Rich Cho Got A Raw Deal

I'm not just saying this because I know the guy or because I'm good friends with his brother Andrew, I'm saying it because it's the truth. Rich Cho got a raw deal from the Portland Trailblazers. Less than a year into his tenure as general manager Rich Cho was let go by the Blazers organization for his inability to get along with upper management. According to several sources the personalities just didn't mesh.

This may be one of the lamest excuses of all time. Rich is an easy going, mild mannered man that can get along with virtually anyone. The Blazers have had 4 different general managers in the past 8 years so clearly the chemistry issues come from the top. Paul Allen is an extremely difficult person to work with and even more difficult to figure out what he wants.

The Blazers had a good season by most people's standards. They won 48 games despite a rash of injuries to Greg Oden, Marcus Camby and the face of the franchise Brandon Roy. The players have great fan support, no one got arrested, and LaMarcus Aldridge made 3rd team all NBA. At present the Blazers are still the only team to beat Dallas more than once in the playoffs. They did this without a single all star on their roster so we can safely say they overachieved this year.

You can't blame Rich Cho for taking Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. You can't blame Rich Cho for playing Brandon Roy less than a week after having knee surgery. You have to give Rich credit for adding size and athleticism in the form of Gerald Wallace. Truth be told Rich didn't even have a chance to conduct a draft for the Blazers before he was fired so we'll never know what he's truly capable of. What we do know is Paul Allen is impatient and impossible to communicate with and for that reason a good man lost his job. Sorry Rich, you deserved better.