Trail Blazers Owner Paul Allen on Monday "broke his nearly two year silence with a wide-ranging interview with local media during which he assured he has no intentions of selling the team, while adding that he will no longer be a big-spending owner," according to Jason Quick of the Portland OREGONIAN. Allen said that he is "in good health after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma and a heart procedure in recent years." Allen, who bought the Blazers in '88, added that he "intends on remaining the owner, but he will no longer be among the highest-paying owners, like the early 2000, when his payroll skyrocketed to as much as $108 million." Allen: "As an owner, you really want to do the team right, the fans right, and the community right and build a winning organization. So I’ve invested a lot, but the crazy luxury tax days and all those things, those are gone. Those are gone ... There’s no enjoyment to losing money." Allen would "not give a long-term commitment to owning the team, saying his health will be a factor in his involvement, as will the success of the team." He said, "If at some point things were getting stale, or if we were going to be a lottery team forever ... that would be a challenge" (Portland OREGONIAN, 12/20). The AP's Anne Peterson notes Allen was "optimistic that the NBA's new labor agreement would help smaller-market teams like his that have been losing money." He "corrected one reporter about his losses saying they were in the 'hundreds of millions, let's be clear'" (AP, 12/20).
FINDING THE RIGHT FIT: In Portland, Kerry Eggers notes the "most interesting stuff came from his comments on Portland’s general manager position and the firing of the last two who held the post, Kevin Pritchard and Rich Cho." Allen indicated that Pritchard, the Blazers' GM from '07-10, "in effect fired himself." Allen said on draft night '10, "Kevin tracked me down and said, 'You’ve already decided to let me go.' I said, 'No, I haven’t.' He said, 'No, you really should. Can I just meet with Larry (Miller, the team president) the next day and we’ll part ways?' I was like, 'OK, really?'" Allen said that the two "discussed the owner’s concern about his GM, and that Pritchard 'asked to be let go multiple times.'" Allen: "He kept coming back to it. 'Let’s just part ways.'" Eggers notes as for Cho, Allen "simply didn't have enough confidence in Pritchard's replacement to keep him after only 10 months on the job." Allen: "You can have a good interview with somebody and be optimistic. But then it comes to getting into the season, sitting next to him, talking about the players, where you’re going, trades ... and sometimes you realize it’s not a good fit. That's basically what happened with Rich." Allen noted that interim GM Chad Buchanan "has done a good job ... but won't hold the position permanently" (PORTLAND TRIBUNE, 12/20).
