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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
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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
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