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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1992)
• ■* * s $ * * l'âge 8. ...The Portland Observer...April 29, 1992 eat LA Prediction: Blazers by B ill B a rb e r Budd Hopkins, Author of Intruders to Speak at Red Lion Hotel The world's foremost UFO abduc tion investigator, Budd Hopkins w ill be speaking at the Red Lio n Hotel at L lo yd Center Sunday, May 24th, at 6:00pm - 10:00pm. He w ill be sponsored by the Northwest UFO Group, Inc. Ticketsare $10.00 plus a convenience charge, and are available through F A S T IX and G. I. Joe's T icket Master. For more inform a tion on this event, call the Northwest UFO Group, Inc. at (503)699-8367. On a summer afternoon in 1964, Budd Hopkins and tw o others watched a small, round m etallic craft maneuver in the sky over Cape Cod. This daylight sig h tin g m arked the beginning o f A l AA abdelnaby M ost o f the fans in the Rose C ity c o u ld n 't be happier that the Portland T ra il Blazers ended up playing the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round o f the N B A championship series. The most frequently asked question o f the Blaz ers’ staff and players is about the oppor tu nity to avenge last year’ s elim ination o f Portland by the Lakers. The fans and the media seem to be a lot more con cerned w ith the “ Get Even” attitude than the people who have to play the game. As Clyde D rexlerput it, “ I t ’ s just a question o f getting to the next series. The bigger th rill would have been to beat them i f they had all o f their good players.” Man fo r man, the team seems to be firm ly focused on the idea o f winning the game Wednesday. N ot out o f some vindictive m otivation ... Quite sim ply, it is A goal, on the way to TH E goal. The Portland Observer’ s deadline fo r the Sports Department is Tuesday morning, so by the time you read this, you w ill know i f the Blazers had a clean sweep o f the series in three games. Looking a few days into the future, I wonder i f the fans and the media w ill be satisfied i f the T ra il Blazers do not finish o ff L A Wednesday night in the forum. In the last three seasons, Port land has a w inning record o f 179-67. Only four games (183-63) separate them from Chicago’ s lead in the big show. Portland has set a record in each o f its first tw o game, yet the media gener ally glossed over both accomplishments. In game 1, the media raked the Blazers over the coals fo r an adm ittedly dismal 3rd quarter effort. However, they al most totally failed to applaud the team fo r scoring record breaking 75 points in the first h a lf o f the game. The previous high was 73 points on May 31, 1977 when they played Philadelphia. In game 2, the media was harping on the low percentage o f shots that fe ll threw the net. Yet the Blazers set another record. This time fo r allow ing the fewest points scored by an opponent. Final score 101- 79. The previous opponent team p la yo ff low was 83 points on A p ril 12, 1977 against Chicago. The defense was a beautiful sight to see that night. Kevin D uckw orth, who had been bounced in the third quarter o f game one, held Vlade D ivac scoreless in the first h a lf o f the second game when they played head to head. D uckw orth has been coming on big time in the past few weeks. There is a new spring in his step and a re-estab lishment o f his dominant presence on the court. Duck is one o f people who possesses the sk ill to self-analyze his game. He doesn’ t have to read it in the newspaper or see it on T V , to recognize what has to be done to step up his game at p la yo ff time. His team mates w ill tell you he is one o f the best in the league at setting picks, or intim idating his oppo nent into passing the ball back outside instead o f risking a shot. He w ill also take the calculated risk o f jum ping out to guard smaller players on defense. The odds o f finding him out o f position on offense w ould be greater i f you were trying to get p la y o ff tickets. The high point totals aren’ t always there, but that is more a result o f the game strategy and the am ount o f p la yin g tim e, than Duck w orth’s effort. It safe to predict he has a 20+ point game soon. The seven footer w o n 't be denied. As long as predictions are being made, Alaa Abdelnaby w ill be heard from before the end o f the second sea son. The former Duke graduate and Portland crowd favorite has had lim ited playing tim e to say the least. However, A bdelnaby know s as much about crunch-time championship games as any young player in the N B A . He demonstrated he was ready for the Big Show when Coach Adelman cleared the bench in the last few minutes o f Game 2. He scored a couple o f times, but those elbows above the rim rebounds just leave the opposition standing there w ith their mouths open. Keep an eye on him. Finally, as mentioned, since the deadline has to be honored on Tuesday, and the next game w on’ t be played u ntil Wednesday, we asked some o f the players i f it was okay i f we just pre dicted a win in L A ahead o f time? Alaa Abdelnaby said we could go ahead and print it. “ W e’ ll w in it,” he said. A good reporter always gets a second source. Clyde Drexler, usually the most d ip lo matic and humble player o f the team said, “ I know you have a dead line, but go ahead and tell your (Portland O b server) readers we are going to B E A T L A .” Thanks Clyde; I know the reader- ship appreciates that. V Hopkins' interest in the UFO phenom enon, but his firs t nationally known investigation did not take place until 1975. Then, a UFO apparently landed less than a m ile from Manhattan and was observed from various vantage points by a num ber o f witnesses. Hopkins' carefully researched account o f this incident appeared in The Village Voice, Cosmopolitan magazine and elsewhere, and was covered exten sively by T V and radio. Hopkins' first book, M issingTim e, was published by R ichard M arek/ Putnam in 1981, and was the first work to compare a number o f UFO abduction cases in order to locate the pattern in herent in such bizarre accounts. His second book, Intruders-The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods, was pub lished by Random House in 1987, and shortly thereafter became a national best seller. A television mini-series, based on Hopkins' w ork and to be en titled Intruders, w ill appear in M ay o f 1992 on CBS. Check your program guide fo r scheduling information. In 1989 Hopkins founded the In truders Foundation (IF ), a not-for-profit organization devoted to research and public education concerning the UFO abduction phenomenon. IF publishes a highly-acclaim ed bulletin as w ell as offering a nation-wide referral service fo r those wishing to explore their own suspected abductions experiences. For more inform ation about IF Continued from page 7 and out o f Pretoria, the group I was traveling w ith, the Am erican Legisla tive National Black Caucus (w ith rep resentatives from various states) had as one o f our main functions to get a look at (1) the process o f apartheid being dismantled or the lack o f it being dis mantled; (2) the real effects o f the eco nomic sanctions, which were most re cently lifte d , and to see i f they should be put back in place i f meaningful progress isn’ t being implemented; 3) and being a study group on tour observing the procedures, pro and con, fo r future re f erences. “ One o f the main points that really stood out in my m ind was the educa tional system. They have an extremely strange educational system. As I men tioned before, as we went in and out o f Pretoria, on several occasions our ven tures led us to the Center fo r Constitu tional Analysis, where we found that their education system is b u ilt upon 34- tiered program. Each tier has its own M inister o f Education to manage each program ind ivid ua lly. The bottom line is money. Under one system $2,500 is designated per white child; under an other system $1,800 is designated per colored ch ild ; yet under another system $1,600 is designated per Asian child, and only $600 per Black child. Plus, to make matters seem worse, a ll the M in isters o f Education arc white! “ T h ro u g h a ll o u r tra v e ls in Jo ha nn esb urg , P re to ria , U lc n d i, Bophulhatswana, Durban and Cape Town, I found it very unique that Mr. i Nelson Mandela had gained a lot o f support from both Black and W hite, as well as Colored and Asian, who all seem very much united fo r the goals o f the African National Congress. “ W hat proved to be a great high light o f this trip was the opportunity fo r us to meet w ith C hief Buthelezi and the Inkhata people. These people were striv ing to develop a National policy fo r health and education. It was truly a pleasure to see such a strong and pow erful underground economy that s till exists according to tribal standards o f the U lendi people. “ D uring my b rie f visits to Durban and Cape Tow n, I found that they both had small numbers o f Blacks, which means that it is hard to get equal access to changing the laws i f you don’ t have the numbers to vote fo r change. H ow ever, Durban did have a large number o f Indians, and there was a large num ber o f Coloreds in Cape Town. “ To give you a general outlook o f the situation from my observation, it seems that one o f the most troublesome things I noticed was the structure o f the South African Police Force Special Unit. Now hear this real clear; it was rumored that this organization was directly re sponsible fo r keeping the flames o f war burning hot between the Zulu Nation and the A frican National Congress. But this was o nly a rumor; there arc no concrete facts to support such actions. However, when we take a real close look at the situation at face value, we sec that 43 percent o f the police force is W hite, w ith only 1.73 percent o f the o fficer core being Black, whereas the rest o f the force are traffic police or w ork other units. Therefore, it is highly possible that the above cited rumor could be more than a rumor. “ Another important point I would like to share is the fact that 25 m illion Black South A frican people live on less than 11 percent o f the land. And to complicate matters, the Black South Africans are not allowed to enjoy the fruits o f the large amounts o f natural resources, such as gold, diamonds, plati num, uranium, coal, iron-ore, asbestos, and manganese. One o f the main rea sons fo r this way o f life stems from the long history established by the Dutch for a close system o f government. And the W hite m ino rity o f South A frica feel that they have a God-given right to control all the natural resources as well as the lives o f the Black people, based upon codes that existed over the past 900 years up to this very date. Some thing like America s till feels towards the N ative Americans. “ A t any rate, I did get a chance to speak w ith M r. Hank Roodt, who is over Foreign A ffairs, and he thinks a change w ill take place, but it w ill be under a very slow process and it w on’ t be any nationalization o f country w ith a fair split on funding to keep schools, health care and a stable economic afloat ei ther. But some kind o f change fo r the better for our brothers and sisters in South A frica is on the horizon.” « M * • <*> last part of the season. r I write: IF-the Intruders Foundation Box 30233 New York, N Y 10011 (212) 645-5278 Love-Lee- Ladee Beauty Salon Honorable Margaret L. Carter Continued Jerome Kersey and the Portland Trail Blazers can wrap up their 1st round playoff series with a win tonight over the Lakers in Los Angeles. The Blazers have blown the Lakers out in the first two games. Jerome Kersey has played well despite being slowed by an ankle injury during the 3206 N. Williams Ave. t McMurphy's Appliance Center UJcisher & Dryer s1 9 9 - Refrigcrators From 51 2 9 - Ranges From s 1 2 9 - Dedicated To Your Beauty Needs (503) 284-0293 ) Hours: Tue-Sat For Best Results Advertise in the Observer t , s
