The long-rumored sale of the Portland Trail Blazers finally went through this season, as private equity investor and Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon took over the team just in time for the playoffs.
Almost immediately, Dundon began cutting costs. Reports surfaced on the team’s slimmed-down travel accommodations and its meager budget for its next head coach. The team even did way with the customary free t-shirt for its home playoff games in the first round.
In an interview on the Pardon My Take podcast on Wednesday, the hosts jokingly asked NBA commissioner Adam Silver whether he could step in and force Portland to provide t-shirts for fans. Silver took the opportunity to defend Dundon.
“People are starting to say he’s not really willing to spend the money. Remember, this is a guy who just won a bidding war, [spent], call it $4.5 billion to buy the team, and they’re calling him cheap. It just can’t be,” Silver said.
“I think the Hurricanes, I’m not following the NHL every night, but … he knows what he’s doing. I think his mindset, and I’m just getting to know him, but I don’t think it has as much to do with the cost of the t-shirts or wherever he’s saving money.
“It’s a mindset on how to run a business. It’s a scrappy approach to, I think, focusing on details, making people feel like everything matters. So, again, the idea that this guy [who] spent one of the highest prices for a professional sports team in history is being called cheap makes absolutely no sense to me. This guy’s a winner, he’s won in everything he’s ever been involved in. So let’s give him an opportunity.”
It’s important to remember that Dundon and the NBA’s other 29 owners are, in effect, Silver’s bosses. Anyone expecting the commissioner to bash an owner shouldn’t hold their breath.
Dundon has slashed costs similarly with his NHL team in Carolina, and the team has blossomed. But Dundon seemingly had to sell about a quarter of his stake in the Hurricanes in order to fund his purchase of the Trail Blazers, which comes as part of a large group and for which he will make a series of payments across two-and-a-half years, according to The Athletic.
With the Trail Blazers showing out so far this NBA postseason in spite of their new owner, Silver’s effusive defense of Dundon’s clearly frugal business tactics — which are clearly an outlier in the league — is probably not what Trail Blazers fans wanted to hear.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.