With 24 days before the Portland Trail Blazers face the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first game of the 2025-26 season, we thought it would be fun to look back at the various players who have worn #24
for the red and black.
Note: This list is not exhaustive!
Audie Norris: 1982-1985
The Atomic Dog, so nicknamed by teammate Mychal Thompson, played for the Blazers just a few years but had a memorable playoff moment that our own Dave Deckard wrote about a few years back:
With 26 seconds remaining, Norris had the ball at the top of the key, dribbling, likely looking to set up billion-point-scorer Kiki Vandeweghe. This was not the Atomic Dog’s yard. But Dallas overplayed Vandeweghe and Norris was left with no option but to dribble drive. He got to the rim against rookie Wallace Bryant, used his body to make contact, then laid a sweet extended flip shot softly off the glass for two. Back then, even big guys had touch.
Still, it wasn’t enough. Dallas had the score tied with one possession left, Portland’s ball. The play featured Clyde Drexler driving, a much better option off the bounce than Norris. Drexler penetrated, but couldn’t shake the defense for the winning shot. With the clock ticking like a tyrant, Clyde took the only option he had: dishing the ball to Norris along the baseline for a semi-covered 10-footer. As every analytics guru in the industry prepared to gouge their eyeballs out with Bic pens, Norris rose, launched, and then this…
Getting the go-ahead shot for a playoff series win is more than most Blazers can ever say they’ve done.
Chris Dudley: 1993-1997
The man couldn’t hit a free throw (averaging just under 46% for his career), but I might remember him most for being a whisker away from the Oregon Governor’s office in the 2010 election against John Kitzhaber. Fun fact: when I worked for the office of the governor two years later, they had pinned the envelope of a letter sent by a constituent onto the fabric wall of the constituent services cubicle. It was addressed to “Governor Chris Dudley.”
Qyntel Woods: 2002-2004
The 6’8” win was drafted by Portland and while he didn’t impress in his rookie campaign, he started his second year getting praise for a 37-point performance in Summer League. Unfortunately, that promise didn’t last long, and he was off the team at the end of the season and out of the NBA two years after that. He may now be most known for trying to get out of a speeding ticket by using his own basketball card as ID, being involved with dog fighting, and being one of the players that come most quickly to mind when the term “Jail Blazers” is mentioned.
Andre Miller: 2009-2011
I loved Andre Miller on the Blazers! I loved that he dunked that one time. I loved that he moved like the oldest man on the court when he was only in his early 30s. But I gotta admit that the memory that jumps to mind first when I think of Miller and Portland is this play:
…oh, my.
Anfernee Simons: 2018-2025
The recently-traded Simons is the longest-tenured Blazer to have ever worn the number 24 – even if the change was a temporary concession to Kent Bazemore – and Simons deserves a ton of praise for managing the prime of his career on a tanking team with professionalism and grace. He also deserves praise for moments like these (even if he wasn’t wearing 24 at the time), a game-winning layup over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets:
These are but a few of the 24’s who played for Portland… who did we miss, and what about them do you remember?
