Homers' Corner: Red Hot & Rolling Country Boil
Illustration by Jennifer Universe
The following essay is an excerpt from What NBA Champions Are Made Of: An Edible History of Championship Teams, a work-in-progress cookbook/essay collection by Matthew Harren.
Red Hot & Rolling Country Boil
The Roster:
Corky Calhoun SF
Johnny Davis SG
Herm Gilliam SG
Bob Gross SF
Lionel Hollins PG
Robin Jones C
Maurice Lucas PF
Clyde Mayes PF
Lloyd Neal PF
Larry Steele SG
Dave Twardzik PG
Wally Walker SF
Bill Walton C
The Story:
In 1977 the Portland Trail Blazers won their first and, at this writing, only NBA championship. They did this after never making the playoffs before in their six-year existence. This was not some culmination of a team learning to play with each other and developing that necessary chemistry over years of trial and error. The Blazers added seven new players in the span of a single season, and quickly meshed them in to form a championship nucleus.
At roughly the same time the Blazers were rapidly putting together their team, an exodus of Vietnamese natives found their way to the United States. A large population settled into the deep south around Louisiana and the Gulf Coast shoreline of Texas. For some, they found familiarity in fishing, swapping the shellfish of the South China Sea for the crayfish bounty of the Gulf of Mexico. Food fusion is the joining of two cultures, often familiar with what is at hand.
In 1976-77, as the Vietnamese immigrants were fighting to carve out a piece of home for themselves in the American south, the razzle-dazzle, fast-paced, and financially struggling American Basketball League (ABA) was merged into the older and more conservative National Basketball Association (NBA). As such, a lot of players had to be shifted to new teams and an expansion draft took place. The Trailblazers added the likes of Corky Calhoun, Johnny Davis, Herm Gilliam, Maurice Lucas (All-Star), Wally Walker and then free agent Robin Jones to a core of Bill Walton (All-Star), Larry Steele, Dave Twardzik, Lloyd Neal, Lionel Hollins (All-Star) and Bob Gross. At the helm was another new face, Dr. Jack Ramsay. At the time Ramsay's coaching resume consisted of four years with the Philadelphia 76ers and four years with the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers). He had a passion for the game and wanted his players to “play as hard as they could for as long as they could.” Under Ramsay’s coaching the Blazers employed a blistering pace of play powered by a quick passing game from their young guards.
Center Bill Walton was the star of the show. His effort and will to win were unquestioned. He would finish games nearly broken, a habit that caught up with him as he struggled with injuries the majority of his career. Later as a broadcaster, Bill became a gregarious lover of the sport. His smile reflected the California sun. He was known for blocking the view when he sat front row at Grateful Dead concerts. His zen-like quips on the sidelines or in interviews made him a basketball guru. When Bill speaks about his time with the 1977 Portland Trailblazers though, he comes away as just another guy, keeping his life simple when not pouring out everything on the court. A low country boil is a simple meal. Cajun spices turn a pot of boiling water a deep red reminiscent of Walton’s wild scarlet hair. Whatever you want to add to that pot, potatoes, fresh corn, andouille sausage, and especially seafood (live crayfish (crawfish) if you can get them), you dunk in the pot in spaced out intervals. The broth makes everything happen and even though he’ll never admit it, Walton on the 1977 Blazers, made everything happen.
As the season began the Blazers simmered through the unfamiliarity of playing with a recently cobbled-together team. Despite an injury to Walton that had him miss seventeen games, and struggles in games on the road, they achieved the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Much like a low country boil, this team had to come together in a hurry and even the so-called veterans of the team had next-to no previous playoff experience. Portland narrowly got by the Chicago Bulls and the Denver Nuggets in the first two series. In the Western Conference Finals, the plucky team from Oregon swept Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Los Angeles Lakers in four games to make the NBA Finals. Their opponent was the Philadelphia 76ers led by Dunkmaster, Julius ‘Dr. J’ Irving.
The Sixers got out to a 2-0 lead with both victories delivered in convincing fashion. The Blazers turned the ball over 30 times in each game and the Sixers capitalized on the mistakes that came with Ramsay’s free wheeling style of play. If you’re going to cook something with a short cook time, precision and the right amount of heat is paramount to success. Dr. J windmill dunked the Sixers to a commanding lead and the fickle Philly fans were behind their team with vigor. At the end of the second game though, a fight between Philly’s Darryl Dawkins and Portland’s Bob Gross cleared both benches. Only a few Sixers joined the fray though, which only angered Dawkins further. By the time the next game came around tensions were boiling underneath the surface, until a curious thing happened. Prior to the start of the third game (and first at Portland), Maurice ‘The Enforcer’ Lucas, who had been ejected for slapping Dawkins in the previous game’s brawl, walked across court and shook Dawkins hand, effectively putting the past behind them. A friendly gesture with an ulterior motive. In interviews after the fact, Lucas tells a story of taking all the rage that was bubbling up in Dawkins and pacifying him with that handshake, neutralizing one of their biggest threats. If you’ve ever eaten extremely spicy food, the first instinct is to reach for water but that won’t do a whole lot. What you need is a base to combat the heat: milk, bread, butter. The Herb Butter in this recipe is in honor of Maurice Lucas’s handshake, eliminating the initial heat of Darryl Dawkins’s temper while at the same time allowing the Blazer’s to bring the heat needed to salvage victory.
Back home for the third and fourth games in Portland, the Blazers started to look like the Red Hot and Rolling team they had been billed as. Blazermania in Portland was a real and palpable energy and the fans matched the team’s energy on the court and then some, bolstering their players when they were tired. Dr. Jack Ramsay started attacking the weaknesses of the Sixers offense by throwing his guards into the passing lanes and playing with even more speed. Just remember that at the end of a low country boil, you are adding new ingredients with only minutes before the next addition. Get ready to sweat.
On offense the Blazers kept to their pass-heavy style, setting each other up for easy looks, daring the Sixers to keep up. The Blazers won three consecutive games in decisive fashion and brought the potential series winning game back to Portland. The game was a close contest with the Blazers gaining and losing big leads. As the last seconds ticked away though, and after the Sixers missed their third attempt to tie the game, Blazer point guard Lionel Hollins dribbled out the clock and sealed the victory. The final score 109-107. After four straight games, the Blazers emerged victorious and exhausted. His arms so used to raging up to grab a rebound, Bill Walton, the broth that cooks the rest of the ingredients, the soon to be voted Finals MVP, merely hung his head and smiled, utterly spent as he was mobbed by fans.
Post-Game Interview:
This is an easy recipe to alter portions whether you are feeding a few people or a whole party. All aspects of the recipe can be completed in short order once the pot is boiling. When serving remember that this recipe is a finger food, get messy and share with those around you like the Portland guards shared the basketball. To finish here is an apropos quote from Blazer’s point guard Lionel Hollins remembering the 1977 team, “We wanted to win so bad that we submerged our individuality into the team and through that, developed a bond that I think is unbreakable.”
Red hot & rolling, baby!
Red Hot & Rolling Country Boil (serves 4-6)
Broth
4.5 cups beer, lager or medium-body beer
3 cups orange juice
3 cups water
¼ cup Old Bay seasoning
¼ cup Cajun Seasoning
¼ cup fish sauce
2 lemongrass stalks battered with the back of your knife (battered like Bill Walton’s body)
3 inch piece of ginger cut into large chunks
½ lemon, quartered
1 jalapeño pepper, rough chopped, seeded for less heat
1 garlic head, halved horizontally then smashed with the side of your knife
1 yellow onion, quartered
Main
1lb small red potatoes, halved
2 ears fresh corn,cut into thirds
1lb Andouille Sausage link, cut into chunks
1lb Live crawfish, substituting with shrimp/crab/lobster if you can’t find crawfish
Maurice Lucas’ Handshake Spicy Herb Butter
1 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tablespoon lemongrass (very finely chopped)
2 teaspoons of your favorite hot sauce (more to taste) - see 1988 Pistons for how to make your own hot sauce
¼ cup reserved broth
Playbook:
Add all of the broth ingredients to a very large kettle, cover, and bring to a boil. Once red hot and rolling reduce the heat to medium low and keep a steady covered simmer for 10-15 minutes. (Tip In: For the lemongrass, cut each stalk into 2 or 3 pieces then, using the back of your knife, smack at the stalk like you’re trying to send Bill Walton to the free throw line to earn them both at the stripe.)
Add the red potatoes and cook for 10-12 minutes before step 3
Add sausage and cook for 4-5 minutes before step 4
Add Corn and cook for 2-3 minutes before step 5. (Add crawfish now if using)
Add seafood and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pot sit for 3-4 minutes. (Seafood should be pink and crawfish should be a deep red like Bill Walton’s beard)
While the pot is sitting to finish cooking, start the herb butter. Add butter to a stainless steel pan (or whatever you have), add in the lemongrass and saute for 3-4 minutes before adding the garlic and hot sauce. Adding the broth last, stirring it all together until. Pour out into bowls, one for each side of the table to share like the Blazers shared the rock.
Strain out the kettle, pick out the lemon grass, ginger, lemon, jalapeno, garlic, and onion. Pour out over a table covered in several old newspapers or paper towel or kitchen towels (this is supposed to be messy). Set a bowl of the herb butter on each side of the table and dive in.
Notes:
Fusion is adding new to something familiar. Represented here in the ABA and NBA merger which allowed the Blazers to make all the moves they did. It should be noted that the struggles of the Portland Trailblazers are in no way equivalent to the struggles of the Vietnamese people, merely the Vietnamese style of low-country boil is comparable.
The ABA pioneered several components of basketball that are now common in the modern era, namely: the three point line, the slam dunk contest, and giving player’s nicknames like ‘Dr. J’ and the ‘Iceman’. The NBA initially resisted all of these changes but like any good ingredient, the flavor found a way back to the surface after marinating further.
Ramsay held a doctorate in education, something I imagine helped him mold such a young team so quickly.
Game 3 and 4 were both sell outs filled with ravenous fans. Accounts from the time speak of the team as unifyer for all of Oregon. The energy grew further after game 5 in Philadelphia, some 5,000 Blazer fans met the retunring team at the airport to show their support. When the Blazer’s eventually won the series, some 250,000 fans joined in the victory parade. To this day there is a bar in Portland named Spirit of 77 in commemoration of the Blazer’s championship.
Matthew Harren is a marathoning, cross-continent canoeing, miss en place preparing writer. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his partner and a cowardly and fastidious cat. He regularly takes the train to Minneapolis to find rare joy in Minnesota Timberwolves games, hoping they’ll one day reclaim the city’s dynasitc Minneapolis Lakers history. As a lifelong basketball fan, more-than-amateur home cook, and writer, Matthew has spent the past two years compiling recipes-as-stories for his debut cookbook, What NBA Champions Are Made Of: An Edible History of Championship Teams. Matthew holds an MFA from Hamline University, was part of Canoe2012, an award winning adventure documentary, and hosts the Off-Court Personality NBA podcast.