Netflix
The latest episode of Netflix’s Untold series features the controversial Trail Blazers from the early 2000s, dubbed the Jail Blazers.
The doc reunites Bonzi Wells, Damon Stoudemire, and Rasheed Wallace to tell their side of the story of the infamous team that was vilified in the media.
UNTOLD: JAIL BLAZERS premieres April 14.
In the early 2000s, the Portland Trail Blazers were stacked with talent—and surrounded by controversy.
Through firsthand stories from Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire, and Bonzi Wells, this is an unfiltered look at a team caught… pic.twitter.com/o5c04pDQMy
— Netflix (@netflix) March 24, 2026
We spoke to Wells and Stoudemire about the doc, their current relationship with the Trail Blazers, and what they hope viewers take away from their story.
What was the reason you wanted to be involved in this doc and tell the story of your time with the Trail Blazers?
Bonzi Wells: “I just thought that the masses need to hear our stories so they can have a real judgment on who we are as people, and not just a one-sided story that the media kind of cooked up to make people believe that we, that we are just the worst people in the world. So it just meant a lot for me to put Rasheed’s story out there, Damon’s story out there, and it kind of coexists with my story.”
Damon Stoudamire: “I was into it, you know. The only thing I always said was, you know, you got— if you’re gonna have a good documentary you gotta have a protagonist and an antagonist. And I think at first they was like, we gotta tell our story. I’m like, man, people not gonna wanna watch this unless somebody tell the bad side. Like,you gotta be too bold to any type of documentary for it to have some type of merit with people, you know? And so I thought that that’s what, I thought that’s what actually made the documentary. To be honest with you. So, you know, I was with it.”
“I mean, I felt like it was, it was some gaps that I think that people wanted to know, you know, and I think that from ’99 to ’04, those were the gaps that were filled with this documentary.”
What was reaction when you were given the Jail Blazers name?
Bonzi Wells: “I mean, in the moment, you know, we were being rebellious, and it’s like, all right, that’s who we are. We’re the bad boys of the league. We’re the 2K bad boys of Detroit. You know, that’s what y’all think about us, that’s fine. And it kind of sent the message through the league as well. And you kind of felt it when you played other teams that they kind of had like a, you know, kind of like, hey, hey fellas, what y’all want today type, you know, disposition when they kind of came up against us a little bit.
“And we totally felt like we had a 10-point advantage going into every game, just reputation-wise. Might not have been true, but we felt like that. And so we were okay with it. But culturally, you don’t want that, that moniker on your name, especially, you know, growing up in the, in the Black community. You want to do everything you can to stay out of jail. So our family might have felt some type of way about it, but for the most part, during that moment, I was okay with it.”
“I mean, it was just more hoop. I looked at it as a hoop because none of us went to jail, none of us were on jail stuff. So that didn’t really process to us that we were really Jailblazers. It was more like, all right, this is a tough team, you know, if they don’t win the game, they’re gonna win the fight and go to jail. So that’s kind of in my mind you know, how it was still, but I know that wasn’t reality. But I remember the fact that you named that none of us really went to jail before, and that didn’t really have nothing to do with us. It was just something that rhymed. It sounded good.
Last Decemnber the team honored the 00’s Blazers team. What’s your current relationship with team and the city after everything that went down in the past 20 years?
Bonzi: They just got us back, so I mean, it was good for a certain moment, you know, for the last 15, 20 years. I know me and the guys didn’t know what our relationship was with the Blazers. And for them to reach out, you know, I really appreciate Tina Thompson, who’s in the front office with the Blazers, to kind of bridge the gap. And the healing has begun, and they brought us back, and it was like love. It was like nothing ever happened. And I really appreciated that from the organization.
Damon: “We just got back with them 3 months ago, so we still in the shortened period now. You know, they just brought it back in December, but it’s cool to BE kind of— the healing. And I think this documentary has done a great job of telling both the other side of the story other than the narrative that was kind of skewed to the consumers back then. I think they can just hear our side of it as well and kind of come to their own conclusion instead of just hearing one-sided things and not knowing us personally and just kind of just taking that narrative and just kind making others like, this is, this is who they are and this is what it is, and this is totally false. So I’m thankful for the project that’s kind of clearing things up.
Damon: I mean, everything’s fine. I mean, my biggest thing, my biggest thing is that I just didn’t go back just because I just didn’t go back. You know, there’s been times. And I actually went back to a couple of Blazer events, you know, when I was still living on the West Coast. But, you know, it’s bonding I actually still talk to— and Bob Whitsitt, the organization, but I’ve always talked to Bob. I never really quit talking to people. So, you know for me being there is probably different than everybody else. So Like even when, you know, maybe I was getting ridiculed on one end, I can go to Northeast Portland and they love me still. So it wasn’t really a matter of anything. I just chose to kind of let years go by, you know. So for me, just not dealing with everything that was going on, I felt more of a certain type of way about how I was handled from the standpoint of not from the police and not from getting in trouble, because getting in trouble is getting in trouble
“But I was more a little disappointed the way I was handled, like I wasn’t one of their own, you know. So for me, that was more— that was where— why I stayed away. Didn’t have nothing to do with the team itself.”
What do you hope people take away from this doc?
“For me, just clarity. Just clarity of the situation that we was going through. ‘Cause like I said, you know, we’ve been living 20-something-odd years off of one side of the story and the way people look at us and handle us. So it’s gonna be good for the, you know, people to be able to connect the puzzle pieces and the dots to what really was going on. And then we can have closure and move on. So that’s just what it was about for me.”
“Yeah, I, I just, I think that it’s an opportunity for people, uh, that look back 20-plus years, no social media, the things that were going on, the things that were allowed, are allowed to go on today. And then the perspective that I really like the way Bob Whitson, you know, broke down the team. And you got a 4-year window of where he broke down the team and how he tried to put the team together and the different moves and components that went into his process of what he was trying to do.”
Untold: Jail Blazers is currently airing on Netflix.