I Nominate Clifford Ray

In the last few days I have been hard at work on a story about the 1975 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. It has been a good reason to dig into the life story of Clifford Ray, who is simply one of the most incredible men in the NBA.

• Without a lot of God-given size or ability, he manned the inside as Golden State won a championship in a season when they were supposed to suck.
• His teammates credit him with creating one of the most harmonious and friendly rosters in the league, which is especially incredible when you consider that team was led by the famously cantankerous Rick Barry.
• As an assistant coach who specializes in teaching big men, he has had miraculous results. If you follow his career, teams where he has been an assistant have been among the league's best in rebounding. Before and after his tenure, they were often among the worst. (That's a big deal, especially when you consider rebounding is in many ways the single most important statistic in determining which teamswin in the NBA.)
  

Clifford Ray is also a cancer survivor and a complete straight talker. I have interviewed him, several of his teammates, and his former coach in the last few days, and I come away with the impression that he should be someone's head coach, and soon. Players listen to him and respect him, which puts him head and shoulders above a lot of NBA coaches.

As a lifelong Portland fan, I think the Blazers should think about offering him the job after they finish trying and failing to lure Flip Saunders or Phil Jackson. The timing is right, too. Orlando fired his head coach, former Blazer guard Johnny Davis, a few hours ago. Instead of letting Coach Ray fill the slot, they bypassed him for a former minor league player called Chris Jent. I don't know the politics of it, but it seems that Ray may not be feeling so loyal to Orlando just now.