Book Review: Red Hot and Rollin'

It's not very often that I read a book...ever, unless there is some information I need to have before a test. If that's the case, I still don't really read, I skim. Skimming is a wonderful, and often tricky art that takes eons to master. Anybody can skim, but to skim and extract useful information, that's another ballgame gentlemen!

As I was boogey-boarding (or surfing) the Internet, "reading" about the Trail Blazers' thirtieth anniversary of their lone championship, I discovered that someone had edited a collection of stories written by journalists and/or regular people who re-lived their Blazermania. They told you what they were doing and how they felt when Portland made its unprecented run at the NBA Title in the Summer of 1977.

One of my favorite entries is written by "The Enforcer" Maurice Lucas. He talks about how the Blazers turned the series around in Game 2 when he punched Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins in the head after Dawkins tried to punch teammate Bobby Gross. The Blazers were about to lose by twenty points and fall behind in the series 0-2 when Lucas had had enough of the Sixers rough play.

...it was our defining moment as to what our characters were going to be, and I was like, "I am not going down like this!" if nothing else, we were coming out fighting.

The Blazers would win four straight after that and win the Championship in six games. The book also includes a DVD called "Fast Break" that pretty much follows Bill Walton around has a few great highlights from the playoff run and downtown parade where over 250,000 people sweated and cheered as Walton and Lucas dumped Miller High Life (before Portland became the PBR capital) on the NBA trophy.

It's a great book and definitely worth the read if you're a die-hard Blazer fan.