Here’s a player we’ve discussed in detail once before; long before Jeremy Lin’s breakout, the Trail Blazers stumbled across Billy Ray Bates, who would become the most unheralded 27-point Playoff scorer, perhaps in league history.
Bates’ defining moment came in the postseason, and for that, he has to earn a few brownie points. To this day, Bates owns the highest points per game average in Portland Trail Blazers history (28.3), and Playoff average (26.7). And a ton of that came through his ability to hit quick dribble pull-ups from 10-feet out.
Bates didn’t have a sustained career, playing just 187 games. But who he produced his offense against deserves recognition. Bates worked his pull-up and fast break excellence against the late, great, 9-time All-Defensive Team guard Dennis Johnson. Before the series, CBS asked Bates, “Don’t you know who Dennis Johnson is? Don’t you know how good he is defensively? You’re not supposed to put 29 on him.”
But Bates was, in a word, unabated. Big moments simply didn’t phase him. He had no postseason game where he scored under 20 points. Built from the Drexler-Gervin-type mold, he had the skills to become an All-Star caliber player. But off-court issues became too difficult to overcome.