One the most popular Trail Blazers, Jerome Kersey (June 26, 1962 – February 18, 2015) was another under-the-radar small-school find of General Manager Bucky Buckwalter who went on to a sixteen-year NBA career, most of it with the Blazers.
Kersey came to the Blazers from Longwood College, an NCAA Division II school, where he set school records for points, rebounds, steals, and blocked shots, with a 57% shooting record. Portland selected him in the second round of the 1984 NBA draft and he immediately became a regular contributor off the bench.
Hitting his stride in his third year with the Blazers, he became a starter and was part of the nucleus of the powerhouse Portland team that made it to the NBA Finals two out of the next three years (1990 and 1992). Kersey’s hustle and skill made him an elevation sensation and earned him four consecutive invites to the Slam Dink competition on All-Star weekend. In the 1987 contest in Seattle, JK finished second to Michael Jordan, who won the competition for the first time in his career with the sky-high flight immortalized in the classic poster.
As a Trail Blazer, Jerome was near the top in many of Portland’s career categories at the time, including games played (second), minutes (third), scoring (third), rebounding (second), assists (sixth), steals (third), field goals (fourth), and blocked shots (second).
His best season statistically with the Blazers was 1987-88. In his first year as a starter Kersey averaged 19.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Jerome played all 103 games of the 1990 season during which the Blazers reached the finals, leading the club in rebounding during the regular season (8.4) and in scoring during the playoffs (20.7).
Jerome left Blazers in the 1995 expansion draft and played six more seasons with Golden State, L.A. Lakers, Seattle, San Antonio and Milwaukee. He won a ring as part of the 1999 Spurs championship team.
Kersey remained in the league after retirement. He was hired by the Trail Blazers to serve as director of player programs during the 2003-04 NBA season, then rejoined his former teammate, Terry Porter as assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks. Jerome later was part of the Trail Blazer broadcast team and made appearances on behalf of the team. Jerome Kersey was part of the first Hall of Fame class at what is now Longwood University. The school has retired his number 54. Kersey has also been inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
