Former KU All-American Darnell Valentine finishes NBA career with Cleveland Cavaliers

After a productive year with the Los Angeles Clippers despite the team’s dismal struggles (12-70, worst record in NBA and lowest winning percentage in team history), Darnell Valentine entered the 1987-88 season looking to improve on both his own production and dramatically boost his team’s fortunes.

Unfortunately, Larry Drew, Valentine’s old rival from Missouri, beat him out for the starting point guard position, yet this former KU standout managed to start 32 of 72 games, including the last 27 contests. His statistics, though, slipped from the previous season. Valentine averaged 7.1 points, 4.8 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 20.7 minutes per game, while shooting 41.8 percent from the field, a career-high 45.5 percent beyond the arc (15-33) and 74.3 percent at the free throw line.

He scored in double figures 11 of 13 games from March 2 to March 25, including a stellar 25-points and 12 assists in 41 minutes against Sacramento on March 20.

Two weeks later on April 8, Valentine scored a season-high 27 points versus the Los Angeles Lakers, followed by a career-best 30-point outburst in a 122-105 win over Houston on April 10. Valentine added 11 assists and five steals in 33 minutes, shooting 14 of 19 from the field, 1 of 1 from three-point range, and 1 of 2 at the charity stripe. The former KU All-American was game-high scorer, even outscoring future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon (19) of the Rockets.

The Clippers were still woeful with a 17-65 record under head coach Gene Shue.

After the season, Valentine finally got his wish and was out of L.A. He was acquired by the Miami Heat in the June expansion draft and then promptly traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second-round draft pick.

With now seven years in the NBA as a solid veteran, it appeared Valentine was in the twilight of his career. Cleveland and head coach Lenny Wilkins wanted Valentine as just a backup point guard to star Mark Price. Valentine played sparingly for the Cavs during 1988-89, averaging just 14.1 minutes in 77 games (four starts). He posted career lows in points (4.2), assists (2.3), steals (0.7) and rebounds (1.3) per game, while shooting 42.6 percent from the field, a career-low 21.4 percent from three-point range, and 81.3 percent at the charity stripe.

Valentine scored in double figures in just seven games all season, capped with a season-high 15 points against New Jersey on Feb 22, 1988. He also had a season-best 10 assists versus Milwaukee on March 23, 1989.

While his stats were down, Valentine was elated to be on a winning team after the dismal Clipper years. Cleveland finished at 57-25 in second place in the Central Division, but lost a heartbreaking 3-2 playoff series to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs.

Valentine had his best game of the postseason in a Game 1 95-88 loss, posting eight points, six assists and three steals in 33 minutes.

His stay in Cleveland didn’t last long. In July, the Cavs announced they had no interest in resigning Valentine. He couldn’t make another team. So suddenly, after eight years in the NBA, Valentine’s career seemed to be over.

He was out of the NBA in 1989-90 before the Cavs suddenly resigned him the following season in early December 1990 to replace Price, who suffered a season-ending knee injury. While this was heartbreak for Price and Cavs fans, Valentine was thrilled to be back in the NBA where he made his name with his relentless self-discipline and dedication all these years.

He had been working as an intern at a Portland TV station and also playing in a Mexican basketball league. Mexico was, indeed, light years away from the NBA.

"I'm in paradise. Being back in the NBA is like surviving a plane crash," Valentine said at the time. "In Mexico, our team bus had a huge hole in the floor. We traveled around in a donkey bus. It was like being in Fred Flintstone's car. It had no bottom. I couldn’t believe it, and it makes me appreciate (the NBA)."

With Price down, Valentine became the starter during the 1990-91 season and I celebrated by buying my prized Cavs starter jacket. I cherished this jacket and wore it everywhere. I also wrote a letter to the editor in the Lawrence Journal-World how Valentine was back in the NBA where he rightfully belonged. I paid tribute to my childhood hero in that letter, praising his defense as the master of his craft and also his tremendous work ethic.

The day the letter was published, Lafayette Norwood called me at 9:30 a.m. Norwood, a very close friend of Valentine and his high school coach and assistant at Kansas, wanted to thank me for my letter. I was overwhelmed with gratitude by him taking the time to call me. We had a great, happy 20-minute talk about my letter and I also asked Norwood how Darnell was doing in Cleveland.

While it wasn’t my fault, I apologized to him for the Journal-World spelling his first name “Darrell.” I was shocked by the paper’s blatant mistake. My legendary journalism professor at KU said in our second day of class that he would dock us 50 points by incorrectly spelling a name. I couldn’t fathom how the Journal-World could get Darnell’s name wrong.

Norwood was extremely gracious and wasn’t worried at all about the mistake.

“Those things happen,” he said, which made me feel at ease.

I finished our phone call on cloud nine and went to the KU-Missouri game in Allen Fieldhouse later that day on top of the world.

In Valentine’s first two games with Cleveland, he made quite the splash. He averaged 18.5 points, 7.5 assists and shot 58 percent from the field while scoring 24 points in his second game in 44 minutes against the Bucks. While he couldn’t keep those numbers up, he still had a solid season, averaging 9.4 points, 5.4 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 28.3 minutes per game. He started 60 of 65 contests, while shooting 46.4 percent from the field, 24.0 percent beyond the arc, and a career-high 83.1 percent at the free throw line.

He scored a season-high 28 points against Atlanta on Feb. 5, while adding eight assists and four steals, followed up with 10 points and 10 assists two nights later against Houston.

And then on April 21, while he didn’t know it at the time, Valentine played the final game of his nine-year NBA career against the Sixers. He finished strong in his swan song, posting 12 points, nine assists and two steals in a 123-110 victory, while shooting 5 of 8 from the field, 0 of 1 from beyond the arc and 2 of 2 at the free throw line.

Missing Price, who was averaging 16.9 points, 10.4 assists and 2.6 steals in 16 games before his season-ending injury, Cleveland stumbled to a 33-49 record and sixth place in the Central Division.

While Valentine tried to hook on with the Milwaukee Bucks the next season in training camp, former Kansas State star point guard Steve Henson beat him out. So Valentine’s NBA career was now over.

But he couldn’t give up the game he always loved growing up in Chicago and Wichita. Valentine next played two years in Italy before finally hanging up his jersey for good.

All for the love of the game.

Darnell Valentine resumes NBA career with futile Los Angeles Clippers

Little did Darnell Valentine or any of his loyal fans like myself know that after he was traded from Portland to the Los Angeles Clippers in January 1986, his NBA career would never be the same.

After being the starting point guard for his last three and and half years with the Blazers and averaging 9.8 points, 5.4 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 300 regular-season games during his Portland career, Valentine was demoted to a backup role his first season in L.A. behind Norm Nixon.

Valentine, the 6-1 point guard and former KU All-American, averaged career lows in points (5.9), assists (3.1) rebounds (1.6), steals (0.7), field goal percentage (38.9) and minutes (14.2) in 34 games (two starts) for the dismal Clippers, who finished at 32-50 and fourth place in the Pacific Division while ranked 21st out of 23 teams in attendance. 

One of Valentine’s few bright moments that season came against his former team, Portland, on Feb. 1, 1986, when he scored a season-high 21 points in just 21 minutes. For the year with both Portland and L.A., Valentine averaged 7.4 points, 4.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 62 games, while shooting just 41.5 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from beyond the arc, and 74.3 percent at the free throw line.

For Valentine, he seemed a long way from Portland, where he played in front of sellout, crazed home fans each night with sellouts of 12,666 in Memorial Coliseum.

Towards the start of next season in October 1986, Valentine received some good news when the New Jersey Nets signed him to a guaranteed three-year offer worth more than $900,000. But his happiness soon faded when the Clippers announced they planned to match the offer.

In an Oct. 18, 1986 article in the Los Angeles Times, it was reported that Valentine’s agent, David Falk of Pro-Serv “said, however, that Valentine will not report to the Clippers’ training camp.” Arn Tellem, Clipper general counsel said: “He’ll play for the Clippers or he’s not going to play.”

Then Tellem mocked Valentine: “I applaud Darnell Valentine’s courageous move to pass up a three-year guaranteed contract that totals close to $1 million and return to his home in Lawrence, Kan. I wish I had the privilege of making such career decisions. Unfortunately, I have to work for a living.”

Falk rebutted: “I’m surprised and disappointed that the Clippers would match the offer. I feel it is very unlikely that he will play for the Clippers this year. There was a lot of scar tissue and bad feeling created by the way the negotiations were handled.

“He doesn’t want to play for an organization that has made it clear that he doesn’t fit into their plans. And he will not report. I hope we can work with the team to have him moved somewhere else.”

Clipper general manager Elgin Baylor said: “We always intended to match the offer. We want to get Darnell here as soon as possible.”

It turned out Valentine reported with the Clippers and was in the team’s plans for the 1986-87 season. While his second and first full season in L.A. produced much better numbers, the Clippers struggled mightily with the worst record in the league at 12-70 and the lowest attendance in the NBA.

With Nixon gone, Valentine started 52 of 65 games while averaging 11.2 points, 6.9 assists (No. 2 best of career) and 1.8 steals in 27.1 minutes per contest, while shooting 41.0 percent from the floor, 23.2 percent from three-point range and a career-high 81.5 percent at the charity stripe. He also averaged a career high in field goal attempts per game (10.3.)

Valentine, who suffered an injury during the season, started the last 41 games of the season. He scored in double figures his first 10 games, including a season-high 24 points versus Golden State on Dec. 16 and then 23 points against Houston a week later. He had his best game in a 124-120 loss to San Antonio on Jan. 30, when he posted 24 points, 15 assists and five steals.

Despite becoming the starter and producing better numbers, Valentine was quite unhappy with the losing and the Clippers being the laughingstock of the NBA.

"Players have left the Clippers and done better, and it's not because they've suddenly become better players," Valentine told Sports Illustrated on March 23, 1987. "Some guys don't play well in difficult circumstances. You can take a good player and put him on this team, and things just get worse. He doesn't blossom. Some guys get traded here and they feel that because we're losing, they can just use this as a showcase to get traded to a better team. We have some players who play very intensely and others who don't put forth any effort at all. When you play for the Clippers, you feel like you're coming over on one of those boats from Cuba with all different kinds of people on it. There's just no pedigree with this team.”

SI’s Bruce Newman wrote this: “At 11-51 they are the worst team in the NBA this season; on a given night they may be the worst NBA team ever to play the game. If the Clippers had a credo—which they don't—it would probably be the one expressed by point guard Darnell Valentine: ‘You have to do as much as you can, as best you can, even if you can't.”

For Valentine, he did his “best,” but it wasn’t near enough to save the futile Clippers. He still couldn’t wait to move out of L.A.

A Heartfelt Tribute To Former KU Basketball Head Coach Ted Owens

Ted Owens grew up on a cotton farm in Hollis, Oklahoma, where he was raised by his parents to know right from wrong, to treat people with kindness and deep respect, to always listen to others, to show great empathy, to have profound faith, to have a strong work ethic, to treat people of color on the basis of their character and performance, and to always be a good person.

Owens carried these invaluable life lessons throughout his life, reinforced to him by his Oklahoma Hall of Fame basketball coach, Bruce Drake, and then KU head basketball coach Dick Harp — a man of impeccable values and strong moral fiber —when Owens served as a loyal assistant to Harp as an assistant coach from 1960-64.

In his nearly 91 years on Earth, Owens has learned from these instrumental people in his life and touched and impacted countless people, beginning as head basketball and baseball coach of Cameron Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma, from 1956-60, and then as a KU assistant for four years before serving as KU head basketball coach for 19 years, still the second-longest tenured coach in the rich Kansas basketball tradition.

After KU, he continued impacting people’s lives as Oral Roberts head coach, Fresno Flames coach, Tel Aviv Maccabi coach, development director and basketball coach at Metro Christian Academy in Tulsa, athletic director at St. Leo University near Tampa, Florida, and all his other jobs and pursuits.

Above all, Owens has been a true loving and consummate family man, devoted to his wife, Michelle, and his children. He has also stayed in close contact with those players he coached decades ago, including many from Cameron and at KU, and those he also mentored like Joey and Stephen Graham, former Oklahoma State basketball players from 2003-05.

Owens’ daughter, Taylor Owens O’Connell, talked about her dad’s love and influence of people in his 2013 book, At The Hang-Up.

“I am beyond blessed to have a father who loves me endlessly. It’s amazing that a little boy from Hollis could grown up to have such an impact on so many lives,” Owens-O’Connell said.

Owens’ former players deeply love him, just as he loved them.

“The most important thing to my dad today is his meaningful relationships with his players. Every July 16 when 7 a.m. hits, Tommie Smith calls to wish him a happy birthday,” Owens’ son, Teddy, said. “Shortly afterward, David Magley will call, or Bud Stallworth, or Roger Morningstar, or Al Lopes. They call every year, never missing his birthday, because he loved them and believed in them. He continues to do so, and anytime they achieve something he always calls me and update me on their success off the court.” 

As soon as he became KU head coach, you knew Owens would be something special—as a person and as a coach.

After Harp resigned under pressure in 1964, the KU players petitioned for the popular Owens to take over the head-coaching job. Owens had great admiration and respect from his players and KU alumni.

“Owens is the best basketball coach I know for talking to high school boys and recruiting them,” a top KU booster said. “He and Jack Mitchell (then-KU football coach) are in a class by themselves in the field. Owens has also had a hand in recruiting most everybody now in the KU basketball program and they like him and respect him a great deal.”

Owens, who coached at Mount Oread 19 years until being fired in 1983, won six Big Eight Conference Championships, eight Big Eight Holiday Tournament titles, one Big Eight Tournament Championship, advanced to the NCAA tournament seven times, and earned Final Four berths in 1971 and 1974. He was named Big Eight Coach of the Year five times and selected as National Coach of the Year in 1978 by Basketball Weekly.

 

Owens, who also coached five All-Americans, ranks as the fourth-winningest coach in Kansas basketball history behind Phog Allen, Bill Self and Roy Williams with a 348-182 (.657) record.

But beyond the wins is the many lives he influenced and impacted. Just listen to former star forward David Magley, who played at KU from 1978-82 and then briefly with the Cleveland Cavaliers as a rookie. Magley and his wife, Evelyn, have always been very close to Owens; they used to babysit Owens’ kids when Magley was in college.

Magley truly admired and loved Owens.

“Of all the lives that Coach Owens has touched over the years, I have to believe that I am the most fortunate,” Magley said in At The Hang-Up.

“He taught me how to compete. He encouraged me and rewarded when I earned it. He showed me how to be a champion with grace.”

Just listen to countless other Jayhawks and coaches, including Riney Lochmann, who played at KU from 1963-66 and then in the ABA.

“The bottom line is that I would run through a brick wall for Coach Owens,” Lochmann said. “I have nothing but great memories from my time there. Kansas has retired many jerseys that hang in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. My hope is that Coach Owens will also be honored so his name can hang up in Allen Fieldhouse with the rest of his players.”

Just listen to Dave Robisch, the high-scoring forward and All-American who starred at KU from

1968-71.

“Coach Owens is more than a coach. He has been a part of my life since 1967,” Robisch said. “Our relationship has grown stronger over time. I look back now and understand so much more about what went on at KU than I did when I was going through it. He has been there through 42 years of my marriage. He has watched my kids grow up and I have watched his kids grow up. This type of thing does not happen very often. We have a very special friendship that continues to grow as we both get older.”

Just listen to Delvy Lewis, who was a star KU guard and All-Big Eight in 1966.

“I just have nothing but great words to say about Ted Owens as a coach,” Lewis told me in 2003. “He was a gentleman. I just feel badly, because I think he’s kind of gotten a bad rap, as far as perception.  He still has a tremendous winning record. I just hope he gets some credit for what he did, because I think he did a lot more than people realize. To this day, I have the greatest respect for him. He’s just a neat, neat man.”

“I think Riney and I were his favorites on that (great 1965-66 squad, which won the Big Eight title and lost to Texas Western in the Midwest Regional final) team, because he just appreciated the ‘roll up your sleeves and work,’ and that’s pretty much what Riney and I did,” Lewis added. “I hustled and gave it all I had every game. Everybody did. We had a group that pretty much got after it. We were pretty no-nonsense. “

Just listen to Bud Stallworth, who starred at KU from 1969-72 and is another of the five All-Americans (also an Academic All-American) Owens coached at Kansas.

“What I first noticed is that Coach Owens cared about his players beyond just playing sports,” Stallworth said. “He was more like a parent, wanting his players to be more than successful basketball players. He emphasized that we had to be well-rounded on the court and even better better people off the court.”

Just listen to Jo Jo White, still another KU All-American who is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Ted is like a second father to me, he and coach (former longtime KU assistant Sam) Miranda,” White said after his jersey retirement at Allen Fieldhouse in 2003. “They were more than just coaches. They were friends to us, they were our confidant. Our relationship continues on, far beyond the KU days.”

White also raved about Owens in www.celtic-nation.com on April 7, 2003, just hours before KU played Syracuse in the national championship game.  

“He was a very astute coach, and a great teacher of the fundamental,” White said. ”He was also politically involved within the college basketball community and well-versed when it came to the issues surrounding the game. Coach Owens contributed greatly to my growth as a basketball player. I enjoyed playing for him and I learned a lot from being a part of his program.”

And then listen to what White said about Owens in At The Hang-Up:

“Coach Owens was always open to sit and talk with individuals about how to be a better player and a better team. He wasn’t concerned about players approaching him to talk about the team. To me, he was a great coach—always sincere, honest and open with all of us. I absolutely adored the man and my time at KU.”

Owens not only had great respect from his former players, but from his peers in the coaching profession. Just ask Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks, who played under Owens with the WBL Fresno Flames in 1988.

“Coach Owens is a man of integrity; he is a sincere, honest person who treats everyone with a great deal of respect—which is something that I’ve carried with me throughout my life on and off the basketball floor,” Brooks said. “Coach Owens has had a great impact on me as a person and a coach. To this day, every time Coach Owens is around it seems that a memory is made.”

Just listen to Hall of Fame Kentucky coach John Calipari, who received his first coaching job under Owens as a graduate assistant at KU in 1982.

“He gave me an opportunity to coach at one of the greatest programs,” Calipari said. “Coach Owens has always handled himself with class. Whether we won or lost, he was just a classy, upstanding gentleman, and he did it at a hard place to coach, but a great place to coach. I will always be indebted to him, and Coach Owens knows that.”

Just listen to Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, who succeeded Owens at KU for five seasons.

“(Owens) told the players he’d been here 23 years, 19 as head coach,” Brown said after the Legends of the Phog exhibition game at Allen Fieldhouse in 2011, during which he and Owens served as honorary head coaches. 

“He was in tears talking to everybody about his love for the school.”

Owens recruited players like Ron Kellogg, Calvin Thompson and Greg Dreiling (Owens coached Kellogg and Thompson for one season), who became vital senior cogs on Brown’s 1986 Final Four team.

“Ted left me with a pretty good group,” Brown said. “I was blessed with a really good team. And the values those kids have because of their relationship with him was pretty neat. He (also) left me with some good coaches. I was fortunate to have Bob Hill, Calipari ... It was a remarkable staff. Ted had a lot to do with this program, and to see his feelings about it is pretty remarkable.”

At age 82 then, Owens still had a strong competitive fire.

“He wanted to beat my (butt), I can tell you that,” Brown said in reference to the exhibition game, where Owens’ White team tied Brown’s Blue squad, 111-111.

Just listen to KU coach Bill Self, who has endless admiration for Owens.

“He comes back (to Lawrence and KU) all the time,” Self once said. “We take golf trips together every summer. We bunked together in Scotland (in 2009) for a week. I’ve gotten to know coach real well. He’s been really good to me and my family. When you’ve (coached here) 19 years, he’s kind of the coach that sometimes get lost, but he went to two Final fours and won an awful lot of games.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been around a coach that takes more pride in what his ex-players are doing than what he does,” Self added to the Lawrence Journal-World on July 16, 2019 when Owens turned 90.

“But it’s also easier to do that because he’s older and he’s seen his guys grow up to be 60-year-old grown men.”

“He’s an amazing guy,” Self said.

Even the legendary Hall of Fame UCLA coach John Wooden greatly admired Owens. Wooden won 10 NCAA titles in 12 years, including a record seven straight.

Owens wrote about his friendship with Wooden in his book:

“Toward the end of John Wooden’s unparalleled career at UCLA, Wooden and I had established a strong-enough friendship that we exchanged notes at the beginning of each season. Wooden sent this note to me in his first year of his retirement.”

It was dated on March 2, 1976.

“Thanks Ted,

Keep your chin up. Our profession needs more men like you.”

Sincerely,

John Wooden

One of the highest compliments, indeed, from arguably the greatest coach in basketball history.

As the Journal-World reported in 2019, Owens has taught the “games he loves” at such faraway places as Japan, China, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland, the Philippines, Korea, England and Israel.

During a speech in Oklahoma around that time, which the Journal-World wrote that The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel called “one of the best speeches he had ever heard” and “refers to Owens as a American treasure,” Owens spoke about his life in basketball.

“I had some time to dream while I was hoeing cotton back on that farm in southwest Oklahoma,” Owens said. “But my dreams were never so great as to imagine what I have been privileged to do during my lifetime, playing college basketball for the great Hall of Fame coach Bruce Drake at OU, coaching at the University of Kansas, where James Naismith was the first coach and Phog Allen coached and promoted the game, and to coach in the St. Andrew’s of college basketball, Allen Fieldhouse.”

“I have learned that as a coach, your success will be measured by the productive and successful lives of those young men and women for whom you were responsible,” Owens added with great meaning. “A chaplain at the NCAA Final Four was speaking to the coaches at a Sunday church service (years ago) and he said it best: ‘You should always remember that you are not using young men and young women to win a game but that you are using the game to win young men and young women.’”

Owens, who is enshrined in the KU Athletics Hall of Fame, Cameron University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and Oklahoma Sports Hall of  Fame, did just that with young men in his long and storied coaching career. From humble beginnings in Hollis, to playing at OU, coaching at Cameron Junior College, to then getting the biggest break of his life as head coach at KU for 19 years, Owens has touched countless lives beyond measure.

While his KU coaching career ended on a bitter note with his firing in 1983, Owens still revels in returning to Allen Fieldhouse and seeing KU basketball games while catching up with former players and close lifelong friends. He has such fond memories of his time at Mount Oread.

“Coaching in Allen Fieldhouse is like no other experience I have ever encountered,” Owens told Jeff Bollig and Doug Vance in their 2008 book, What IT Means TO Be A Jayhawk.

“Just running out onto the court before the games — and the anticipation of a noise level unknown to most places — was electrifying. Our fans are pretty knowledgeable about basketball and pretty fair about recognizing the great plays of opponents. It isn’t just a game, but an event — the ‘Rock Chalk Chant,’ the pep band, the pompom squad, and the cheerleaders all add significantly to the game. When I go back to games, I can still sing the same songs and chant the same chants as if it were yesterday. That is tradition.

“It is something that stays with you forever. You can walk into a sports apparel store in almost any city and buy a Jayhawk cap. There aren’t any other Jayhawks. It is a unique name with a unique history. I live in Tulsa, and I see people wearing Jayhawk caps and shirts all the time. You can be proud of being a Jayhawk because it represents more than athletic victories. It represents great academics, great tradition, from Dr. Naismith and Dr. Allen and so many great achievements in politics, aerospace, and other professional areas. Being a Jayhawk fills you with pride.

“I stay as close (to the program) as I can while living in Tulsa. ... I love to come back every time I can and see my former players and coaches. It is one of the great joys of my life.”

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!