Is the team for sale?
What is going on in Portland, Oregon with the National Basketball Association’s Trail Blazers? Is the team for sale? Is the team on the move or will status quo prevail? Recently, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said of the situation in Portland. “Portland has been a wonderful community for the NBA. My preference would be that that team remains in Portland.” The Portland problem seems to be this. The Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen died in 2018 and the franchise has been operated by his sister Jody for the past four years. Silver said that Jody Allen, the trustee of the Portland Trail Blazers, has to sell the team at some point in the future. He said he does not know when that will happen, and that Allen has been a “great steward” for the franchise. Silver also said, “at some point, the team will be sold. I don’t have any sense of the precise timing.”
The Trail Blazers business is owned by the Paul G. Allen Trust. Jody Allen, is the executor of his estate and currently serves as chair of the Trail Blazers, and there has some expectation that the business would be sold at some point following Allen’s death. But the franchise’s public relations’ staff released a statement that the business is not for sale. The franchise’s public relations’ staff did confirm that NIKE founder Phil Knight along with Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinksy offered to buy the franchise and for now, the Paul G. Allen Trust is not interested in parting with the team. Portland has been a five-decade NBA success story. The franchise joined the NBA in 1970 along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Buffalo Braves. From 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games. It has been a strong NBA market.
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