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B1
Portland fans can take a
walk back in time with
author Kerry Eggers
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
Portland Trail Blazers fans can get an
inside look at the team on Wednesday
night from a man who has witnessed the
good, the bad and the ugly of the team for
the better part of three decades.
Kerry Eggers, of the Portland Tri-
bune, will have a meet and greet at Sun-
down Grill and Bar-B-Q in Pendleton,
starting at 5:30 p.m.
A social hour will be followed by
Eggers talking about his new book “Jail
Blazers: How the Portland Trail Blazers
Became the Bad Boys of Basketball” and
a discussion about this year’s team, which
reached the Western Conference Finals
for the first time since 2000.
Eggers’ book takes readers into the
world of the Blazers from 1995 to 2005,
where drugs, infidelity, attitude and run-
ins with the law were a regular part of the
Portland sports scene.
Eggers said it took him nearly a year to
write the book, which includes interviews
with roughly 70 people — 25 players, all
the head coaches during the time, refer-
ees, broadcasters and guys who worked
the police beat.
“There were a wide variety of opin-
ions during that time,” Eggers said. “This
Photo courtesy of Kerry Eggers
See Blazers, Page B2
Author Kerry Eggers, right, presents former Portland Trail Blazer and now Golden State coach Steve Kerr, with a copy of “Jail Blazers:
How the Portland Trail Blazers Became the Bad Boys of Basketball.”
North of border, Warriors enter Daltoso joins
the Panthers
new territory: 1-0 deficit
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
TORONTO — Steve Kerr has seen
a little of almost everything during his
wildly successful five-year run as coach
of the Golden State Warriors.
This, however, is something new.
For the first time, Kerr and the War-
riors are staring at a 1-0 deficit in the
NBA Finals. They’ve trailed in series
before, faced plenty of adverse moments
along the way, but this is the newest chal-
lenge for a franchise trying to join the
short list of clubs that have won three
consecutive championships.
“The experience helps,” Kerr said
Friday, a day after the Toronto Raptors
struck first. “Winning multiple champi-
onships helps because you have seen it
all. There’s also just the knowledge that
you’ve been here before. You’ve been
down. We have been up 3-1 and lost a
series. We have been down 3-1 and
won a series. Everything in between.
So nothing is going to catch these guys
off-guard.”
That’s his hope, anyway.
There was a clear air of confidence
from the Warriors even in the very first
moments after the loss Thursday night.
They knew they didn’t play particularly
well, and lost by only nine. They trailed
most of the way, yet still were within
striking distance plenty of times. They
seemed far from rattled.
“No matter what, our sights were
coming in that it’s a long series,” War-
riors star Stephen Curry said. “And
Game 2 is an opportunity for us to right
the wrongs and get a big win and go back
home.”
No one needs to explain to the War-
riors that a win on Sunday completely
shifts the narrative.
And even though the axiom has
always been that Game 1 winners usu-
AP Photo/Frank Gunn
Toronto Raptors guard Danny Green (14) reacts after making a 3-pointer against the
Golden State Warriors during the first half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals on
Thursday in Toronto.
ally go on to win the series — and that is
still the case — it seems that a 1-0 defi-
cit isn’t as daunting to teams as it once
might have been.
Since the league went to the 16-team
format for the 1984 postseason, Game 1
winners have never been as vulnerable
as they have seemed to be this year. In
the 14 series this year that preceded the
NBA Finals, six Game 1 winners wound
up losing their series. That’s never hap-
pened before in this format.
In the 2010s, Game 1 winners have
gone on to lose a series 31% of the time.
In the 2000s, it was 25%; in the 1990s,
15%.
“As soon as you lose a game, it will
be on the crawl that now we only have
a 19.7% chance of winning the series.
Then if we win (Sunday) we’ll have a
42.7% chance of not losing the series,”
said Kerr, tongue firmly planted in
cheek. “This stuff is what it is. You lose
a game, you come back and you try to
win.”
Kerr’s stance is clear: A simpler
approach — study film, find ways to get
better, apply them Sunday — is best.
On the other hand, Golden State
hadn’t lost a Game 1 this season. Or the
season before that. Or the season before
that.
The last time the Warriors woke up
and were down 1-0 in a series was the
Western Conference finals in 2016 —
against Kevin Durant and Oklahoma
City. The Warriors responded with a
blowout win in Game 2 and went on to
prevail in seven games.
“You never lose that experience,”
Warriors forward Draymond Green said.
“You can always look back on it and
See Finals, Page B2
Estrella Daltoso spent all
four years of her high school
career as a defender with the
Riverside Pirates varsity soc-
cer team.
This fall, she’ll join an all-
new program.
Last Wednesday, the Riv-
erside senior signed a letter
of intent to play soccer with
Daltoso
the Portland Community Col-
lege Panthers. A number of other
schools were on her radar, but she
knew Portland was the school for her as soon as she
set foot on campus.
“I was looking at Treasure Valley,” said Daltoso,
“but I immediately fell in love with the PCC campus,
its coaches, and the team.”
During her visit, Daltoso tried out for the Pan-
thers soccer team, which gave her hands-on expe-
rience with the girls who would become her future
teammates.
“My first impressions were that they were a very
serious group of girls, but they also knew how to have
fun,” she said. “They welcomed me onto the field and
treated me like I was on the team, even if they didn’t
know if I would make the cut at the time. They actu-
ally took the time to get to know me.”
For her last year with the Pirates, Daltoso helped
her team make a strong run at the 3A state title. They
shut out five consecutive games before falling to St.
Mary’s 6-0 in the state quarterfinals. Their 5-0-1
record earned the team the No. 1 spot in the Eastern
Oregon League standings.
“It was a really exciting year,” Daltoso said. “We
had worked so hard over the past four years to get to
the second round of state, and we were finally able
to accomplish that. It was such an amazing group of
girls. I’m excited to see where they go next year.”
During her time as a Panther, Daltoso plans to
study elementary education, which she said has been
a goal of hers for years. Her work as a summer camp
counselor at the Treasure Valley YMCA in Cascade,
Idaho, over the years inspired the decision.
“I love kids. They’re amazing,” she said. “I just
want to be able to help the youth.”