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.

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.

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.”

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.

Tonight I was doing my routine AT&T business at Wal-Mart on North Kansas Expressway in Springfield. My dinner hour came around 6, so I decided to walk a block down the street to Subway.

On my way there, I saw a large bus with the name “Kentucky Christian University” emblazoned on the side. Seeing as there was a McDonald’s, Subway and Buffalo Wild Wings in the vicinity, it was easy to see a sports team was at one of those fine dining establishments.

Turns out they were at Subway. I opened the door and instantly stood behind twenty or so guys of comparable height to, or taller than, myself. I knew it would be a long wait to order, but I decided to stick it out because I had already walked over. I was standing behind the players and coaches of the Kentucky Christian University men’s basketball team.

I was able to make some conversation with an assistant coach of the team, and their bus driver. They both shared how the team had made it to the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) D-2 Championship Tournament being held this weekend at Central Bible College. They both excitedly shared how they won their quarterfinal-round game last night on a buzzer beating 3-pointer, right after CBC had gone up 72-70 with ten seconds to go.

Seeing the players and coaches’ eyes light up as they recalled their win last night got the overused wheels in my head turning. These guys are part of a small Christian school in the middle of nowhere in BFE Kentucky, and they pay their own meals and transportation costs to travel and play basketball. No scouts looking for who could potentially make it to the NBA. No playing in front of 10,000 people. No players staying one year and bolting for the pros.

They’re playing simply for the love of the game.

Simply hearing the KCU basketball team share the details of their frantic comeback last night made me wish to God I could have been there to see it. I’m sure in person it looked exactly like a SportsCenter highlight-reel play, and yet it will never make it onto national TV.

After a short time, they gathered and left Subway to head back to the gym for practice, and I wished them all well as they left.

“God bless you,” “Thanks for the encouragement,” and “You’ll be in my prayers” were some of the parting words and well-wishes exchanged as they made their way out.

Tonight KCU’s run in the tournament ended with a 64-61 loss to Southwestern Christian University, but I am positive that the seniors and every other member on that team will remember their epic win over Central last night as a milestone in their basketball careers.

Basketball careers, that for all intents and purposes, won’t be continued on a professional path after graduation, but rather, simply for the love of the game.

And how I wish I could have seen those guys play basketball in its purest form.

It has to rank up there with all the sports upsets you hear about all the time. NC State over Houston in the ‘83 NCAA Championship. NY Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl 3. Portland Trail Blazers over Philadelphia in the ‘77 NBA Finals.

Save your newspaper clippings tomorrow folks, because the box score is going to be one you’re going to want to treasure if you are a true sports fan, and especially if you’re a New England Patriot hater.

Super Bowl XLII: New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14.

Patriots come into the game 18-0…and yet they didn’t win the biggest game of the season. Whether you regard it as the biggest choke of all time by one of sports’ greatest teams, an improbable comeback by a team who had won every game on the road but one, or simply as vindication for Spygate, the last five minutes of Super Bowl 42 were absolutely must-see TV.

One huge play that had the crowd audibly wowed, and one that you will undoubtedly see played on highlight reels for years to come as one of the best plays in NFL history, was on the third down play when Eli Manning avoided the sack — I don’t know how in the world he did it — and threw down the field. Somehow, with Rodney Harrison blanketing him, David Tyree came up with the catch, pinning the ball against his helmet on the way down and never letting the ball touch the ground. Take a look at the photo — this will go down as one of the greatest sports plays of all time. I want to watch the replay of that play over and over and over. And now I can…here’s the video on NFL.com.

It only took a few plays from there for Eli to find Plaxico Burress in the endzone for what would prove to be the game-winning TD, when Tom Brady’s magic finally ran out.

Any way you cut it, the Giants are Super Bowl Champions, and listen over the next few days as the sports pundits talk about how the Patriots will go down as the best team in sports history to never win a championship.

Last night my beloved Portland Trail Blazers beat the Toronto Raptors 101-96 for their ninth straight win. The youngest team in the league is shocking a few people this year at 14-12. Not bad after we started the season 5-12, and I think we were 3-10 at our lowest point.

I personally didn’t expect the team to win more than 30 this year, just due to the fact our #1 draft pick, the beloved Greg Oden, is out for the year due to microfracture knee surgery. To see them halfway to that point only 26 games into the season is a huge source of happiness for me. If this team makes the playoffs, watch out for when Oden comes back. We’ll be even scarier.

My motto for this year was “Beat the Blazers now, because you won’t be doing so in a few years.” But I guess a few teams are finding that a bit tough to accomplish. Roll on Blazers!

Here’s a video of our shooting guard Brandon Roy absolutely abusing three Raptors on a drive to the basket. You can’t NOT get excited watching this guy play.

Thanks to Blazers Clips for the video.

(EDIT 4:26 AM, Nov 23 — scroll to the bottom for photos)

FIRST-EVER CRIMSON HOUSE TURKEY BOWL SEES GAME GO DOWN TO WIRE
By Bradley Bojangles
AP Sports Columnist

SPRINGFIELD, MO (AP) — Jason Brewer caught two touchdown passes and scored three two-point conversions to spearhead the Dark Meat to a 37-34 victory over the White Meat in the inaugural 2007 Crimson House Turkey Bowl, played at in Springfield.

At gametime, the temperature was a chilly 35 degrees, and the teams’ play showed it, with the Whites leading only 7-0 after one quarter. Dustin Shanahan scored on a 43-yard lateral toss from quarterback Chris Brewer to put the Whites up after the Darks went three-and-out on their first possession.

The Whites’ lead was short-lived, with the Dark Meat scoring two quick touchdowns off a pass from John Pace to Rich Schultz to tie the game at 7. On the ensuing kickoff, a botched exchange from Brewer to Kevin Buchanan was recovered by Pace at the 21, and on the next play he threw a 25-yard lateral to Jason Brewer to push the lead to 14-7.

The Whites didn’t give up, though, coming back on a Chris Brewer 86-yard touchdown run that stood as the longest play of the game. A failed two-point conversion pass made the score stand at 14-13 at halftime in favor of the Dark Meat.

Second-half action saw a lot of fireworks, as the teams traded touchdowns, making the score 21-20, and from there the Darks took over with stifling defense and flawless offense to take a 37-20 lead into the fourth quarter. Jason Brewer had a second touchdown reception and Pace ran in another, and both conversions were good to seemingly put the game out of reach.

There was no quit in the White Meat, however, as Shanahan threw a perfect 47-yard toss to Buchanan in front of Schultz, who missed Buchanan’s flag at the 30, allowing him to waltz into the endzone. The conversion failed, making the score 37-26. The Whites held on defense, then Shanahan scored on a 68-yard option keeper, and Chris Brewer passed to Buchanan for the two-point conversion to make the score 37-34.

Time ran out on the Whites’ chances, and the Darks sealed the game by returning the kickoff to midfield, where all the players exchanged high fives and hugs.

Two scary moments occurred in the first half when Chris Brewer tried to slide and gain momentum to pull Jason’s flag, but he missed when Evin Pace, the game photographer, was in the way. He slid off to the side into a tree, creating a scary moment when he limped back to the huddle. The second moment occurred when Shanahan pulled up gimpy due to a prior back injury after his long touchdown run in the second half. He returned to play defense, but was noticeably shaken.

GAME NOTES

This was the first Crimson House Turkey Bowl. Two teams of three competed in a biting cold, with the Dark Meat team of John Pace, Rich Schultz and Jason Brewer defeating the White Meat team of Chris Brewer, Dustin Shanahan and Kevin Buchanan by a score of 37-34.

The game had to be played adjacent to the sports fields at Kickapoo High School due to those fields being used already.

John Pace and Chris Brewer were the respective captains of their teams, based on seniority.

The Game Most Valuable Player, otherwise known as the Gobler’s Giblet, was Jason Brewer. He established the Turkey Bowl record for scoring with two touchdowns and three two-point conversions, for a total of 18 points.

The Play of the Game was awarded to Dustin Shanahan and Chris Brewer. Brewer received the snap and lateraled to Shanahan, drawing two defenders while Kevin Buchanan ran a deep post. Shanahan lateraled back to Brewer who ran 82 yards untouched for the score.

GAME QUOTES

“Yeah, I’m in pain a little bit. It was the chivalrous thing to do, but I just wish God hadn’t have put a tree there.” –Chris Brewer, when asked about his physical condition after sliding into a tree to avoid hitting Evin Pace

“We forgot to pray before the game for no injuries to happen. That’s why after the game we had to pray for healing.” –John Pace, after the teams prayed for Dustin Shanahan’s back

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh man.” –Rich Schultz, after the game, when asked how he felt

SOME PHOTOS (thanks to Evin Pace)

Even though I graduated there five years ago, I still keep tabs on what happens at my alma mater, Rainier High School in Rainier, Oregon — student body population 350 or so, give or take (probably take) about 25 to 50.

Tonight, Rainier football fans have reason to be proud. They beat Clatskanie, their Highway 30 rival and probably their toughest league matchup of the season, 30-22 tonight. They pulled it off without the services of running back Austin McGlone, whom I read suffered some sort of shoulder injury or something like that.

Great job guys, and way to make someone who suffered through those infamous years of Rainier football ineptitude proud.