Page 4..The Portland Observer...May 6, 1992
Blazers and the Suns: THE Playoff Series
More on Replacing Congress with Contract Help
BY PROF. MCKINLEY BURT
Bush's political campaigns.
One reader set up a schedule o f
priorities fo r the assignments to the
contract operators. First things first, he
said (money honey), noting that as the
Knight-R idder News Service said a
week ago, “ The Bush administration
appears to be D EL A Y IN G M OVES TO
S H U T D O W N L A R G E F A IL IN G
BANKS
U N T IL
AFTER
N O V E M B E R ’ S E LE C TIO N for p o liti
cal reasons.” The director o f the Con
gressional Budget O ffice said, “ The
delay could drive up costs o f bank
failures by tens o f b illion s o f dollars.”
This was detailed to sleepy congress
men s till trying to balance their own
checkbooks.
Now, hundreds o f b illion s, not
“ tens" is more like the amount poor
taxpayers are going to have to pick up.
W illia m Kistner, an associate w ith the
Center fo r Investigative Reporting in
San Francisco, puts the matter where
even an eighth grader can understand it
when he described the savings and loan
debacle in the Forum Section o f the
Sunday Oregonian. Our congressmen
who have been demonstrated not to be
able to count, bought early estimates o f
“ less than 50 b illio n ” in that case as
w ell. Together, the ante can w ell be a
T R IL L IO N D O L L A R S !
Another point that came up among
our readership (and it frequently does)
is the matter o f the huge A M E R IC A N
AR M S SHIPMENTS to foreign coun
tries. C N N reports that the Pentagon
alone shipped more than 1 b illio n dol-
I was hardly senous not too long
ago when 1 suggested that we dispense
w ith Congress, elections and the like,
and JU ST C O N T R A C T O U T TH E
W H O L E BU SINESS previously per
form ed by our elected o fficia ls.” But I
love the way readers responded.
Several cooperating callers sug
gested that the technique be applied to
state, county and m unicipal bodies—
even port districts and other groups o f
elected o ffic ia ls exercising governance
in the infrastructure. One party said that
w hat she thought was so neat about the
idea was that the successful bidder on
any project could be forced to put up a
P E R FO R M A N C E B O N D -D o or die
pardner! Devise and implement the laws
and procedures necessary to slop the
drug tra ffic o r else you are bankrupt,
sucker; not on the public payroll fo r
life .
T w o items in particular seem to
have caught the readers’ s attention as
we listed the areas where our national
legislative body (or state) has failed to
act in a serious way.Surprisethat George
Bush as a congressman “ voted for re
peat o f federal mandatory sentencing
fo r a m inim um possession o f drugs.”
And that the venerable old American
arms manufacturing company, C olt (the
six-shooter, not the beer,) was a prime
m anufacturer o f the deadly “ street
w iper” A - 15 assault rifle. That com
pany is a large contributor to the N a
tional R ifle Association o f which Presi
dent Bush is a life-tim e member and to
lars w orth o f weapons PER M O N T H in
1991. Now this, o f course, does not
include the direct sales by the manufac
turers who supply our defense estab
lishm en t-w h o you may have thought
to be prim arily in the businessof A m e ri
can defense. Nor does this “ figure o f
death” include the transhipment to oth
ers o f weapons ostensibly destined for
use by our allies (to k ill somebody or
another).
The adm inistration has been ac
cusing Saudi Arabia and Israel, in par
ticular, for this type o f transgression as
though they had no preknowledge in
this deadly game o f musical chairs.
W ho dies each tim e the music stops?
Israel, o f course, has its own extensive
weapons industry and foreign arms sales
represent a considerable portion o f its
Gross National Product. A lot o f A m e ri
can (and European) blacks are terribly
unhappy yet about the Associated Press
report several years ago that Israel had
supplied South A fric a w ith T H O U
SANDS OF SHOTGUNS FOR “ DE-
FENSE” PURPOSES. Against who, the
black majority?
Certainly, immediate legislation to
correct the insanities we have cited
should keep our contract legislators
quite busy . I ’ m w ell aware that some o f
you had some rather caustic comments
on our CEOs and other industrialists-
and there has got to be a way to replace
“ junk bond happy” businessmen who
create no jobs, no futures and no hope.
W e’ ll get around to dealing w ith those
characters, too.
BY BILL BARBER
Fans have one overriding advan
tage. They can look ahead to the next
p la y o ff series. By contrast, players
have to look exclusively at the team that
stands in front o f them. They sim ply do
not have that luxury. The point being,
that it really does not matter who wins
in the S eattle-U tah tilt. A lm ostevery-
one agrees that the hottest series in the
Western Conference is the one being
played out between the Portland T ra il
Blazers and the Phoenix Suns this week.
Whoever comes out on top can realisti
cally expect an easier series against the
w inn erofthe S o nics-Jazz match up. Il
there was ever a “ must have” series for
the Blazers, this is it.
What is it going to take fo r the
Blazers to w in this match-up? Are you
looking fo r a 100%, “ Bet the farm and
I aint ly in g ” guarantee? In a word ...
Defense. Clyde D rexler said “ They
play w ell, but I do think we can play
better. Our defense has not been as good
against them as we would have lik e d ...
but I think our defense w ill be much
better.” The key is to keep Phoenix
from getting to the century mark. That
is an N B A p la yo ff fact. I f you average
out the scores o f all the 30 games played
in the N B A playoffs leading up to Tues
days game, you w ill find that the losing
teams have only scored 98.7 points.
The exact figure is 17 o f 30 losing
teams. The Suns have never won when
Portland kept Phoenix under 100 points.
Never.
W e ll, we have got the easy part
done ... T alking about it.
Portland T ra il Blazer coach R ick
Adelman has his w ork cut out for him.
No other team in the N B A has beaten
the Blazers in the regular season over
the last tw o years. The Suns h it over
50% (.508) from the fie ld which was
better than any other team in the league
did against the Blazers. Phoenix runs a
three-man weave. In addition, the pick-
and -roll they incorporate into their
m otion offense has given Portland a lot
to prepare for. The high- scoring team
is as good at the jum p shots and three-
pointers as they are at the fast break. 11
that description sounds fam iliar, you
probably got the point. It sounds like
Portland w ill be playing a m irror-im age
o f itself.
Portland has an intim idating ad
vantage on the boards, and you can tell
that the Suns are very aware o f it.
“ Portland does an unbelievable job on
the boards,” said Sun Kevin Johnson.
“ We know what they can do, and they
know what we can do. There are no
excuses during the playoffs. We have
to take away their rebounds. 1 like our
bench. We have tw o all-stars coming
o ff the bench.” Portland has been using
a seven-man rotation lately. Robinson
and Ainge were able to bring in 14 and
19 points respectively to the last L A
contest. Neither o f the two have had a
great deal o f success against Phoenix
during the regular season. Nonetheless,
you can throw that out the w indow now
that the playoffs are here. Robinson
and Ainge have done what was neces
sary to w in whenever they were called
on. Back to the subject o f the Suns
bench; i f a team has tw o should-be -
starters sitting down at the start o f the
game, the totals are bound to look lop
sided in the box scores. Alaa Ab-
delnaby scored a point a minute fo r the
five minutes he put in during clean-up
time. M an-for-man the Blazers should
have the edge in bench when they are
called on. Any way you cut it, i f that
person you know who has the Blazer-
Suns pla yoff tickets, s till owes you a
favor, this would be an excellent tim e to
call it in. This series is bound to be one
people talk about fo r a long time.
Considering the distractions o f the
Lakers-Blazers series it is amazing that
the team was able to keep its focus.
Sports did not seem to be very im p or
tant when balanced against what was
going on outside the building. Sports
writers are supposed to w rite about
sports, and nothing else. The same goes
for the players. Alas, we’re human.
When the verdict was announced, it
reminded us o f the story o f the man
whose w ife came home early to find
him w ith another woman. She was
justifiably enraged. The husband looked
at his wife and said the same thing the
defense attorney must have said to the
ju ry ... “ Who are you going to believe?
Me or your eyes? The players didn't
forget about the problems in L A , but
they had to play through the pain in
their hearts every b it as painful as the
pains in their bodies. The best thing
about being a sports reporter is getting
to know the players as people.
This is going to be known as the
“ Business Series.” When you talk about
“ Game-faces,” you can bet you won't
see a smile anywhere on the court till
the final buzzer o f the fin al game.
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In last week's issue we mistakenly ran the wrong name
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We apologize.
The Portland Observer Staff and Management
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