The World According To Chris Brewer

Rest in peace, Duck. (Photo credit: Blazers.com)

Terribly sad news for Portland Trail Blazers fans today as Kevin Duckworth, a center for the team from 1986-93, has died while spending time at the Oregon coast. Here’s the press release from the Blazers web site:

BLAZERS GREAT KEVIN DUCKWORTH, TWO-TIME ALL-STAR, DIES
“Duck” starred for two-time Western Conference Champs

PORTLAND, Ore. - Kevin Duckworth, 44, a two-time NBA All-Star who starred on Western Conference Championship teams in Portland in 1990 and 1992, passed away Monday evening in Gleneden Beach, Oregon.

A member of the Trail Blazers from 1986-93, the 7-footer - affectionately known to Trail Blazers fans simply as “Duck” - also played for San Antonio, Washington, Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Clippers during his 11-year NBA career.

“Today is an extremely sad day for the Trail Blazers family,” Trail Blazers President Larry Miller said. “Kevin will be remembered by fans as one of the most popular and recognizable players to ever wear the Blazers uniform, but to people who knew him, he’ll be remembered as one of the warmest and biggest-hearted.”

Duckworth remained in the Portland area after his playing career ended, where he was an avid fisherman & outdoorsman, and a skilled carpenter. He was on the Oregon Coast representing the Trail Blazers as a Heritage Ambassador on the team’s 19-city Statewide Summer Tour. The cause of his death is unknown, and will be determined by a Lincoln County Medical Examiner.

A second-round draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs out of Eastern Illinois University in 1986, Duckworth was only 14 games into his NBA career when he was acquired by the Trail Blazers from San Antonio in exchange for Walter Berry.

One season later, the 7-foot center was thrust into the spotlight because of injuries to Steve Johnson and Sam Bowie. Duckworth responded by averaging 15.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, establishing himself as a pivot presence instrumental in Portland’s emergence as one of the NBA’s dominant teams.

Duckworth remains the 10th leading scorer (7,188) and rebounder (3,327) in Trail Blazers history, compiling averages of 13.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 527 games with Portland. During his tenure, Trail Blazers teams compiled a record of 356-193 (.648). In 684 career NBA games, Duckworth scored 8,085 points (11.8 ppg), grabbed 3,945 rebounds (5.8 rpg) and shot 46.8 percent from the field.

“This is a devastating loss,” said Traci Rose, Trail Blazers Vice President of Community Relations. “To this day, Duck is adored throughout this state and remains a brother to his teammates and to Trail Blazers staff. We will forever miss our beloved 00.”

Information on memorial services will be announced as it becomes available. Duckworth is survived by his mother and sister.

Portland media is all over this story as well. Of note on the KPTV page is the KXL interview with Bill Schonely, the famed longtime Blazers broadcaster.

Prayers go out to Duck’s family and friends at this time.

If this isn’t faith in action, I’m honestly not sure what is.

There are pockets of folks throughout the nation who have started movements called “Pray at the Pump,” and if you’ve been around a gas station recently you know good and well why they’re praying.

Check this out, courtesy of the Washington Post:

Some people might think that’s funny, but I find it really neat that groups of people are willing to pray for the Lord to intervene in an issue in which many people are making tough financial choices.

I think we could all do good to have their faith!

I am politically apathetic, and last night was prime evidence of why. If you’re a Republican in the state of Missouri, I feel sorry for you.

VERY sorry.

You have no good choice for governor, if last night’s debate at KY3 was any indication.

Aside from criticizing Missy Shelton and Dave Catanese, whom I can say are neat people after I met them last week — Vincent David Jericho hit pretty hard on his radio show this morning when he pretty much said the KY3 debate between Kenny Hulshof and Sarah Steelman sucked.

Audio below (click the play button), and the first five minutes are the most interesting:
[audio:http://www.ksgf.com/Portals/67/KSGF%20Audio/This%20week/KSGF_072408_Hr1a-%20POCAST-%20Gov%20Debate.mp3]

I had to watch the debate for work purposes and this is what I took from it:

Steve Grant, KY3: “Opening statements from each candidate, please.”
Sarah Steelman: “I don’t suck even though I’m not a good public speaker.”
Kenny Hulshof: “I really don’t suck even though I am a smooth talker.”
Steve Grant: “Now a question from the panelist.”
Panelist (take your pick): (insert pointed question here)
Hulshof: “Sarah Steelman sucks, blah blah blah blah Steelman sucks.”
Steelman: “Well, Kenny sucks worse, blah blah mork bork bork bork.”
Panelists: “Why does the other one suck?”
Hulshof: “Steelman sucks because, well, she sucks.”
Steelman: “Hulshof sucks because, well, he sucks worse.”
Grant: “Closing statements now from each candidate.”
Steelman: “Vote for me. I don’t offer anything but vote anyway.”
Hulshof: “Sarah Steelman is not invited to my birthday party.”

Cut and paste all the italicized text above, and you have the gist of politics in America. It makes me want to kiss my ivory friend who resides in the bathroom.

Speaking about the content of the debate, VDJ is absolutely correct. The debate was a horrible tragedy for all to see, and I personally thought it was a train wreck from both candidates. There was no love lost between the two candidates and they made that more well-known than the issues they stood for.

In the rare case that the candidates did offer a question without attacking their opponent, they didn’t even make their stances very clear. The KY3 website has some snippets from the debate, and if you can watch it through without cringing, you have a gut of steel.

Why am I droning on about this? Because I am one voter who is sick and tired of my taxpayer dollars being spent by incompetent politicians from both political parties whose interests do not lie in the common man or woman they are supposed to represent. As long as the Democratic and Republican parties are allowed to run this nation, we will be held hostage to the banality of bureaucracy…and our forefathers will continue to roll in their graves.

About the debate, though, I should have watched the Mariners lose yet again to Boston. That would have been much more entertaining.

Shoot, I’d watch the 39th season debut of Sesame Street on August 11 just for one reason. Feist will be on the show, and she is performing a variation of her famed track “1234″ for all the kids to see. And a few adults too, I might add.

Through the mighty power of the internet, the clip is available now and has been viewed by almost half a million people on Youtube.

I’m going to bring it to you now:

Absolutely beautiful. You can really hear Telly’s voice shining in the background vocals.

The only commentary you’ll see from me here is that things in Seattle just got 2/3 better, but these moves honestly should have been made a couple months ago, if not sooner.

Now if we can dump Richie Sexson I will be a happy man. He strikes out in baseball more often than I do with members of the female gender, and that is HARD to top.

ESPN’s report on the firing of M’s manager John McLaren:

John McLaren is the latest member of the Seattle Mariners to get cut loose. He probably won’t be the last.

On the day McLaren was fired as manager, Seattle executives said they agree with franchise cornerstone Ichiro Suzuki that players should also be jettisoned from the team with the worst record in the majors.

After beginning the year with playoff expectations, the Mariners are now in the midst of what appears to be a lost season. They fired general manager Bill Bavasi this week and followed by dismissing McLaren on Thursday.

Bench coach Jim Riggleman was promoted to run the team, starting Friday night in Atlanta. He became Seattle’s fifth manager in six seasons.

Praise the Lord witchyo feet, yo.

Seattle Mariners fans have reason to at least smile in the midst of a horrid campaign this year, as Bill Bavasi has been fired, according to a press release that came down the wires about 30 minutes ago.

From the Seattle Times:

“Change is in order,” Howard Lincoln said in a statement released by the team. “We have determined new leadership is needed in the GM position. With a new leader will come a new plan and a new approach. A search will begin immediately for a permanent GM, and Lee will be a candidate for the position.”

The Mariners are 24-45 after being swept in three games by the Washington Nationals at Safeco Field.

I’m surprised they didn’t make this change sooner, but still I’m not celebrating yet as we have yet to see whether the new hire will merely be Bill’s clone.

Then again, as bad as this season is going so far (and it’s not even the All-Star break yet!), if you wanna toast this occasion I might join in.

I just got back from shooting footage of streets flooded in the Springfield area. Use extra caution when driving — one particularly bad area is Campbell and Bennett, over by Parkview High and Fassnight Park. Fassnight Creek has spilled its banks into the park and is continuing to rise.

Check news-leader.com for more.

Be careful out there…

Who can forget seeing Jim McKay on TV reporting at the Olympics year after year? The guy was an absolute legend, and no one event cemented that moreso than the 1972 Munich incident, on which he reported flawlessly as it happened.

This morning, Jim McKay died at age 87. That’s a pretty long and healthy life. Godspeed to you, Jim!

From the AP:

NEW YORK - Jim McKay, the veteran and eloquent sportscaster thrust into the role of telling Americans about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died. He was 87.

McKay died Saturday of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md. The broadcaster who considered horse racing his favorite sport died only hours before Big Brown attempted to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes.

He was host of ABC’s influential “Wide World of Sports” for more than 40 years, starting in 1961. The weekend series introduced viewers to all manner of strange, compelling and far-flung sports events.

McKay also covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. He was the anchor when events turned grim with the news that Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. It was left to McKay to tell Americans when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended in tragedy.

“They’re all gone,” McKay said.

He won both a news and sports Emmy Award for his coverage of the Munich Olympics in addition to the prestigious George Polk award.

“In the long run, that’s the most memorable single moment of my career,” said McKay, an Emmy Award winning broadcaster who was also in the studio for the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” victory over Russia. “I don’t know what else would match that.”

A veteran of the U.S. Navy in World War II, McKay was the first on-air television broadcaster seen in Baltimore. He worked at CBS Sports briefly, but did his most memorable work at ABC Sports when it dominated the business under leader Roone Arledge.

“He had a remarkable career and a remarkable life,” said Sean McManus, McKay’s son and the president of CBS News and Sports. “Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t come up to me and say how much they admired my father.”

McKay was the first sportscaster to win an Emmy Award. He won 12, the last in 1988. ABC calculated that McKay traveled some 4 1/2 million miles to work events. He covered more than 100 different sports in 40 countries.

“There are no superlatives that can adequately honor Jim McKay,” said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. “He meant so much to so many people. He was a founding father of sports television, one of the most respected commentators in the history of broadcasting and journalism.”

This just in from the Longview, WA Daily News:

All six Rainier School Board members will retain their seats, according to Tuesday night election results.

With only 43 ballots remaining to be counted, none of the six board members received enough yes votes to be recalled, according to figures from the Columbia County Elections Department. A simple majority of 50 percent plus one was required to recall a board member.

The final few ballots were still being counted as of 9 p.m., but there weren’t enough remaining ballots to change any of the results. Two board members, though, did come close to being recalled. Chairman Dale Archibald and Rod Harding both received 47 percent “yes” votes for the recall, the closest of any of the board members on the ballot.

(bold emphasis mine)

Rats, I say.

There is a silver lining — elections will be held next year, so the current board has one year to run the district. Maybe this election put the fear of God into some of them, especially Archibald (whom I felt needed to go) and Harding who were nearly recalled.

I would like to see the official figures and numbers crunched by the Columbia County clerk and will withhold further comment until I do.

I hate losing in sports, but I still have enough dignity to not flagrantly foul an opposing player on a breakaway to the basket when my team is down by double digits.

Apparently Jason Kidd doesn’t. Here’s the video of him throwing down Jannero Pargo during tonight’s playoff loss to the Hornets that put them down 3-1 in the series:

I hate the Dallas Mavericks and I hope New Orleans finishes them off.