page_title: History of the Portland Trail Blazers
section_title: The Patterson/Nash era
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Portland Trail Blazers / The Patterson/Nash era
caption_attribution_description: English: w:Travis Outlaw playing with the w:Portland Trail Blazers
context_page_description: The Portland Trail Blazers are a professional basketball team in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association. The Trail Blazers are currently celebrating their 50th NBA season. The franchise owner is Jody Allen, who assumed ownership upon the death of her brother Microsoft co-founder and Vulcan Inc. chairman Paul Allen, in 2018.
  The Trail Blazers' rallying cry is "Rip City", coined by play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during their inaugural season. The team holds the NBA record for most consecutive sell-out games - set between April 9, 1977, and November 16, 1995.
  The Trail Blazers have retired several players jerseys, including Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame members Clyde Drexler and Bill Walton. Jack Ramsay, who was the Trail Blazers head coach from 1976 to 1986, had the number 77 retired in honor of Portland's only NBA Finals victory in 1977. Portland has had four NBA Rookies of the Year; Geoff Petrie, Sidney Wicks, Brandon Roy and Damian Lillard. The only NBA Most Valuable Player that earned the award as a member of the Trail Blazers was Bill Walton in 1978.
context_section_description: Patterson and general manager John Nash immediately began a campaign to clean up the team's image. A "25 point pledge" was announced and published, describing a standard of conduct that all Blazer personnel would be required to live up to. The Blazers' draft choice that year, the ironically named Travis Outlaw, was the son of a police officer and had a spotless record.
  Not long after the 2003–04 season started, Bonzi Wells launched a tirade at Cheeks during practice; he was suspended and soon traded to the Memphis Grizzlies for Wesley Person and a first round pick. Soon after that, Rasheed Wallace gave an extended interview in which he claimed that the NBA exploited African American players. This interview was widely denounced by the team, the media, and the league, but no official punishment resulted.
  During the season, two other "character" trades occurred. Point guard Jeff McInnis, considered by many to be disruptive in the locker room, was sent to Cleveland with Ruben Boumtje Boumtje for forward Darius Miles and cash. Wallace was sent to the Atlanta Hawks along with Person for forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, center Theo Ratliff and Dan Dickau. Many of these trades were welcomed by the fan base, but they were disruptive to team chemistry: the Wallace trade occurred during a "hot streak", after the trade was commenced the hot streak abruptly ended. The team posted a 41–41 record and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1981.  The Blazers' 21 straight playoff appearances was the second longest in the NBA, behind the 76ers's 22 consecutive playoff appearances.
caption: Drafted in 2003 by the Trail Blazers, Travis Outlaw played for Portland until 2010.
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