Even though the NBA season is still several months away, basketball, and in particular the Portland Trail Blazers have become a hot topic as of late, though for two totally different reasons.

The biggest reason, at least as far as Eastern Oregon basketball fans go, is the reunion of the 1977 Blazers team that won the NBA championship, and as an added bonus, plenty of other former Portland players will be on hand at Wildhorse Casino as well over the next two days.

Butch Thurman and the crew at Wildhorse should be commended for putting together such an outstanding event that any sports fan will not want to miss.

Both Bill Walton and Jack Ramsay have been inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame, where they will hopefully someday be joined by another player attending the event, Buck Williams.

Long before Dennis Rodman made rebounding fashionable, or at least made a fashion statement while rebounding, Williams was pulling down in excess of 12 rebounds a game for the New Jersey Nets. Unlike Rodman, who could only score with Madonna, Williams was also busy scoring 15 to 18 points night-in and night-out.

The soft-spoken 6-foot-8 Williams certainly possesses a resume more impressive than other players already enshrined in the Hall. When he hung up his sneakers for good, Williams ranked fourth in NBA history in games played, eighth in minutes played and 10th in rebounding.

The 1981-82 NBA Rookie of the Year finished with a .549 field-goal percentage, made three all-star appearances and is just one of seven players in NBA history to have amassed more than 16,000 points and 13,000 rebounds in their career. The others? Try names like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elvin Hayes, Robert Parish, Nate Thurmond and Walt Bellamy.

Parish is the only other one currently without a plaque in Springfield, but that should also be corrected in the near future.

Working in Williams’ favor is that sportswriters, who have never been accused of being all that intelligent, are bypassed in the election process and committees do the actual selecting of players.

The other big Blazer news as of late is, of course, the mysterious case of Shawn Kemp and what on earth would possess him to give back roughly $25 million?

Kemp is one of the most misunderstood players in the game and this certainly does nothing to change that.

Even though his two seasons in Portland have been described as dismal, to his credit, it’s hard to put up big numbers when you’re only playing 15 minutes a game. His statistics spread out over 48 minutes per game are respectable, although nowhere near worth what he was being paid each season.

It’s nice to see Kemp’s name mentioned for something other than a drug abuse story or another “Shawn Kemp is Not My Father” bumper-sticker joke. The “Reign Man” should be able to sign with a decent team that could use a little inside play (did anyone say Milwaukee Bucks?) and pay some big dividends for a very small investment.

Kemp’s departure opens up the return of Arvydas Sabonis, much to the delight of Shaquille O’ Neal, and helped free up some cash to land free-agent point guard Jeff McInnis, so the Blazers look like the real winners in the deal.

While Blazers president Bob Whitsitt is obviously delighted by the event, it doesn’t say a great deal about his job performance. When the best move you’ve made is getting rid of your previous biggest move perhaps it’s time to step down and look for another profession. Many Trail Blazers fans would say that would be his best move yet.

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Sports reporter Allen Moody can be reached at 1-800-522-0255 (ext. 1-248) or by e-mail at amoody@eastoregonian.com.