Damon Stoudamire and the Portland Trail Blazers were just 12 minutes away from making it to the NBA Finals in 2000. They, however, unraveled and left to rue what could have been, which still stings to this day, 25 years later.
Mighty Mouse opened up about it recently as the Blazers honored their Western Conference finals squad from 25 years ago during the team’s game against the Detroit Pistons on Monday. Apart from Stoudamire, the ceremonies were attended by his teammates, including Brian Grant, Steve Smith, Bonzi Wells, Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Antonio Harvey, and Joe Kleine, as well as coach Mike Dunleavy, general manager Bob Whitsitt, and athletic trainer Geoff Clark.
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During the question-and-answer session with local reporters, Stoudamire, a Portland native, shared that it is still tough looking back on their collapse in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, he has not rewatched the game over two decades.
“Bad memories [from that game]. It’s hard. Most of the fellas that I’ve talked to, they haven’t watched it. If I see it on television, I turn it,” the 1996 NBA Rookie of the Year Stoudamire said.
Fourth-quarter collapse
The Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers were seemingly on their way to making short work of the Blazers in the 2000 West finals when they took a decisive 3-1 series lead. But Portland rallied back to take Games 5 and 6 to set up a winner-take-all Game 7.
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In the deciding game, the Blazers, who also had Hall-of-Famers Scottie Pippen, Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, Jermaine O’Neal and Detlef Schrempf in their roster, were in solid form, taking a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there. After extending their lead to 15 points early in the payoff period, following a basket from Smith, the Blazers missed 13 shots in a row and went scoreless for seven minutes and 30 seconds. It was the opening that the Lakers needed as they charged back, punctuating their come-from-behind 89-84 victory with the famous Kobe-to-Shaq alley-oop.
The Lakers went on to win the first of three straight NBA titles at the start of the 2000s, while the Blazers were relegated to the wrong side of history and labeled as “chokers” to no end.
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A special group
Stoudamire is aware of the narrative that their team has been connected with since, and laments that the loss in it all was theirs, as it was one of the best squads assembled in the Pacific Northwest.
They finished the regular season that year with a 59-23 record, tied for second most in franchise history, while breezing past the early rounds of the playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz.
“Nobody understands how special this group was… We did not win a championship. We did not go to the finals. But aside from those couple of Clyde Drexler teams, I think this was the best team. I really do. I think that had we been able to achieve a little bit more, we would have been the best group that this organization’s ever had,” Stoudamire highlighted.
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Since 2000, the Blazers have only returned to the Western Conference finals once, in 2019, highlighting the significance of what Stoudamire and Company had achieved. That they were recognized and honored for what they did in Portland was about time.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.