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Pagefi Portland Oboerver Thursday, October 26, 1978
Sports Talk
Where is the Pearl? According to
reports, the New York Knicks were
loaded with young guards and had
no intentions of dickering with free
agent Earl (the Petal) Monroe.
Not surprisingly, the Lakers,
figuring the Pearl would help botn
on the court and at the box office,
and, at 32, the former all-pro could
probably play another season or two,
were interested, especially when they
learned the Knicks would cut him
loose without demanding compen
sation.
A pparently all this never ma
terialized because New York ran into
injury problems. Two of their young
guards M ike Richardson and
Ray W illiam s are injured and
now M r. All-pro is needed again.
How all this will affect the play of
“ the Pearl" is yet to be seen. What is
seen, though, is fewer thirty point
games from M r. Monroe.
The Knicks aren’t exactly burning
up the league since they acquired all
those big named, high salaried super-
stars. And some thought the
acquisition o f Marvin Webster, from
the Seattle club would anchor an
already solid team. So far it hasn’t
happened and some have even said
that Lonnie Shelton, who was given
to Seattle as compensation, was the
equal o f Webster . . . and the
$430,000 and future number one
draft pick given to Seattle was an in
justice. What is implied in simple
terms is that Mr. Webster was over
rated.
As all the baseball world knows a
great friend, Jim “ Junior" Gilliam
has passed. The Dodgers dedicated
the 25th World Series to him and
Dodger management spoke of him in
glowing terms. Everyone agreed that
he was a devoted, dedicated, and a
hard worker and a credit to the
game
Junior toiled 24 years in the
Dodger organization as both a player
and coach. What was over looked
was that Jim G illiam wanted to
manage in the M ajor Leagues but
was never given the opportunity.
Why? Perhaps it is good that he
didn’t get the chance, but he cer
tainly deserved one. The true fact is
that Black managers are always on
trial. Jus: one losing season and
you’re almost always gone. Sure the
Chicago White Sox gave Larry Doby
his chance this year but they expected
him to do something (win a pennant)
that no Sox manager since 1959 has
been able to do. And it’s sad to see
Frank Robinson have to manage in
Rochester now after all he’s done for
the game. Jim Gilliam always gave
110 percent but it’s my belief that
Jim was shorted by the Dodger
organization.
N B A news . . . Golden State
traded their No. 1 pick of a year ago,
Ricky Green, to Detroit. Cleveland
Cavalier center Elmore Sm ith, a
form er Laker, w ill undergo a
surgical examination o f his swollen
left knee and will be lost for at least
ten days to two weeks . . . The
Chicago Bulls No. 1 draft choice
Tate A rm strong, has undergone
surgery and will be out at least six
weeks . . . Remember Ed Ratleff,
former Long Beach great, well "easy
Ed” was put on waivers by the Kings
along with nine year vet Jim m y
Walker.
N B A good guy award goes to
Denvers’ D avid Thom pson . . .
Thompson has purchased fifty
season tickets to Nuggets' games this
season for distribution to under
privileged
and
disadvantaged
youngsters in the Denver area, the
team announced. Hear that Maurice
Lucas?
W ill veteran guard Norm Van Lier
resurface a fte r having cleared
waivers by Chicago? Just got to
believe N orm
can play fo r
somebody.
Blazers must face issue
by Bill Schaefer
It is high time that the manage
ment o f the Portland Trailblazers
faced a hard, sad but obvious truth
— the team has become a physical
mess. The issue should be faced
squarely because it is the only way to
answer the questions — how did it all
happen? And what can be done to
prevent it from happening again?
W alton, Lucas, Gross, H ollins
and Twardzik — the starting five
which brought a National Basketball
Association championship to Port
land two long seasons ago — ah in
capacitated by injuries o f all sorts
and degrees. Not to mention the in
juries to key reserves Steele and
Neal.
The injuries cannot be shrugged
o ff as the kind o f “ bad luck” the
team wishes us to believe. There is a
point at which coincidence and fate
lose their credibility. Walton, Lucas
et al are not a bunch o f old men
whose broken bones and other sun
dry ailments are impervious to time.
They are, or are supposed to be, in
the physical prime o f their lives.
Then why all the injuries?
Dr Thomas Holmes, an eminent
psychiatrist who has made a study o f
injuries and illnesses as they relate to
the University of Washington foot
ball team, told the Observer this
week that there is a direct relation
ship between emotional stress and
the injury factor.
“ We have developed a series of 42
life events, events requiring a change
in adjustment in everything from the
death of a spouse to a traffic ticket,"
D r. Holmes said. "These life
changes are predictive o f health
changes. We have run correlations
between life changes and injuries and
discovered that the high risk group
was involved in the most injuries and
illnesses.”
C ould the study apply to a
professional basketball team as well
as a football team?
“ Certainly,’1 Dr. Holmes said. " I
would assume the Portland team is
undergoing these life changes.”
The problem, Dr. Holmes said, is
- not unawareness but deliberate
avoidance to take action by
management.
"M o s t coaches, the good ones,
anyway, know intuitively about all
this,” Dr. Holmes said. "Some o f
them have a way o f anticipating the
problem, then defusing it. But most
of them are scared. They may feel
that professional athletes are allergic
to psychiatry.”
Perhaps the main reason why
sports psychiatry is held in low
esteem by professional teams is that
results cannot be seen in the profit
and loss column.
The Trailblazers know they will at
tract 12,666 fans to every home
game, even if the team is comprised
of players o f less than top quality. So
long as the fans believe the exhor
tations o f Coach Jack Ramsay about
“ hanging in there” and the almost
unbelievable tub thumping by some
o f the media on behalf o f the team,
why should the Blazers enter into an
area where cost accounting doesn’t
show up on the scoreboard?
It is much simpler, the team has
discovered, to raise ticket prices. The
Blazers know there’s a sucker born
every minute and 12,666 of them are
certain to show up for each home
game.
Trailblazers visit Boise
Maurice Lucas and Herm Gilliam
o f the World Championship Trail
blazers w ill be at Boise School
A uditorium on Monday, October
30th, at 7:30 p.m. to sign sixth grade
boys up for Boy Scout Troop 152.
Troop 152, headed by Scoutmaster
George Simmons, is sponsored by
Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church.
Maurice Lucas, NBA All Star first
string and number one power for
ward of the NBA was a Boy Scout as
a young man.
Herm Gilliam now covers T ra il
blazer action with Jimmy Jones on
Channel 12. Gilliam earned the rank
o f Eagle Scout, Boy Scouting’s
highest rank.
Features o f the evening include a
film depicting NBA highlights shown
by Gilliam and Lucas and “ Bridge to
A d ve n tu re ,’ * narrated by Bill
Schomley, official voice o f the Trail
blazers.
The word gat c o m « from the Flemish spelling of "chaos.”
It was devised by a Flemish alchemist. Jan Baptista van
Helmont, who w m the first to realize that there are such
substances
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