Sports Column

Hollins glad to finally get his due

Fair Game

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 10, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (10 Reader comments)

NBA PHOTOS / GETTY IMAGES

Lionel Hollins (left) will join his coach, Jack Ramsay, as a former Blazer honored in the Rose Garden rafters.

He never made an issue of it, but Lionel Hollins wondered why so many members of the 1977 NBA champion Trail Blazers had their numbers retired by the club and he hadn’t.

On April 18, at Portland’s season finale against Golden State, Hollins’ No. 14 will go up in the rafters at the Rose Garden.

“I’m excited, thrilled and honored to finally have my number go up there,” says Hollins, 53, an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies. “It’s unbelievable.

“I wasn’t hopeful about it as time moved further away from the era in which we played, and other eras came in and had success. It’s one of the highlights of my career. I can’t wait for the night.”

The 6-3 guard wore No. 14 his first four seasons in Portland. For 20 games in 1979-80, his final half-season before being traded to Philadelphia, Hollins wore No. 9.

“I honestly can’t recall why I switched,” he says. “I know I wore No. 33 in college (at Arizona State), but Danny Anderson had it when I came to the Blazers and wouldn’t give it up. Oscar Robertson had been a player I’d admired, and he wore No. 14, so I decided on that.”

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