Portland Trail Blazers: 30 greatest players in franchise history
By Ben Beecken
- Played 11 seasons with Trail Blazers (1984-1995)
- Averaged 12.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game
Jerome Kersey is the picture of longevity when it comes to what is an injury-riddled history for the Trail Blazers.
Kersey was drafted in the second round by the Trail Blazers in 1984. He spent 11 seasons with the team, appearing in 75 or more games in eight of those 11 campaigns. Kersey was a starter for the middle six of those seasons and a solid reserve for the other five.
Over the first two years of Kersey’s career he averaged under 15 minutes per game. Then in 1986-87, Kersey appeared in all 82 games and averaged double figures in scoring for the first time at 12.3 points per game.
The 1987-88 season was his first shot at starting full-time. Kersey made the most of his expanded by averaging 19.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest, while shooting 49.9 percent from the floor. This started a string of five seasons of high production for Kersey, as he averaged 16 points and eight rebounds per game from 1988 to 1992 for what were mostly very good Trail Blazers teams.
After Portland followed up a 53-win campaign in 1987-88 with a 39-win effort the following year, head coach Mike Schuler was replaced by Rick Adelman in 1989-90. The Trail Blazers promptly won 59 games and went the NBA Finals, where they were defeated in five by the Detroit Pistons.
Kersey continued with Portland through the 1994-95 season, although he shifted back into a bench role beginning in 1993. He was left unprotected in the 1995 expansion draft and was selected by the Toronto Raptors but was released before the season. He latched on with the Golden State Warriors, where he started 58 games, but only averaged 6.7 points per contest.
He finished his career bouncing from stop to stop, including the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, the then Seattle SuperSonics and finally the Milwaukee Bucks.