The Portland Trail Blazers have just one championship in franchise history since becoming an NBA club back in 1970.

What is impressive, though, is that the Blazers won their lone title in their seventh season of existence. It usually takes expansion teams longer than that to capture a ring, but Portland got lucky after landing Hall of Famer Bill Walton in the 1974 draft with the first overall pick.

The Blazers watched Walton turn the franchise around with his stellar play on both ends of the court. He averaged 12.8 points, 12.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks as a rookie. Portland didn't make the playoffs, but they were starting to play basketball the right way.

The 1976-77 Blazers had finally acquired enough talent around Walton to compete in the NBA. What that team didn't know was that it was about to make franchise history.

Portland started that season 14-6. They didn't suffer their 10th loss of the season until after Christmas, so it appeared this was going to be the first Blazers team to finish the season above .500 and make the postseason.

Big man Maurice Lucas led the Blazers in scoring. He averaged 20.2 points and 11.4 rebounds while Walton put up 18.6 points and 14.4 boards. Portland had the third-best offense in the NBA and the ninth-best defense. They had the pieces to possibly win it all, but fans weren't quite sure yet.

The Blazers finished the season with a record of 49-33. They were set to be the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs, which began with Portland taking on the Chicago Bulls. Yes, the Bulls used to be in the Western Conference back in the day.

Behind Lucas, the Blazers won the series 2-1. Maurice averaged 22.3 points and 7.7 rebounds in the quick three-game series.

Next up for Portland was the Denver Nuggets, who were led by stars David Thompson and Dan Issel. This series was projected to be tough for the Blazers, but the team wound up winning in six games. Lucas put up 21.0 points and 9.0 rebounds and Walton notched averages of 17.5 points, 13.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks.

To get to the 1977 NBA Finals, Lucas, Walton and the Blazers were going to have to defeat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the mighty Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Jabbar won the regular-season MVP award, so Walton and Co. were in for a big challenge.

The series started off great for the Blazers, who won Game 1 in Los Angeles to take home-court advantage. Earl Tatum scored 32 points for Portland, who were out for blood in Game 2 after stealing the first match.

Kareem scored 40 points in Game 2, but the Blazers won again, taking a commanding 2-0 series lead. Lionel Hollins poured in 31 points for the Blazers to lead Portland to their win. All the Blazers had to do now was take care of business at home and they would be heading to the Finals.

That's exactly what Portland did. They swept the Lakers and now would face the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1977 Finals.

The Sixers were a tough matchup with Julius Erving leading the way, but the Blazers managed to win the series in six games. For the first time ever, Portland had an NBA championship team in its city

In the six-game series win, Walton averaged 18.5 points, 19.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.7 blocks. He became a Blazers and NBA legend in just his third season in the league. Bill won Finals MVP after his great series.

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Portland has gone to the NBA Finals two more times since 1977, losing on both occasions. The 2018-19 Blazers, led by Damian Lillard, got to the Western Conference Finals, but were swept by the Golden State Warriors.

Whichever player leads the Blazers back on a championship run will become the next icon in Portland like Walton was for the city back in the day. Until then, the 1976-77 Blazers will continue to hold the crown of the best team in Portland franchise history. That squad was entertaining to watch from start to finish and they backed up their sound regular-season play by winning it all against the Sixers.

Walton, who won the 1978 MVP award with the Blazers, finished his Hall of Fame career with averages of 13.3 points and 10.5 rebounds.

Lillard has the talent to be the main cog on a title team, but he needs more help around him. Some fans want to see the team re-sign Carmelo Anthony whenever the 2020 free agency period starts so the Blazers can throw out a starting lineup of Lillard, CJ McCollum, Anthony, Trevor Ariza and Jusuf Nurkic.

Melo and Nurkic didn't get to play together this season.