It’s Over Johnny: RIP The Duck

August 26, 2008 by John Foster  Send to a Friend

Sad news today for those of us who loved our Washington Bullets and our spare ribs with equal zest. Kevin Duckworth, affectionately known as “The Duck” passed away in Oregon while in town for a youth basketball clinic. He had continued to work for the Portland Trailblazers, for which he had enjoyed his best seasons in the NBA. You can wiki all about those days here.

I can only speak of his few seasons spent here as part of DC’s “Les Boulez” as Kornheiser so lovingly referred to them as. The Duck was another bit of promise for a team mired in mediocrity in the early 90s. A proud franchise, helmed by the first women to do so in the NBA, Susan O’Malley, with owner Abe Pollin’s love sprinkled about the squad and stone-faced tough guy Wes Unseld having to cast aside his role as the franchise hero of the past and come down and coach this band of misfits. Duckworth’s first season here would prove maddening to Unseld as he seemed to gain weight just standing still. In one season The Duck ballooned to what looked like 45 additional pounds on his 7 foot frame. Poor Wes couldn’t take it anymore and yipper dog Jimmy Lynam had to watch the swelling continue for the next season.

The tragically funny part of it all was that the city almost embraced The Duck’s girth. After all, this was a “cursed” franchise ever since Bernard King had torn through the league in scoring and then tore through his body never to return. When we acquired sweet shooting Mark Price from the hated Cleveland Cavaliers to run the point, which had seemed to be the missing link for years, he injured his foot and hobbled through a few games on his way to retirement. His little brother Brent was twice as spunky but half as talented. This was a franchise that had both Muggsy Bogues and Gheorghe Muresan (who hurt himself filming My Giant with Billy Crystal and had to wear the funniest looking shoes to help his back ever!!!!) A downturn in performance was almost expected when you arrived in DC.

But The Duck fell in line with an even richer tradition. Playing like crap and eating like crap. You see, the Bullets had one of the most talented players to ever touch a basketball: John Williams. This is a guy who Magic Johnson raved about. John Williams you say? Never heard of ‘em. Let me update that name a little for you then - John “Hot Plate” Williams, as he became known. For every pound Williams put on (and there were plenty) he seemed to take one off of his scoring average. Eventually the eating won and he was out of the league. Actually the eating won and he was still a Bullet for a few seasons before even Pollin and Wes had to give in. Don’t even get me started about the franchise drafting Mel “Dinner Bell” Turpin in the same class as Jordan, Olajuwon, Stockton and Barkley. That was just how it goes around here.

But then, in The Duck’s final season in DC, Les Boulez seemed to shake the curse by pairing ex-Michigan teammates Juwan Howard and Chris Webber. The future was bright when they brought in hound dog-eyed Rod Strickland to dish the rock to an imposing front line of young studs. Then I started to hear about “Hot” Rod’s habit of eating hot dogs and pizza from the arena right before tip off and almost throwing up for the bulk of the first half each game. I think I may have seen this movie before.

When Webber later said he wanted out of town because there weren’t enough (Tyra Banks… err I mean…) good soul food places to eat - I almost called Duckworth myself for some recommendations.

Now we have Agent Zero and the team still seems mildly cursed now and again (Blatche shot in a car jacking - in old town?) but they sure are entertaining and athletic and fun to watch. The passing of The Duck reminds me of a time when they were fun to watch for entirely different reasons.

Rest easy big man.

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