the Big 8 again the following year, yet lost to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Suddenly, it looked like Owens had turned the corner. But he didn’t. After losing four of his top five scorers, KU faltered to just 13-13 in 1975-76 with two sophomores and one freshman in the starting lineup. The 1976-77 team improved to 18-10, but KU just finished fourth in the Big Eight at 8-6.

Max Falkenstien wrote about Owens being under pressure in his 1996 book, Max and the Jayhawks:

“Kansas had demonstrated progress, but the memories of KU’s 13-13 record two years earlier still lingered. Fans were growing restless for another conference championship, and there was a faction of KU supporters who thought it was time for a coaching change. They made their feelings known to (athletic director) Clyde Walker.

“With his job on the line, Ted shook up his staff.”

Owens’ loyal and great longtime top assistant Sam Miranda resigned under heat.

“Ted was a super nice guy. But Ted listened to everyone,” Miranda said in Falkenstien’s book. “He would listen to all the alums who would raise hell. Clyde Walker was the athletic director at the time, and he wanted Ted out of the job. He had tried to get him earlier, but as long as Odd Williams was on the athletic board, Clyde would never be able to fire him. After the 13-13 season, Clyde wanted him gone. He couldn’t get rid of Ted. Well, the next guy down the line was me. When I coached at KU, I recruited my rear end off and coached hard. I didn’t glad-hand the alums or rub noses with them. If I had been more of a diplomat, I might still be here today. But I wasn’t. It was either I was going to resign, or be fired. So I resigned. It was strictly the alums that put the heat on Clyde, and Clyde put the heat on Ted.”

Owens replaced Miranda with new assistant coach Lafayette Norwood in a package deal to land Wichita Heights phenom Darnell Valentine, who Norwood coached in high school. Owens saved his job by going 13-1 and winning the Big Eight title, yet lost to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. KU was ranked as high as No. 5 nationally that season.

Owens then had two down years again, going 18-11 and just 15-14 in 1979-80, before climbing out of despair and advancing to the Sweet 16 in 1980-81 (24-8). That team was led by Valentine and super junior Tony Guy.

Little did Owens know that his long coaching career, where he had withstood so much heat, was soon coming to an end.

Forced to rebuild and rely too much on Guy and David Magley, Owens went just 13-14 in 1981-82 (4-10 for 7th place in the Big Eight). He followed that year with another losing season in 1982-83 (13-16 and again 4-10 and tied for 7th place in the Big 8). 

On Feb. 18, 1983, The Oklahoman’s Jim Lassiter wrote about Owens’ future with the headline: ”KU’s Owens Has Survived Some Storm-Filled Years.”

“One Jayhawker has observed that Owens may be the only coach in America who has never had next year to count on. Every December through March you can hear rumblings from the Sunflower State that Owens is history. His teams have either not won enough games, not won enough big games or not been exciting enough.

“Rumors flew through Kansas like sunflower seeds in January when Kansas lost to Oral Roberts University a few days after the Titans had fired their coach in a midnight, mid-season sacking. The gossipers said that if the Hawks didn't turn around and beat Evansville, Owens would join ORU's Ken Hayes in the unemployment lines.

“The Jayhawks saved Owens that test of fire, but the rumors persist. A Denver newspaper reported last Sunday that the Kansas coach will not be around next year. The unattributed report said there is ‘racial tension’ on the squad and a ‘rift on the coaching staff.’ Reportedly, sales in Kansas of that issue of the Denver paper shot out of sight.”

Asked about the report, Owens just smiled. After all, through his 19 years at Kansas, the Kansas coach was known as “Smiling Ted.”

Lassiter soon continued:

“The Kansas coach has always felt he could count on his athletic department administration for backing. But if there's any reason to believe that Owens may truly be in trouble this time, it's because that home support has eroded. Last fall Kansas named Monte Johnson as its new athletic director. Johnson comes from Wichita. That area of Kansas has never been an Owens stronghold, as indeed, it had never been one of Don Fambrough's bases of support. To now, Johnson's most noteworthy action was to fire Fambrough, who had been at KU for 31 years.

“Without Johnson's backing, Owens has only his record and the promise of the future to plead his case. This Kansas team may be one of the youngest of all time. The Jayhawks' starting lineup includes three freshmen and two juniors and turnovers and poor shooting have made this team a chore to watch.

“It's a chore many Kansans are avoiding in record numbers. The irony of Ted Owens' most troubled season ever is that he is finally enjoying a pleasant personal life again. Three years ago he went through a messy divorce, but since then has remarried and at age 52 has started a new family. He and his wife have two babies under the age of two. One Jayhawk says he has never seen Owens happier, or seen him work any harder. The KU coach is confident this young Kansas team will get better and maybe measurably so when 6-11 Greg Dreiling joins it next season. Dreiling started his career at Wichita State, but transferred this season. In practice he has seemed to be Kansas' answer for a big man in the middle.

“After all these years, Ted Owens can't imagine Kansas not giving him the chance to develop Greg Dreiling and this team,” Lassiter added. “And reluctantly, the university will probably give him just one more season as its been doing for the last 19 years.”

Three weeks after that article was published, Owens’ Jayhawks had their game of the year when lowly KU upset heavily favored No. 19 Oklahoma, 87-77, in the first round of the Big Eight Tournament at Norman on March 8, 1983. 

Freshman guard Calvin Thompson caught fire, scoring a career-high 30 points. a KU also held OU superstar and All-American forward Wayman Tisdale to just 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting. Owens walked out of his alma mater victorious and feeling grand.

“It was a great victory, and the players carried me off the court,” Owens told Jeff Bollig and Doug Vance in their 2008 book, What It Means To Be A Jayhawk.

“As they carried me up that ramp to the dressing room, I looked up in the crowd, and there was my coach at Oklahoma, Bruce Drake, and his wonderful wife, Myrtle, smiling and waving at me. That made it an even more incredible night.”

Thompson said that was one of the most favorite memories of his KU career.

“I couldn’t miss in warm-up, and so I just knew I was going to have a good one,” he told me during a 90-minute interview at his home in 1999.

Jeff Dishman, a member of that team, also described that magical night to me in a 2003 interview.

“We kept running a play for Calvin to get open,” Dishman said. “We kept running the same play over and over again, and they never could get it stopped. And, of course, our whole deal on the other end was stopping Wayman Tisdale. I think we held him to his lowest season total. He went for 50 a couple of times that year. I remember it being a total team effort, and Calvin stepped up and hit some big shots. Carl Henry (19 points) had a pretty good game. We pretty much knew if we could close down on Wayman a little bit, we’d have a shot. Nobody expected us to do that, I didn't think, have a shot against them at that point in our season. It was a good memory.

“Calvin really played well,” Dishman added. “We had a specific play to get Carl the ball. He was our first option and Calvin was the second. They kept covering Carl, and hitting Calvin on the second option. He shot a  lot of 15-17 foot jumpers at the top of the key. He kept doing it over and over again. They never did figure it out.”

KU, though, stumbled the next night against Oklahoma State, which featured a point guard named Bill Self (3 points), losing 90-83. Kelly Knight led KU with 26 points and 14 rebounds.

The long season, was at last, over.

There was hope for the future, though, with three talented freshmen in Thompson, Kerry Boagni and Ron Kellogg, and former McDonald’s All-American Dreiling, a 7-foot center with huge potential, was redshirting after transferring from Wichita State.

Owens and lead recruiter, assistant coach Jo Jo White, had also secured a verbal commitment from Curtis Aiken, a great shooter and one of the top high school guards in the country.

The past two years were more seasons of turmoil and losing, and new athletic director Monte Johnson, who had just been on the job for four months and already had fired the loyal Jayhawk football coach Fambrough, had a big decision to make regarding Owens, the second-longest tenured KU basketball coach in history behind Phog Allen of 19 years.

Owens recalled what transpired in his 2013 book, At The Hang-Up.

“Feeling that we were positioned to be a dominate force in the following season, I hoped that the new athletic director, Monte Johnson, would honor the remaining year on my contract and allow me to coach the team,” Owens wrote.

Before Johnson went on vacation with his son to Florida for a week, he called Owens into his office and “wanted me to prepare an evaluation of my program compared to the history of Kansas basketball. ... It was the longest week of my life. ... In my time as head coach at Kansas, we had won 15 Big Eight titles (a combination of regular-season and tournament titles) and advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1971 and 1974. Fitting Dr. Allen’s criteria for a successful team, the players’ graduation rate was high and they had gone on to successful careers.

“Monte must have known that if he was going to make a change, the timing was ideal, since we were coming off of two seasons that were below the Kansas standards in terms of wins and losses. It was a perfect time to give a new coach the reins to a talented team and allow him to become immediately successful. And that was the decision Monte made.”

So, after 19 years, winning six Big Eight Conference championships, eight Big 8 Holiday Tournament titles, one Big Eight Tournament championship, advancing to the NCAA Tournament seven times, earning Big Eight Coach of the Year five times and named National Coach of the Year in 1978 by Basketball Weekly, Owens was fired.

The embattled KU coach had simply run out of lives. He left KU as the second winningest coach in school history behind the legendary Allen with a record of 348-182 (.657).

Owens was candidly bitter by his firing at the time. But as the years passed, he’s now at peace with himself.

But not then.

“I was absolutely devastated,” he wrote in his book. “I had hoped Chancellor Gene Budig would block the move, but he had been at the university for only the last two years, when our teams weren’t as strong as in previous years. Years later, at the 2009 memorial service for longtime KU athletic director Bob Frederick, Gene told me that if he had taken the time to look at my overall record, he wouldn’t have allowed me to be removed as head coach. Even if it was far too late to change matters, I respected Gene and felt good about what he had said.

“...I fault no one, and I take full responsibility for the decline of the program during the two years that followed our NCAA regional participation in 1981. In the spring of 1983, I had felt that we were positioned to restore the program to its rightful place as a conference power and national-title contender, had they decided to honor the last year of my contract. But we can only speculate about what might have been, and those who have followed me--Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self--have certainly done great things at the helm of Jayhawk basketball.”

Owens would deeply miss coaching at Kansas, where he formed lifelong relationships and friendships with his players and staff.

“So after 23 years, I was no longer a part of Kansas basketball. Those years were a wonderful time in my life. I loved every minute of it, from the joy of successes to the pain of disappointments. I dearly loved the University of Kansas, and I continue to do so today.”

Owens then wrote sentimentally and emotionally:

“I did something some say a coach shouldn’t do. They’ll say that a coach shouldn’t fall in love with the fans and the players. But I did. I loved the University of Kansas. I loved my players. My biggest fault was that I didn’t want to disappoint people. When we lost a game or experienced failure, I was really hard on myself. I never blamed anyone else.”

At the postseason banquet that year after he was fired, Owens spoke from the heart while also able to deal with his pain by cracking a joke about he and his wife being late that evening.

“We went down to pick up our unemployment checks and the line was a little longer than we expected,” Owens said.

“I won’t say there’s no anger and bitterness — honestly it come and goes, but there is so much to be grateful for,” Owens added. “I have four wonderful children and a wife who supports me. That’s what really matters. Only history will determine what kind of job we did here, but know this ... no one loves this place more than I do.”

The former KU coach had a message at the banquet for the returning Jayhawks.

“I hope you’ll have a great team,” he said. “I hope you’re almost as good as you could have been if we had been there with you.”

KU went 22-10 in 1983-84 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with new coach Larry Brown, who Johnson lured from his previous job as New Jersey Nets head coach.

Owens' former players would miss him being a part of KU basketball. They were quite fond of him, including guard Lance Hill, who played at KU from 1981-83.

“He opened the door for a lot of players here,” Hill told the Lawrence Journal-World. “I won’t forget what Tony Guy said at last year’s banquet. ‘He was a father to me.’”

Finally, Owens looked like a prophet when he said these words at the banquet:

“This team has laid the foundation for greatness in Kansas basketball.”

Indeed, it did.

Ted Owens talks race and Kansas basketball

This blog is full of excerpts of my 82-page honors thesis I wrote in 1988 at the University of Kansas. My adviser Norman Yetman interviewed Ted Owens in the 1980s after he was fired after 19 years as KU head coach. Yetman gave me FULL and COMPLETE permission to use Owens' quotes in my thesis. At one advising meeting, Yetman told me he "loved the way I milked" Owens' quotes throughout the thesis. This tape of Owens and all his wonderful quotes added so much to my thesis and really helped bring it to life. Ted Owens’ values and racial tolerance were instilled in him by his loving parents growing up on a cotton farm in Hollis, Oklahoma.

Owens’ parents taught him and his siblings to accept all people, regardless of their race.

Despite growing up without much contact with blacks, Owens developed much respect for African Americans, which he’s carried with him today. Contrary to many people in the South, Owens and his family did not view blacks on the basis of their skin color, but by their character.

Owens stated in an interview with my college adviser at KU Norman Yetman in the 1980s after he was fired after 19 years as Kansas head coach: 

“We admired the field workers. ...We judged people on the basis of their performance and the kind of persons they were.”

After a standout high school and college career at Oklahoma, Owens opened doors for African Americans at Cameron Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma, from 1956-60, where he coached the basketball and baseball teams. He recruited the first black player, Homer Watkins, in Oklahoma junior college history in 1958 and even invited Watkins to stay at his home at this predominantly white campus to make his new player feel more comfortable and welcome.

Owens signed three more black players the following year. In my 82-page honors thesis at KU in 1988 on “Racial Participation and Integration in University of Kansas Men’s Basketball: 1952-75,” I wrote that Owens was criticized by the white players’ parents, who did not like the fact that three blacks were playing ahead of their sons. However, Owens reiterated that he did not experience much outside pressure, as “we just didn’t let it become a problem.”

After receiving his big break in 1960 when KU coach Dick Harp hired him as assistant coach, Owens found himself coaching seven African-American players on the 1960-61 team. Owens said that KU was known then as the “blackhawks.” This racial slur hurt Kansas in recruiting, as its Sunflower rival Kansas State would use this term to scare off white recruits from going to KU.

“To recruit against Kansas State, you always had to deal with that problem,” Owens said. “If you were recruiting a white player in the state of Kansas, invariably Kansas State had made a big pitch of that, and you had to deal with that with them.”

Owens stressed that Kansas State boosters and alumni were most responsible in intimidating KU’s recruits, as he did not think the coaches themselves had anything to do with these actions.

Indeed, the KSU coaches had nothing to do with this. Kansas State head coach Tex Winter was a  very tolerant and open-minded man who embraced blacks. K-State was actually a forerunner in the recruitment of blacks in the Big Seven, signing the first black basketball player in the league in 1950 with Gene Wilson, the same year KU’s Phog Allen signed his first African-American player in LaVannes Squires. Earl Woods (Tiger’s dad) was also KSU’s first black baseball player in 1951, while Harold Robinson became the Big Seven’s first African-American scholarship athlete (football) in 1949. Robinson later received a congratulatory letter from Jackie Robinson, who integrated major league baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Soon after Owens was hired at KU, Harp sent him to recruit at the National Negro High School Tournament in Nashville. At the time, 16 states were still segregated so the top black high school players in the South convened at the Nashville tournament.

Owens related what a positive experience he had at the tournament. Although he felt a little conspicuous being one of the only whites in the stands with coach George Ireland of Loyola of Chicago, black recruiters made him feel quite welcome. This tournament had traditionally been a hotbed for black colleges, as they had their pick of an abundance of black talent. However, these black coaches were extremely supportive of Owens and his efforts to recruit the black players. Owens stated that the black coaches were so glad that KU and Loyola of Chicago would give these players a chance to play at a major university. Because of their warmth and hospitality, Owens respected the coaches greatly and viewed them as his “heroes.”

The tournament paid great dividends for Owens as he recruited and signed Walt Wesley from Fort Myers, Florida, who would become an All-American in 1966 and enjoy a long NBA career.

When Owens replaced Harp as head coach in 1964, his first team in 1964-65 had just two black players, followed by four African-American players (starters Wesley, Jo Jo White, Al Lopes and reserve Bob Wilson) on the great 1965-66 team which lost to Texas Western in the Midwest Regional final. Texas Western made history that year with an all-black starting lineup beating all-white Kentucky for the national championship.

Owens refuted the notion what many historians say that the 1966 national championship was a watershed moment in opening doors for blacks in recruitment.

“They attribute that game to the breaking of racial barriers. The truth of the matter is when I came here in 1960, which was six years before then, we were starting four black players at that time,” Owens said. “They didn’t break the racial barrier. There were a lot of us who had done that before. Even (Texas Western coach) Don Haskins, which is the way we should all have have looked at it, he said, ‘I never thought about breaking racial barriers, I thought about winning basketball games and I wanted to get the best players that I could get.’ And of course, that’s the way it should have been all the time.”

However, while Harp, Ireland and a few others were pioneers in the recruitment of black players, all one has to look at the national average of black participation to see how Owens’ statement about the 1966 game may not be fully accurate.

In 1966, the national average of the country’s teams with blacks was 58 percent with 16 percent of black players representing all players. In 1970, four years after Texas Western’s defining win over UK, 80 percent of the country’s teams now had blacks on their roster with black players representing 27 percent of the total number of players.

The recruitment of blacks after 1966 was especially widespread in the South, where the SEC integrated in 1968 with Perry Wallace the first African-American scholarship athlete at Vanderbilt.

As Neil Issacs noted in All The Moves: A History of College Basketball, “By defeating Kentucky, Texas Western had finally gotten a lesson across to the SEC, the ACC, and the world: since that time no pretender to basketball eminence has ever drawn a color line in its recruiting.”

The SEC had no blacks before 1966. With Wallace’s arrival that year on campus at Vanderbilt (he had to sit a year as a freshman and became eligible in 1967-68), more African-American players flocked to the conference, other southern leagues, and throughout America. Stanley Eitzen and George Sage reported in Sociology of North American Sport that “by 1975, black athletes were common in the SEC and in all the other athletic conferences. The transition from a segregated program to an integrated one is perhaps best illustrated by the University of Alabama; in 1968 there were no blacks on its teams, but its 1975 basketball team had an all-black starting lineup.”

Owens kept recruiting more black players as the years evolved. While his 1966-67 team had just three black players, there were five African Americans in 1968, six in 1969, four in 1970, five in 1971, four in 1972 and seven each in 1973,‘74 and ‘75. 1975 was the year “stacking” ended in college basketball, a sociological phenomenon where it has been documented that black players were overrepresented at forward and underrepresented in the outcome control positions of guard and center, which were considered central positions of leadership and intelligence.

...

Scholars Norman Yetman and Forrest Berghorn wrote in 1987 that “considered the team quarterback or ‘floor general,’ the guard or point positions requires the qualities of good judgment, leadership and dependability...The center or post position was portrayed as having the greatest amount of outcome control because it is the position nearest to the ball. Finally, because the purely physical attributes of speed, quickness, strength and rebounding ability have been considered most important at the forward or wing, it has been referred to as the ‘animal’ position."

...

As KU black players increased their prominence on the roster, outside pressures from fans and alumni did not disappear. Jack Olsen of Sports Illustrated wrote in 1968 that “the pressure has relaxed a little at KU, and Coach Ted Owens has occasionally used four Negroes at once without incident.”

While there might not have been as much pressure as in the early 1960s, Owens still encountered problems about playing too many blacks. Owens recalled the time when an alumnus told him that he was “playing too many damn n----s.” Furthermore, Owens referred to an incident when a booster approached him and stated:

 “’Ted, I really like you ... but the minute you start five of them (blacks) you lose me.’” 

Owens responded: ‘’Well, I’ll have to lose you if they end up being my five best players. If you think I could ask a young man to come here and play and not be given the fairest opportunity to start...’”

The former KU coach talked about a time in 1971, when some friends of his told him about what one of the fans said during a game. KU had just won 21 straight games, as the fans were all proud of the players when they came out for the starting lineup introductions. However, as the players came on the court, a fan stated: “I didn’t realize they started four blacks (Roger Brown, Bud Stallworth, Pierre Russell and Aubrey Nash).”

From Owens’ accounts, it seems clear that he experienced outside pressures from boosters and fans about recruiting and playing a large number of blacks. When asked whether the pressures were so great that he would be compelled to recruit more white players, Owens candidly replied:

“I think there was always that possibility and I tried to deal with it. I tried not to let it become a factor, but that possibility always existed, because even though they weren’t terribly vocal about it, there was still some feeling (about recruiting and playing too many blacks.)”

However, while Owens felt the pressures of race, he stated that he “tried over the years never to let race be a factor on my team, and never let it enter into (any basketball related decisions).”

Owens commented on the time when he could have succumbed to the pressure and started a white player, Bob Kivisto, over a black, Nash. In 1971, Kivisto and Nash were battling each other for the starting point guard position. As Owens decided about which player to start, he faced the dilemma of Kivisto’s father, Ernie. He was a prominent high school coach in Illinois who Owens thought could greatly help KU’s recruiting. 

Owens felt it would been very easy to start Kivisto over Nash. Although the two players were very close in ability, Owens started Nash, as he felt that Nash deserved the honor, for he was a tremendous competitor. While Kivisto’s father never made Owens’ decision into a racial matter, he became irate and threatened to take his son out of school. Owens knew this was one time in which he could have let outside pressure influence his decision-making ability.

“If there ever was a time, that would have been easy to play the white,” Owens said, “because there wasn’t much different in the two, but I just believed in Aubrey Nash.”

As point guard and gritty player and defender, Nash helped lead KU to the 1971 Final Four and a dream 27-3 season.

Throughout his coaching career, Owens was consciously aware of the problems which could arise between white and black players, and he tried to create an atmosphere of harmony between his players, whereby the players would be judged on and off the court by their character and performance, and not by the color of their skin, just as Owens and his family viewed the field workers on his cotton farm growing up in Hollis.

Owens related that he never participated in the racial banter between his players and even coaches, for he felt this would disrupt the racial harmony between blacks and whites, and players would misinterpret Owens’ beliefs.

“I never wanted to be misunderstood,” Owens said. “I thought that people who joke about that sort of thing, that deep down there is some feeling there or they wouldn’t be (involved in the racial banter).”

Furthermore, Owens was quite conscious that he didn’t have any black assistant coaches before hiring Lafayette Norwood in 1977. In fact, the lack of black assistant coaches caused Owens to worry that his black players might feel they weren’t given an equal opportunity to succeed. 

Owens used to tell his staff:

“‘The thing that I don’t want to ever hear out of one of our meetings, or anything connected with this organization, is for you to say anything about race or anything that would give a youngster a feeling that he wasn’t given the fairest opportunity.’”

Overall, in reflecting on his 19 years as KU head coach, Owens felt that there was a “great feeling racially on our teams. ... I have always taken pride in that race, or racial conflict, hasn’t been a big factor on our team.”

Owens, who believed strongly in racial equality from his early beginnings growing up on a cotton form in Oklahoma, commented on the benefits that he had experienced in his involvement with blacks through basketball.

“It helped a little bit to open doors or to make some things possible that wouldn’t have been,” he said. “... What’s happened to me has benefited me a great deal. ... I can look more in making judgments and make them not on a racial standpoint."

Thank you Ted Owens for making the world a better place.

Darnell Valentine shines in playoffs during Year 3 of NBA with Portland Trail Blazers

Darnell Valentine can’t stop pushing. He can’t stop running. Valentine can’t stop wanting to be the best. Not now, not after realizing his lifetime NBA dream, not after winning the starting point guard battle over Fat Lever last season, not after painfully missing 35 games with a broken foot, and certainly not after rebounding from that injury by playing the best basketball of his pro career in the playoffs.

Valentine, now entering his third NBA season with the Portland Trail Blazers, wants more. 

Much more. 

That’s why he’s been sweating and running all offseason while knowing he’ll have to beat out Lever again for the starting job and help the Blazers build on their playoff success last year, where they lost in the Western Conference semifinals to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Darnell will run all day; you run with him or you’re left out,” Portland teammate Calvin Natt said. “He’s been running six or seven miles each morning (all summer). If Darnell starts, we’ll run more with more fast breaks.”

Valentine was rewarded with his hard work by earning the starting point guard spot. But he was not the clear winner. Lever was a great player in own right, and the two guards couldn’t really separate much between each other.

Valentine started the first 34 games before being injured at the start of the New Year, missing 14 games. He resumed play on Feb. 5 as Lever continued to start for eight more games before Valentine replaced him in the starting lineup for the remainder of the season.

Valentine started 60 of 68 games, averaging 10.2 points (down from 12.5 ppg last season), 5.8 assists (decrease from 6.2 apg), 1.9 rebounds (down from 2.5 rpg) and 1.6 steals (2.1 spg in 1982-83) in 27.8 minutes per game (27.6 mpg last year). His shooting percentage also decreased from 45.4 percent to 44.7 percent and Valentine’s free throw percentage was slightly down, too, from 79.3 to 78.9.

Lever, meanwhile, started 22 of 81 games and averaged 9.7 points, 4.6 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 24.8 minutes per contest.

I remember once reading that Portland center Mychal Thompson said Valentine kept worrying about Lever and looking over his shoulder at him, while Lever didn’t mind splitting time with D.V.

In any case, the two point guards made a great tandem to pair with star shooting guard Jim Paxson (team-high 21.3 ppg) with rising rookie and first-round draft choice Clyde Drexler backing him up. Valentine marveled at Paxson’s skills, a great, creative shooter who was a master of moving without the ball.

“He surprises me. Some of the shots he’s able to make are incredible,” Valentine told The Sporting News. “He’s always looking for ways to catch you off guard. Even in practice, he’s looking for ways to invent his own plays.” 

My dad and I used to lament how Valentine would dribble the ball upcourt, then pass the ball and stand in the corner while the other players ran set plays. Portland coach Jack Ramsay ran a very complex and sophisticated offense. He was very structured in games and also practices.

“It’s so complicated, even some of the veterans don’t know the plays,” Lever said about the offense. “With Ramsay, you either have to know what you are doing and be great at faking it.”

Valentine tied his career high with 24 points in a win over Houston on Nov. 8, 1983, while adding five steals in 39 minutes. He also dished a career-high 15 assists during a loss to Denver on March 11, 1984, while recording a career-high 43 minutes in a thrilling 156-155 four overtime defeat to Chicago five days later.

Portland improved its record for the second straight year (48-34) and finished in second place in the Pacific Division.

Valentine saved his best for the playoffs, just like last season, but even better this time. He averaged 18.4 points and 8.4 assists in 35.6 minutes during a five-game first-round series to Phoenix (Suns won 3-2). Valentine, who shot 50 percent from the field and a blistering 91.4 percent at the free throw line (32-35), exploded for a game-high 29 points in a Game 3 loss, including making 15 of 16 free throws, while adding 10 assists in 36 minutes. He followed that game by posting 16 points and 13 assists in 41 minutes while helping Portland win and tie the series at 2-2.

I remember jumping out of my chair in my parents’ family room watching Game 3, seeing Valentine on fire dominating the game. Not known as a scorer, Valentine seemingly scored and penetrated the lane at will. I kept yelling at the TV, “Get the ball to Darnell, get the ball to Darnell.” And his teammates did. And then I recall how heartbroken I was when the Blazers lost 106-103. But I was still thrilled that D.V. had his coming out party in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the Suns (41-41 in regular season and fourth place in Pacific Division) upset the Blazers in Game 5, forcing Ramsay and Blazer management to reevaluate their franchise.

Portland then made a very controversial and blockbuster trade, sending Lever, rugged 6-6 star forward Natt, 6-10 center Wayne Cooper and two draft picks to Denver for 6-8 scoring machine Kiki Vandeweghe, who was third in the NBA in scoring last season at 29.4 points per game.

Blazer’s Edge wrote on April 11, 2020, that “it was the most audacious move the franchise had ever made.” 

Ramsay and general manager Stu Inman defended the trade. The UPI reported that Ramsay said Vandeweghe “will give the Blazers perimeter shooting from the front line, a quality Portland lacked last year.”

“To complement the players we have now, there was no better player available than Vandeweghe,” Ramsay said.

“Maybe along with Bernard King of New York he is the best offensive forward in basketball,” Ramsay added. “We are getting a player who can score from the outside, who can drive for the basket, who can run the floor well and who is a good passer, all of which are qualities we really need in our front line, and it has been very difficult for us because we lacked them.”

Inman called Vandeweghe “as consummate a small forward as there is in the league at the offensive end of the court.”

“As we are seeing in the playoffs, there is so much double-teaming that kicking the ball back to people who can flat-out drill it is helpful.”

With Lever gone, Valentine was the only point guard on the Portland roster. Ramsay said the Blazers need a backup “who can run the break well, maybe a little better than Fat could, and give us some outside shooting.”

While it remained to be seen if the Blazers would make another trade for a point guard or select one in the 1984 NBA Draft, one matter now remained certain: Darnell Valentine had to be feeling pretty good that he no longer had to look over his shoulder at Fat Lever.

Little, though, did Valentine, Portland and anyone in the league know at the time that Lever would emerge as an All-Star with the Nuggets and one of the best all-around point guards in the NBA.

Darnell Valentine emerged as starting point guard in second season with Portland Trail Blazers

Red Auerbach, the legendary Hall of Fame coach of the Boston Celtics and then-Celtics president, thought Darnell Valentine was destined for greatness in the NBA.

Auerbach scouted Valentine at Kansas, and was deeply impressed.

In the Feb. 3, 1979 issue of The Reporter, an Akron, Ohio, newspaper, Josh Watson wrote the following:

“Every pro coach in the NBA knows you got to have a playmaker--without one you don't go too far in the NBA. Kansas Darnell Valentine is not only a great playmaker, he's also a 20 point per game scorer. Red Auerbach likes what he saw of Valentine and thinks Valentine will have a great future in the NBA.

“Auerbach also would like to see Valentine wearing a Boston uniform. Keep your eyes on Darnell Valentine; you are going to hear a lot about this great playmaker out of Kansas.”

Now, entering his second season in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers, Valentine was also drawing rave reviews from Portland coach Jack Ramsay. Despite playing limited minutes his rookie year backing up Kelvin Ransey at point guard and averaging just 6.4 points per game on only 41.3 percent shooting (worst percentage on team), Ramsay thought Valentine showed great potential and deemed this former KU All-American for stardom.

"Darnell Valentine may be the best point guard in the NBA, you'll see," Ramsay told Sports Illustrated on Nov. 1, 1982.

With Ransey traded to Dallas after last season for 6-10 center Wayne Cooper and a first-round draft pick in 1985, Valentine had now emerged as the starting point guard for the Blazers. But he had competition from 1982 first-round draft pick Lafayette Lever (11th overall) from Arizona State.

Valentine and Lever had actually battled each other twice in college with Valentine bettering him both times. Valentine scored 16 points to Lever’s 10 in Arizona State’s 73-65 overtime victory over KU on Dec. 29, 1979, while Valentine had 16 points again to Lever’s 9 in KU’s 88-71 upset win over the No. 3 Sun Devils on March 15, 1981 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Lawrence Journal-World’s Chuck Woodling wrote about the competition between Valentine and Lever while also addressing why Portland dealt Ransey to the Mavericks.

“We traded Ransey because we were 17th in the league in rebounding last year and we needed help on the boards,” a Blazers’ spokesman said. “Mychal Thompson was our leading rebounder last year and Cooper averaged more rebounds per minute than Thompson did.

“We had the 11th pick in the draft and we didn't think there'd be a big guy available then. The reason we traded Ransey--and we really didn't want to--is because we think Lever is better than Kelvin was when he came into the league."

Tony Guy, Valentine’s teammate at KU, was also high on Lever. The two guarded each other last season on Nov. 30, 1981, a 63-62 Jayhawk victory. Lever scored 17, while Guy had 16.

“I think he is a complete ballplayer,” Guy told Woodling. “His strongest asset is he's more conscious of the team than he is of himself, and I think the people in the NBA were impressed by that. In guarding him, I had to be conscious of not relaxing because he has a real good jump shot. And I thought he was a great defensive player."

Despite drafting Lever, the Portland spokesman said the starting point guard position was for Valentine to lose.

“Really, it's up to him,” he said. “Last year Darnell started well, then tailed off. He had foul problems and maybe shot too much. But we think he'll have a better understanding next season. We're still high on Darnell, and the other kid will have to beat him out."

Valentine won the point guard battle and played great before breaking his foot in early January during a game against Indiana. The UPI reported on Jan. 6, 1983:

“The Portland Trail Blazers were clicking on 411 cylinders until point guard Darnell Valentine, sparkplug of their fast break, went down with a foot injury. Valentine, averaging 14.4 points and the third-leading ball thief in the NBA entering Tuesday night's game against Indiana, suffered a stress fracture of the left foot in a second-quarter collision. The second-year dynamo out of Kansas, Valentine who moved into the starting lineup when the Trail Blazers traded away Kelvin Ransey, will be out at least six weeks - at least until Valentine's Day."

"We're going to miss his intensity and his hustle. He seems to fire up the whole team when he makes a steal or lays it up 'through five guys," Thompson said.

Lever replaced Valentine as starter and played very well. According to the 1984 Pro Basketball Handbook, “Played good defense and showed he’s a future leader by running the offense.”

Lever played in 81 games with 45 starts, averaging 7.8 points, a team-high 426 assists (5.3 apg), 1.9 steals and 2.8 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per game, while shooting 43.1 percent from the field.

As for Valentine?

He nearly doubled his scoring average from his rookie season to 12.5 points while third on the team with 293 assists (team-high 6.2 per game), first with 2.1 steals, and 2.5 rebounds in just 47 games (36 starts), while shooting 45.4 percent from the floor and 79.3 percent at the charity stripe, also improvements on his rookie year.

The Pro Basketball Handbook reported that Valentine “became the No. 1 point guard when Kelvin Ransey was traded to Dallas. Promptly spent 35 games on the shelf with a foot injury...Is not a real offensive threat and his jumper could use a lot of work. But plays defense like he means it.

“He’s a fierce competitor,” Ramsay said. “He never stops. He’s never going to be outplayed.”

Portland finished the season at 46-36 — a four-game improvement over last season — and fourth place in the Pacific Division.

Entering the playoffs, Valentine started over Lever and raised his game to another level, helping the Blazers beat Seattle 2-0 in the first round before the Lakers and Magic Johnson beat Portland 4-1 in the Western Conference semifinals.

Valentine played seven games in the playoffs, averaging 12.1`points, 8.7 assists and 1.4 steals in 29.3 minutes per game, while shooting 42.5 percent from the field and 76.2 percent at the free throw line. He set a franchise-tying record with 15 assists in a Game 2 loss to the Lakers, while dishing 14 assists in a Game 3 OT loss to L.A. He also recorded game highs in the playoffs of 18 points, four steals and 38 minutes.

Lever, meanwhile, averaged 6.0 points, 4.4 assists and 1.0 steals in 19.1 minutes per game in the playoffs, while shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 80.0 percent at the charity stripe.

But with Lever’s emergence when Valentine was injured, it looked like a heated competition for the starting point guard spot entering the offseason.

The Pro Basketball Handbook thought Lever might have the edge:

“Lafayette Lever is one of the best young point guards in the league, leaping into the void as a rookie when Darnell Valentine went down with a leg injury. Lever may actually have stepped ahead of Valentine now on the depth chart.”

While that remained to be seen, Valentine was already drawing great praise from Ramsay, Thompson and others around the league for his outstanding defense and tenacious work ethic.

Just listen to David Magley, Valentine’s former teammate at Kansas who played briefly in his rookie season in 1982-83 with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I gained even greater respect for Darnell,” Magley told the Journal-World after the Cavs released him. “I respected Darnell at KU because he worked so hard. He’s kept it up in the NBA. Darnell is so devoted. A lot of NBA players just don’t show the intensity he does.”