Editor’s note: This story appeared in The Oregonian on Feb. 7, 1970, one day after the NBA granted an expansion team to Portland. That team, of course, would become the Portland Trail Blazers, who now are playing in their 50th season. The Oregonian/OregonLive is rerunning this story on the anniversary as part of our Rip City 50 series.
Portland Obtains Franchise In NBA
It finally has happened. Portland has joined the sporting world’s major leagues.
After a frustrating interim of double-talk, the National Basketball Association announced Friday that Portland would be added to the league as one of four expansion teams for the 1970 season.
The announcement came from NBA Commissioner Walter Kennedy on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, where the league’s expansion committee had been involved in an all-day meeting.
Harry Glickman, spokesman for the Portland group bidding for the franchise, was on hand at L.A. and accepted the NBA’s revised proposal for expansion.
Earlier, Portland had rejected an NBA proposal in Philadelphia because the league had changed some of its previously set ground rules.
Along with Portland, Cleveland, Buffalo and Houston were added to the league. Each will pay $3.7 million for its franchise rights.
“This has to be one of the great historical days in Portland’s history,” an excited Glickman said by phone after getting the news.
Kennedy said that each present NBA team would give up three players to a player expansion pool. Initially, each club will be entitled to protect seven players on its active list.
The commissioner said that realignment of divisions in the NBA and scheduling arrangements would be announced at a later date. He also said that a committee would be formed to open possible merger discussions with the American Basketball Association.
Terms of the expansion, according to Glickman, “were just about what we wanted. ... The money of course was higher than the original talks, but we said even after the Philadelphia meetings that we would accept the money stipulations if other terms were satisfactory.”
Although it will be awhile before the new alignment is set up, it was tentatively determined that there would be four divisions and each division would include one of the expansion teams.
“I would certainly expect and hope that Seattle and Portland would be in the same division” Glickman said.
The expansion teams will share equally in the NBA’s television rights. The item had been one of the sore points to develop in Philadelphia, as the expansion committee proposed that the new teams not have equal rights.
“The TV issue was one of the primary ones that caused us to reject the earlier proposal,” Glickman said.
So far as the college draft is concerned, the expansion teams will get the seventh through the 10th choices.
“That was about what we expected in that regard,” Glickman commented. “I suppose the four new teams will decide by coin flip in what order we pick.”
When Seattle and San Diego went into the NBA three years ago, they had the seventh and eighth picks in the college draft, so this ground-rule is in following with previous ones.
Glickman said that the Portland group would hold a press conference Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Memorial Coliseum.
“There won’t be any momentous announcements,” he chuckled. “It will be mostly a question-and-answer session.”
Glickman and representatives of the other three expansion clubs actually got the news that they were “in” at the office of Sam Schulman, owner of the Seattle Sonics.
“We had been waiting all day long,” Glickman said, “and weren’t sure just what would happen. Abe Pollin, chairman of the expansion committee, told us all to be at Schulman’s office at 3 p.m. to get the word.” (The terms had been discussed earlier.)
When Glickman walked in, Pollin greeted him with “Congratulations, you are in the NBA.”
“Kennedy already had left for a press conference at the Forum,” Glickman said. “But I didn’t even go to it. I was so excited that I just hurried back to my hotel to be ready to tell the people back home about the good news.”
HEADING EAST
Glickman said that he would be “heading to the East” early next week to begin the search for a coach and a scout, “the two most important immediate considerations.”
The group which owns the Portland franchise includes about 10 persons, some of them from downstate. Glickman said that their names will be announced “as soon as we can iron out some paper details.”
Earlier, there had been talk of some public stock sale in the franchise, but these plans have been abandoned.
After his press conference duties, Kennedy placed telephone calls to newspapers in the expansion cities.
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m delighted to have your city in the NBA,” he said in his Portland call. “I feel that Portland is a great city for our league and I’m looking forward to a happy and successful association.”
Kennedy clarified the college draft plans, reporting that the draft would be held in late March and — for the first time — completely via telephone.
“In the last two years, we have had a telephonic first-round draft,” he said, “but then got together in a meeting for the rest.”
On the matter of division alignment, Kennedy said that the four-division setup is not definite, but likely.
“A committee has been appointed to study this and we will have another meeting and an announcement on the matter in three or four weeks,” he said.
Asked about nickname possibilities for the Portland team, Glickman said: “There’ll be time to worry about that later. Perhaps we will have a contest.”
So it is that Portland, after many years of frustration, crashed the gate and became a major-league sports city.
-- Bob Robinson, The Oregonian, 1970
This story is part of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s ongoing series, Rip City 50: The moments, people and events that have shaped the Trail Blazers’ first 50 seasons.
MORE RIP CITY 50
• From humble beginnings to Blazermania: Portland Trail Blazers embark on 50th season
• Canzano: Coffee, a founding father, and a special Trail Blazers opener
• A powerful handshake: How Maurice Lucas’ gesture helped the Blazers win the 1977 NBA title
• ‘Original Trail Blazer’ Geoff Petrie became dynamic star
• In 1970-71, the Blazers were “the best expansion team”
• Best seat in the house: Mark Mason prepares for 1,000th game as Portland Trail Blazers’ PA announcer
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