Buck Williams returns, still seeking a championship for Portland

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jul 27, 2010, Updated Jul 27, 2010 (3 Reader comments)

Buck Williams of the Trail Blazers goes up for a shot and meets Lorenzo Williams of the Dallas Mavericks in a February 1995 game. Williams is back with the Blazers as an assistant coach.

PAUL K. BUCK / GETTY IMAGES

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There are only a few players in the two decades I have covered the Trail Blazers who have carried themselves with an almost regal presence.

Clyde Drexler. Brian Grant. Scottie Pippen. Brandon Roy.

I’d put Buck Williams in that category.

If Drexler and Terry Porter were the lifeblood of the Blazers who were the best team in the NBA through three seasons in the early ‘90s – everyone living in the City of Roses at the time knows it’s true – Charles Linwood Williams was their heart and soul.

Buck arrived in Portland in time for the 1989-90 season (my first year on the beat with The Oregonian, coincidentally) in the prime of his career at 29, after eight seasons in New Jersey that were individually successful but frustrating for him from a team standpoint. He was thrilled to join a nucleus that included Drexler, Porter, Jerome Kersey, Kevin Duckworth and a second-round draft pick named Cliff Robinson.

Williams was the missing piece, a banger who could rebound and defend and hold his own against the most potent power forwards of the day – players such as Charles Oakley and Charles Barkley and Otis Thorpe and Tom Chambers and Kevin McHale and, of course, Karl Malone.

With Drexler and Porter, there weren’t a lot of shots to be had, but Williams made the most of his opportunities, leading the NBA in field-goal percentage in his second and third seasons with the Blazers.

At 6-8 and 225 pounds, Williams was undersized for his role, but he was savvy and strong-based, and he knew how to play. The only player to whom I can compare is Rodman, but Williams was a much more complete player than “The Worm,” even before Rodman’s eccentricity got to him in his later years.

Williams was solid, consistent, a quiet leader, the kind of player coach Rick Adelman could count upon to get it done every game. He was the Blazers’ best rebounder, and his battles in the trenches with Malone were legendary. Williams was a first-team all-defensive team pick his first two seasons with Portland and a second-team selection in 1991-92.

The Blazers nearly reached the summit twice, losing to Detroit in 1990 and to Chicago in ‘92 in the NBA finals. To Williams – who retired after 17 seasons in 1998 as one of nine players with 16,000 points and 13,000 rebounds – it has always stuck in his craw.

Now Williams – officially named Tuesday as a member of Nate McMillan’s coaching staff – has some unfinished business to tend to.

“We came so close to winning a championship during my time here as a player,” Williams says. “I just feel like my career is not really complete until I win a championship. I didn’t do it as a player, but I think I can help the Blazers get it done as a coach.

“We have all the pieces here to do it. We’re going to get it done.”

When I’d see or speak via telephone to Williams through the years – he has lived in Potomac, Md., and operated a construction business since his retirement – he would often mention a desire to get back into the game somehow. I thought initially it would be in management, since he served as president of the NBA Players Association from 1994-97, the first two years while he was still a Blazer. But management positions are hard to come by.

So, too, are coaching jobs, he came to find out. Williams had opted not to get into coaching after he quit playing, returning to Maryland (he had played collegiately for the Terrapins) with wife Mimi and their young sons, Julian and Malek. But the itch was always there.

Williams flew to Las Vegas Summer League a couple of times to see if he could make any connections, working in 2007, in fact, with Golden State’s big men. But nobody hired him as a full-time coach.

“It gets harder every year I’m out of the game,” Williams told me then. “It’s like if you’re not on the inside, you can’t get anyone to take you seriously.”

Williams’ first choice, he always said, was Portland. And when McMillan called a few weeks ago, ultimately offering him a position, it was a dream come true.

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