This is how Michael Born remembers Kevin Pritchard.
It is the summer of 1986. Born is young. Pritchard is younger. And Pritchard — who will one day become general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers — is loaded with the type of crazy, take-on-the-world basketball talent that sometimes shows up in official games on hardwood floors. But more often it is only displayed on hardtop, beneath the summer sun, against players who truly want to make you pay.
So, Born — who will one day become director of NBA scouting for the Blazers — locks in with soft eyes and watches Pritchard. Then he sees the gutsy, lean Kansas point guard capture a loose ball, race up court and leap skyward for a breakaway dunk.
Just before Pritchard completes the slam, a defender rushes in and attempts to block the shot. The disruption fails — the ball quickly glides downward for two points. But as Pritchard is hanging on the rim, the defender crashes into him. Before Born can begin to gasp, Pritchard is sent flying hard into a no-give, chain-link fence. Next, Pritchard smashes into asphalt. And then he just rises up and walks away like nothing ever happened.
Michael Born: meet Kevin Pritchard.
“I was like, ‘Holy smoke!’ ” Born said.
Looking back, Born sees Pritchard as a force. Strong, quick, aggressive. And wild.
Some things have changed. Most have not.
It has been nearly 24 years since Born met the man who would one day take him from the love-it-or-leave-it world of low-pay minor league basketball and show him the mega-millions allure of professional hoops.