Sports Column

Executive decision: Pritchard deserves award

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 14, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (5 Reader comments)

Trail Blazer General Manager Kevin Pritchard has had a big hand in stocking the Portland roster.

SAM FORENCICH / GETTY IMAGES

During my last visit to the ManCave with Gavin Dawson on The Game (95.5 FM), he asked me if I thought Nate McMillan should figure more prominently in consideration for the NBA’s coach of the year.

Nate’s in the conversation, I said. But I like Houston’s Rick Adelman, who has done a beautiful job with the Rockets despite losing his top individual talent, Tracy McGrady, at midseason.

The People’s Champ didn’t ask, but my vote for Executive of the Year would stay in Portland.

Props should be given to Cleveland’s Danny Ferry, who brought on Mo Williams and Joe Smith, and Denver’s Mark Warkentien, who unloaded Allen “There’s an I in” Iverson and got the antithesis in Chauncey Billups.

But I’m not being jingoist when I contend that Kevin Pritchard is the man most deserving of the award.

Pritchard, 41, has done a masterful job turning over the Portland roster in both talent and character since he took control of the draft as director of player personnel in 2004.

Since then, Pritchard has played a key role in the acquisition of 12 of the 14 players on the roster – all but Travis Outlaw and Joel Przybilla.

On draft day last June, Pritchard engineered five trades. The two biggest landed Portland rookies Nicolas Batum and Jerryd Bayless.

The Blazers bought the 27th pick from New Orleans for the NBA maximum $3 million – owner Paul Allen does come in handy, doesn’t he? – and traded it and the 33rd pick to Houston for the 25th pick. By prearrangement with the Blazers, the Rockets had taken Batum with the pick.

Portland traded point guard Jarrett Jack to Indiana in a deal that brought back Bayless, whom the Pacers had taken for the Blazers with the 11th pick.

Pritchard had rated Bayless as the fourth-best player in the draft. He had no way of knowing Batum would mature quickly enough to be a starter as a 20-year-old rookie, but he liked his potential enough to find a way to secure his rights.

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