Bowie’s unbroken spirit

Injuries derailed ex-Blazer’s career, but he’s anything but bitter

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Sep 16, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky. Ñ Sam Bowie greets a visitor at the front door of his home with a handshake and a smile. Anyone from Portland, it seems, is a friend of his.

The boyish face and the long, lean body on a 7-1 frame appear just the same as they did in 1984, when the Trail Blazers made the center from Kentucky the second pick in the NBA draft.

“It’s hard for me to believe it’s been 21 years,” says Bowie, 44. “I still feel like a young kid. It’s been a great, great ride.”

Well, some of it. By nature, Bowie always looks at the glass as half full, even if it sometimes is three-quarters empty.

Bowie was an All-American at Kentucky, where his No. 31 uniform is retired, and last week he was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame. He played 11 years in the NBA, made gobs of money and wed his high school sweetheart, Heidi, with whom he has had three wonderful kids and enjoyed 19 years of marriage.

By every right, Bowie’s life has been a rousing success. He is happy, humble and healthy.

Then there is the legacy by which his life has been defined: Sam Bowie, the man the Blazers chose instead of Michael Jordan.

“It’s something I’ll have to live with the rest of my life,” Bowie admits.

But there is no resignation to his voice. No anger. No disappointment that people don’t realize he could have been one of the great centers of all-time, an NBA Hall of Famer, if his legs hadn’t let him down.

“I’ve been blessed in my life,” he says. “Through my career in basketball, my family and I are financially secure.”

Bowie recalls the day when he signed his rookie contract with Portland, a six-year, $4.8 million deal. On top of that, Nike Inc. signed him and a couple of other promising rookies Ñ Jordan and Charles Barkley Ñ to three-year, $500,000 endorsement pacts.

“I remember meeting with Phil Knight and their marketing people in Beaverton,” Bowie says. “They were telling me if I promised to wear their sneaker, they’d give me that kind of money. On top of that, they were offering me an allowance of $20,000 a year for apparel. It was mind-blowing from where I came from. The whole ride, it’s been like surreal.”

Bowie lasted 11 years in the NBA Ñ five with Portland, four with New Jersey and two with the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged 10 points and 8.6 rebounds in Portland but saw action in only 139 games over five years with the Blazers, missing nearly two full seasons and parts of others due to leg injuries that required five surgeries before he was through.

“Had two surgeries on my left leg and three on my right,” he says, displaying a foot-long scar on the right leg that stretches almost from the knee to the ankle. “Still have a compression plate that runs down the shaft of my tibia with 12 screws to keep the plate intact. Dr. (Bob) Cook Ñ a good man Ñ did the last surgery in Portland. I’ve had quite a few setbacks, including two grafts where they removed bone from the hip area and grafted it into the leg.”

Bowie doesn’t work out, but he looks fit and says he weighs about 280 pounds, 20 over his playing weight. He doesn’t limp but admits he still has some pain.

“The hardware in the right leg flares up,” he says. “Doctors have told me they’d like to remove the plate and screws, but I’ve had so many surgeries, I don’t want to lie down again.”

Through Sam’s playing days, the Bowies always returned to Lexington in the offseason. After he retired, they began looking for a year-round home. Five years ago, they found the right spot just five minutes from the UK campus, 10 minutes from Rupp Arena. It’s a six-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot red-brick home, built in the 1940s, in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. Heidi gutted the interior, remodeled and added a swimming pool in the backyard.

“It’s the first home we’ve customized to my height,” Bowie says, pointing to the nine-foot ceilings. No more bumping his head on the way to bed.

“We had thought about having a farm and seclusion and privacy,” he adds, “but at the same time, the neighborhood atmosphere for your children is what it’s all about.”

Life is good

The children are Samantha, 15; Gabrielle, 9; and Marcus, soon to be 6. They attend the same private school, Sayre.

“Heidi and I had mixed emotions about private institutions,” Bowie says. “A lot of times they get the reputation of being a little snooty. We were both raised in the public-school system; we felt like we got a great education. Not to belittle Kentucky, but we have trouble climbing up the ladder in regards to public education in the state.”

Samantha, 6-1 and with a wingspan that is reminiscent of her father’s, was a starter as a freshman on the 19-7 Sayre varsity last winter and already is drawing interest from college scouts. Last week, she got her first recruiting letter, from Northwestern.

“You can imagine,” Bowie says, beaming. “As a father, I’m totally elated. I’ve never enjoyed the game of basketball as much as I am right now as a fan and a father sitting in the stands. Samantha is a very humble young lady. She feels somewhat guilty that her father is who he was. People automatically assume because I played basketball, they expect her to. I’m glad she’s playing because she wants to. No pressure from her father by any means. And she has a chance to do something good in the game.”

With his personality, intelligence and basketball knowledge, Bowie would be a natural for broadcasting or coaching, but he’s not interested Ñ for now, at least. He enjoys his time with his children, owns a suite for Kentucky football games and season tickets to Wildcat basketball, and devotes as much free time as possible to his stable of horses.

“Heidi and I have always been into horses,” he says. “After I signed my first contract with the Blazers, I bought three yearlings. Over the years, we’ve messed around with it, and it’s been a beautiful thing. Being in Kentucky, you can’t help but get caught up in the horse game.”

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