Maurice Lucas

Maurice Lucas, one of my favorite pro basketball players, recently passed away at age 58. The cause of death was bladder cancer.

He died in Portland, Oregon, the city where "Luke" made his NBA mark as a key member of the TrailBlazers' only championship team. He was the team's power forward, leading rebounder, a capable scorer, and on-court bodyguard for Bill Walton and Portland's other finesse players. He was an iconic figure in a city and region as distant from Lucas' childhood in Pittsburgh's Hill district as possible.

Lucas' rise to the pro game, his adventures in it, and his life after it, do not lack for colorful anecdotes. The New York Times ran Luke's obit, but managed to distill most of the jazz out of his story. The Oregonian ran his obit, a memoriam from their basketball beat writer, and features interviewing people who knew Lucas well: his former coach Jack Ramsay and current Portland coach and former teammate Nate McMillan.

I only saw Luke's game via TV. However, I loved reading stories about him. David Halberstam's excellent The Breaks of the Game offers a wonderful, understanding portrait of Lucas. The author describes, among other things, Luke's days as a star Marquette University player. The college team's coach was Al McGuire, whom Halbertstam noted was the rare coach who "played five" -- that is, five African-American players on the court at the same time.

Halberstam also describes Lucas' time with the Spirits of St. Louis, an aptly named American Basketball Association team. The team's roster included Moses Malone, Marvin Barnes, Don Cheney, M.L. Carr and was coached at one point by Rod Thorn. The radio announcer was Bob Costas. The RemembertheABA link has more very entertaining stories and rare player photos.

It's easy to think that Luke's style of intimidating play doesn't really fit into today's pro game. While that notion may be desirable for the NBA league office to promote, today's game is just as harsh as it was in Luke's day. Players fight and work hard to physically and mentally intimidate their opponents, just as Luke did. The dirty work just wasn't as expensive when Lucas was in his prime as it is today.

Luke said as much to the current Portland team, a good, talented squad that Lucas helped coach and guide. The Oregonian's beat writer relates this story, and it neatly characterizes Lucas and an era:

During the 2008 season the Blazers got intimidated by a screaming, posturing, trash-talking Kevin Garnett in a loss at Boston. Rookie Greg Oden was on his first NBA road trip, and his eyes were wide as saucers after the game.

Lucas, then a Blazers assistant, walked past and said that nobody trash-talked like Garnett during his career. “Back then,” Lucas said, “it was only a $50 fine for punching a guy in the mouth.”

I will never forget the looks on the faces of the young Blazers.