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Blazers: Remembering Kevin Duckworth on 10th anniversary of his untimely passing

By Matt George Moore

PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 12: Former Portland Trail Blazer players Jerome Kersey (left) and Kevin Duckworth serve food during the team's 12th annual Harvest Dinner, November 12, 2007 at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon. The annual Harvest Dinner is traditionally Portland?s largest free meal, served to about 5,000 homeless or critically low-income individuals each year. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2007 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 12: Former Portland Trail Blazer players Jerome Kersey (left) and Kevin Duckworth serve food during the team's 12th annual Harvest Dinner, November 12, 2007 at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon. The annual Harvest Dinner is traditionally Portland?s largest free meal, served to about 5,000 homeless or critically low-income individuals each year. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2007 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Those of us old enough to remember those great Portland Trail Blazers teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s will never forget Kevin Duckworth.

Kevin Duckworth was a mountain of a man. Those who knew him well, including teammates on the two-time Western Conference championship Portland Trail Blazers teams on which he played, say his heart was just as big.

“Duck” was a relatively unheralded center out of Eastern Illinois University — one of only two players to hail from that small school to ever play in the NBA. (In a sad coincidence, both players — Duck and Jay Taylor — died young: Taylor at age 30 in 1998; Duck at age 44 in 2008.)

This past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of Duckworth’s death on Aug. 25, 2008. He passed away, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive, of “hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure. Cardiomyopathy is a primary disease of heart muscle that, along with Duckworth’s high blood pressure, resulted in enlargement of his heart, which had been failing for some time.”

More from Rip City Project

Blazers and Kevin Duckworth

As we’ve chronicled here at Rip City Project, Duckworth, who stood 7-feet tall and weighed close to 300 pounds, was a hard-working fan favorite who made the NBA All-Star team as a Blazer in 1989 and 1991.

Here’s what we wrote in that recent round-up of Portland All-Stars:

"A second-round draft selection in 1986 out of Eastern Illinois University, Duckworth was traded to Portland in December of that year. Number double-zero played seven seasons in Rip City, winning the league’s Most Improved Player award in 1988.Duckworth died in 2008 at the age of 44. But he was immortalized one year later when a dock on the Willamette River near Portland’s Eastbank Esplanade was named in his honor."

Blazers honor ‘Duck’

In 2013, on the firth anniversary of his death, the Trail Blazers put together a video compilation in honor of the big man with the big heart.

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You can watch the video below

RIP (the original) K.D.

https://www.facebook.com/Davenportsportsnetwork/videos/251368845698504/