‘Rip City Revival’: Early 90s Blazers Documentary Coming to NBA TV

Clyde Drexler was somewhat of a punchline in ESPN’s Last Dance docuseries, but those early-90s Portland Trail Blazers teams were unique and exciting to watch. They overcame a decade of early playoff exits to put together a memorable three-year run between 1989 and 1992. While Clyde, “Uncle” Cliff Robinson and company didn’t break through to win a ring for Rip City, they went to the NBA Finals twice and just missed out on a third appearance.

The run will be documented for everyone to see on Sunday, May 31st at 8:00 p.m ET. The film, titled Rip City Revival, will air on NBA TV as part of their ongoing Basketball Stories documentary series. Drexler, Robinson, Terry Porter, and Buck Williams are among the interview subjects, as well as Isiah Thomas, who bested them with Detroit in the 1990 NBA Finals.

https://youtu.be/eRpRwJWB61M

“They had it all,” Thomas can be heard saying in the trailer, and he’s right. Drexler was a bona fide superstar, Terry Porter was an all-star point guard ahead of his time, and the rest of the cast was remarkably consistent — Cliff Robinson didn’t miss a single game until the mid-90s! In all three seasons featured, they had at least five guys averaging in double figures, including seven during the 1991 season.

The 1991 team didn’t reach the NBA Finals but had the best regular-season record of the three (63-19) and is considered by some to be the most talented.

According to Oregon Live, the show will also dedicate time to the “sad deaths of Jerome Kersey, Drazen Petrovic and Kevin Duckworth.” Petrovic was a reserve with the Blazers before becoming a star with New Jersey. After his best NBA season, he had his life cut way too short as a result of a tragic car accident in Germany. Petrovic was 29 when he passed away, while Duckworth was 44, and Kersey was 52, respectively.

Rick Adelman was Portland’s head coach during their memorable run, then went on to coach another famous team that failed to bring home a ring — the Webber-Bibby Sacramento Kings from the early 2000s. Adelman’s NBA coaching career spanned four decades — 1988 through 2014 — but he never was able to capture an NBA title.