Portland Trail Blazers: 30 greatest players in franchise history
By Ben Beecken
- Played five seasons with Trail Blazers (1971-76)
- Averaged 22.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game
- 4x All-Star with Trail Blazers
Sidney Wicks just missed being an inaugural Trail Blazer, joining the team in 1971, one year after inception.
He was an All-Star from the get-go, being named to the squad as a 22-year-old rookie. Wicks averaged 24.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. He only shot 42.7 percent from the field, however. The Trail Blazers were awful, winning just 18 games that season.
In his second year in the NBA, Wicks put up 23.8 points, 10.9 rebounds, and a career-high 5.5 assists per game, improving his field goal percentage to 45.2. The team still only won 21 games. After Wicks and Geoff Petrie (24.9 points per game), only Lloyd Neal averaged in double-digits when it came to scoring.
Ultimately, Wicks averaged a double-double in three of his five years in Portland and his worst scoring season was his 19.1 points per game in his non-All-Star 1975-76 campaign.
The team never made the playoffs during Wicks’ time with the team and had a cumulative record of 141-269, a .344 winning percentage. Wicks was consistently one of the best two or three players on the team and carried the scoring while pitching in impressively on the glass.
Wicks went on to play two years to play two years with the Boston Celtics and three with the then San Diego Clippers before retiring after the 1980-81 season at the age of 31. As soon as he left Portland, his scoring numbers dropped and he became more of a complimentary player with the Celtics and Clippers.
But his 22.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game with the Trail Blazers are good enough to help Wicks crack our top-20.