RIP Mo Lucas

Mo Lucas//Courtesy: Roger Jensen-The Orgeonian

Sadly, there are at least a couple generations of basketball fans who probably don't even know who Maurice Lucas is. They should.

Lucas passed away Sunday in Portland, Oregon at the age of 58. He'd been battling cancer off and on for the past couple of years while working as an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers, the team that he made his mark with.

Here is more on Lucas's legacy in basketball, from OregonLive.com RIGHT HERE

If you haven't seen or heard of Lucas's NBA exploits, you really should look them up. He was the prototype for the 4-man in basketball terminology. The ultimate power forward. Really, he was for lack of a better way to put it, an enforcer. But not in the Bill Laimbeer trying to hurt someone way.

The Blazers teams that he played for in the late 70's, which featured a then healthy Bill Walton and Lionel Hollins....and coach Dr. Jack Ramsay were some of the greatest in NBA history.

We can remember watching the Blazers/Sixers series as an impressionable 12-year old who loved everything basketball. That series featured a Sixer team with Dr.J, George McGuiness, Lloyd (World) B. Free and Darryl Dawkins. But Portland beat them, because they were a better team. And they were a better team...because they had Maurice Lucas.

Checkout this old footage of the Portland/Philadelphia series...Courtesy: Ginoonkamote/NBATV/YouTube: