Portland Trail Blazers Tickets

Details of Portland Trail Blazers and the Ticket Luck value

Portland Trail Blazers
The franchise based in Portland throughout its existence, commonly known as the Blazers are the Portland Trail Blazers, a professional basketball team. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team owner is Paul Allen, who purchased the team in 1988. The team president is Larry Miller, and the general manager is Kevin Pritchard. The head coach of the Trail Blazers is Nate McMillan.

Since 1995 the Blazers have played their home games at the 19,980 seat Rose Garden Arena on the east side of the city; the team's original home arena was the 12,888-seat Memorial Coliseum, which stands adjacent to the Rose Garden in the area known as the Rose Quarter. The team has been known as the "Trail Blazers" throughout its history. Two weeks after being awarded an expansion franchise in 1970, team management held a contest to select the team's name. More than 10,000 entries were submitted. The most popular choice was "Pioneers", but that name was excluded from consideration as it was already used by sports teams at Portland's Lewis and Clark College. 172 entries recommended the name "Trail Blazers" and that was the name which was selected.

Blazers entered the league in 1970, and are the only major league franchise in the state of Oregon. From 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American professional sports. The Trail Blazers entered the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team, playing in the Memorial Coliseum. The team was led in its early years by charismatic players such as Geoff Petrie and Sidney Wicks, but as is common with expansion teams, did not achieve much success as a result. The Blazers failed to qualify for the NBA postseason in their first six years of existence. During that span, the team had three head coaches whereas team executive Stu Inman also served as coach. The team won the first pick in the NBA Draft twice during that span. In 1974 the team selected Bill Walton from UCLA; a pick that overturned the fortune of the team in a dramatic way.

In 1976, the American Basketball Association merged with the NBA. Four ABA teams joined the NBA; the remaining teams were dissolved and their players distributed among the remaining NBA squads in a dispersal draft. The Trail Blazers selected Maurice Lucas in the dispersal draft; that summer they also hired Jack Ramsay as head coach. The two moves, coupled with the emergence of Walton as a premier NBA big man, led the team to its first winning record (49—33), its first playoff appearance, and its only NBA Championship in 1977.On April 5 of that year, the team failed to sell out a game, after which they would embark on a sellout streak of 809 straight games--the longest in sports history--which would not end until 1995, after the team moved into a larger facility.

In 1983, the team selected University of Houston guard/forward Clyde Drexler with the 13th pick in the draft "Clyde the Glide" would become the face of the franchise for over a decade, and the team's most decorated player with the exception of Walton. The following year, the Trail Blazers landed the pick in the NBA Draft. The Trail Blazers selected Kentucky center Sam Bowie. Drafting third, the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan. The Blazers also made a controversial trade, sending Lever, Cooper, and Natt to the Denver Nuggets for high-scoring forward Kiki Vandeweghe.

After that failure, the team made a series of personnel moves in the 2000 and 2001 off-seasons which failed to produce the desired results, and continued to alienate the community. The team started off well, posting the Western Conference's best record through March of 2001; but then signed guard Rod Strickland to augment their point guard corps

In the spring of 2007, Paul Allen entered into an agreement to re-purchase the Rose Garden. Steven Patterson resigned as team president. On the court, the team finished with a 32-50 record, 11 game improvements, and rookie Brandon Roy was name the 2006-07 Rookie of the Year. Later Kevin Pritchard was promoted to general manager, and former Nike Inc. executive Larry Miller was hired as team president. To top it off, the Blazers won the 2007 NBA Draft Lottery, and selected Ohio State center Greg Oden with the #1 pick in the draft.