Fansided

The NBA sidekick Hall of Fame

By Bryan Harvey

Lakers' (l to r) Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant and Shannon Brown during the game. LA Lakers vs San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center on Apr. 12, 2011. (Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Lakers' (l to r) Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant and Shannon Brown during the game. LA Lakers vs San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center on Apr. 12, 2011. (Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) /
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Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images /

Terry Porter

Terry Porter finished his career with two All-Star appearances. They occurred while he was a Portland Trail Blazer, and he would never play better than he did in Rip City.

Drexler and Porter doesn’t quite roll off the tongue in the same way that Lewis and Clark does, but Clyde Drexler could not have explored the vast edges of the playoffs without Terry Porter as his running mate. On the two Portland teams that reached the NBA Finals (in 1990 and 1992), Porter was second on the team in VORP, and while Drexler carried a greater portion of the load in 1992, Porter led the team in win shares during the 1990, 1991 and 1993 seasons.

When the Blazers reached the Finals, they twice lost to teams repeating as champions. In other words, they lost to truly great teams, and with that, a lot of the names on their rosters besides Porter’s are lost in the proverbial sands of time. This discussion could probably just as easily include Jerome Kersey or Buck Williams, maybe even Kevin Duckworth or Clifford Robinson, but none of them was quite the player Terry Porter was.

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