Portland’s NBA franchise, the Trail Blazers, won its only championship in 1977. Behind the efforts of the late Bill Walton, the team defeated the Philadelphia 76ers four games to two. 

In the decades since, however, Portland hasn’t managed to win a second title. Yes, it made the finals twice – in 1990 and 1992 – but it lost both times.

For a couple of seasons at the turn of the century the team did again show championship potential. Yet that potential went nowhere, and how things unraveled is detailed in the Netflix “Untold” series episode titled “Jail Blazers.”

Netflix has produced more than 20 “Untold” episodes since its inception in 2021. The series has covered a range of sports, most of them involving little-known subjects. Among them are the death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, the cheating allegations made against chess grandmaster Hans Niemann and the contentious life of former U.S. Soccer goalie Hope Solo.

“Untold: Jail Blazers” focuses on the Trail Blazers during the years (1994-2003) in which Bob Whitsitt served as the team’s general manager. As the episode explains, Whitsitt managed to sign a number of skilled, if controversial, players in what would become known, in the words of sports columnist John Canzano, as “the greatest sociology experiment in sports.”

At first the team responded, nearly upsetting the Los Angeles Lakes in the 2000 Western Conference Finals. In the years that followed, though, various incidents led to the team’s loss of popularity with Portland fans.

And, too, the contentious nature of those incidents led to the team’s being referred to as the “Jail Blazers.”

Central to “Untold: Jail Blazers” are three players: Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire and Bonzi Wells. Each is interviewed, as are Whitsitt, Canzano and one-time Portland sports reporter Colin Cowherd among others. Their respective talking-head conversations are blended by director Sascha Gardner with archival footage both on court and off.

All three of the players, but particularly Wallace, are frank in their assessment both of their own past actions and of how hard it was to play in a city that never seemed to accept them fully.

In addition to their continual losing over the next few seasons, the team’s relationship with Portland fans gradually grew worse.

One incident involved a traffic stop in which Wallace and Stoudamire were passengers in a car that was cited for speeding. To make matters worse, Walace and Stoudamire were taken into custody for marijuana possession.

Stoudamire had further problems with the police when, on another occasion, they found marijuana while searching his Lake Oswego home.

Whitsitt added to the public discontent by signing the veteran Shawn Kemp, who during the 2000-01 season went to rehab for cocaine use. Then Whitsitt traded for a player named Ruben Patterson who, accused of rape, had to register as a sex offender.

To top things off, the fiery Wallace earned a reputation for being “petty” by setting a league record that still stands for technical fouls in a season (41). And Wells alienated Portland fans by admitting in a Sports Illustrated interview how much he hated being booed by the fans, a statement that was misconstrued to suggest that he hated the fans, period.

Given all this, the name “Jail Blazers” seemed to come naturally. Yet Wallace, a proud man who is unapologetically outspoken throughout the episode, takes issue.

“First of all, the media gave us that because it rhymed with Trail Blazers,” he said. “But think about it, ain’t nobody go to jail on that team so that’s just some negative (stuff) they wanted to say about us.”

Some feelings, it’s clear, endure. Director Gardner includes a scene in which both Stoudamire and Wells are invited back to participate in a “Rip City Reunion,” and both are cheered. Wallace was invited as well, but he declined to return.

Asked about the people who are still mad at him, Wallace responded to Gardner with a well-known profanity before adding, “I left,” he added. “Yeah, and you’re still mad.”

“You know,” he continued, “I’m not mad. You’re still mad. So … sleep on that one.”