Moments before today's NBA draft, Paul Allen finally did it. After months of speculation the old man finally fired GM Kevn Pritchard.
For those of you who don't know Kevin Pritchard, he is a man who took over the role as GM in 2007 and since then has rebuilt the Portland TrailBlazers brick by brick into the team that we support today. When he took over in 2007, we were a team of douche bags and sex offenders. When he took over we had max contracts to Zach Randolph and Darius Miles. When he took over, our arena was bankrupt, our owner was looking to sell, and we were in the midst of our longest playoff drought in 30 years. When he took over, we were a 20 win team.
He went into the 2006 draft officially the "Assistant GM" of the Portland Trail Blazers. Unofficially, he was running the team (lets face it, Steve Patterson was incompetent). The 06 draft ultimatly proved to be an accurate forshaddow of how KP was going to run the team over the next four years. It was on that day he influenced the decisions that turned Sebastian Telfair, Ty Thomas and Randy Foye into Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.
It was draft day 2007 that the phrase "Pritch-Slap" was born. (Pri-tch slap!: term signifying a one sided trade, draft or free agent signing where GM Kevin Pritchard is the benifactor). The phrase took life after he conned Isiah Thomas into taking Zach Randolph off our hands. Then called up Phoenix (notoriously cheap bastards) and offered them 1 million dollars for spanish sensation Rudy Fernandez.
Unfortunatly, the genius that took place that day is often over shaddowed by the presently one sided debate of Oden vs Durrant. KP was given the task of decided between a potential franchise center, or a potential franchise scorer. KP, like anyone else in his position, went with the once in a generation franchise center.
Proving that he isn't a mystic, the draft pick so far has proven to be grossly onsided in the outcome (Durrant is the youngest scoring champion ever, and Greg Oden has struggled to stay on the court). Thankfully for everyone, Oden is still 22 years old.
Speak to any Trail Blazer fan and they'll talk for hours of the often overstated abillities of KP. "Who would win in a a game of 1-1, MJ or KP?" "Who would win in a fight, KP or Chuck Norris" or my personal favorite, "Who would win in a 100 meter free style swim, KP or Michael Phelps?" According to local legends, KP would stand victor.
Sadly, the executive with the brassest balls (it's been reported that KP has no problem calling up teams like Miami and offering them a lap dance and a corn dog for superstars like Dewayne Wade) is now jobless. He saved basketball in Portland, and Paul Allen turned on him in a manner fitting for a pro wrestling storyline. In short, Paul Allen 'Pritch Slapped' Kevin Pritchard.
He went into the 2006 draft officially the "Assistant GM" of the Portland Trail Blazers. Unofficially, he was running the team (lets face it, Steve Patterson was incompetent). The 06 draft ultimatly proved to be an accurate forshaddow of how KP was going to run the team over the next four years. It was on that day he influenced the decisions that turned Sebastian Telfair, Ty Thomas and Randy Foye into Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.
It was draft day 2007 that the phrase "Pritch-Slap" was born. (Pri-tch slap!: term signifying a one sided trade, draft or free agent signing where GM Kevin Pritchard is the benifactor). The phrase took life after he conned Isiah Thomas into taking Zach Randolph off our hands. Then called up Phoenix (notoriously cheap bastards) and offered them 1 million dollars for spanish sensation Rudy Fernandez.
Unfortunatly, the genius that took place that day is often over shaddowed by the presently one sided debate of Oden vs Durrant. KP was given the task of decided between a potential franchise center, or a potential franchise scorer. KP, like anyone else in his position, went with the once in a generation franchise center.
Proving that he isn't a mystic, the draft pick so far has proven to be grossly onsided in the outcome (Durrant is the youngest scoring champion ever, and Greg Oden has struggled to stay on the court). Thankfully for everyone, Oden is still 22 years old.
Speak to any Trail Blazer fan and they'll talk for hours of the often overstated abillities of KP. "Who would win in a a game of 1-1, MJ or KP?" "Who would win in a fight, KP or Chuck Norris" or my personal favorite, "Who would win in a 100 meter free style swim, KP or Michael Phelps?" According to local legends, KP would stand victor.
Sadly, the executive with the brassest balls (it's been reported that KP has no problem calling up teams like Miami and offering them a lap dance and a corn dog for superstars like Dewayne Wade) is now jobless. He saved basketball in Portland, and Paul Allen turned on him in a manner fitting for a pro wrestling storyline. In short, Paul Allen 'Pritch Slapped' Kevin Pritchard.
He deserved to see this through. It's a sad day for him and it's a sad day for Rip City.
1 comment:
In a related story, my buddy Adam asked today on facebook "who is Kevin Pritchard"
This was my response:
Kevin Pritchard is a hero, and the now former GM of the Portland Trail Blazers. He was an innovator of his craft, coining the term SPAM (spend paul allens money) which lead to the practice of purchasing prospects from cheap teams and stashing them in Europe untill we needed them (see: Fernandez, Rudy).
KP was a magician of sorts. He turned Ty ... See MoreThomas into LaMarcus. He turned Sebastian Telfair into Randy Foye, then turned him into Raef Lafrentz expiring contract and Brandon Roy.
He turned an injured Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake into former defensive player of the year Marcus Camby.
KP loved to win. His first year with him in charge saw us improve our win total by 9 games. The next two years we won over 50 and made the playoffs. He also loved Hookers.
KP was a great man. A wise man. And one hell of an American.
Pour out your 40's.
Post a Comment