Trail Blazers Owner Paul Allen yesterday upped the rhetoric between himself and Portland Oregonian columnist John Canzano by posting on his Twitter account a link to his webpage and a photo strip describing "The Four Stages of reading a John Canzano column about the Portland Trail Blazers." The strip includes four pictures of a Dumbo octopus with the following captions: “Stage 1: Uh oh, another Canzano column! Stage 2: Wow, even more bombastic and grandiose than usual! Stage 3: He’s frolicking again with unnamed sources and their murky agendas. Stage 4: Movin’ on … (Does his editor even bother to read these?)" (THE DAILY). Canzano yesterday wrote if Allen's "heart is in this, he needs to go all in with a hire at coach and general manager who can take this franchise to the top." He needs to "open the checkbook again, stop acting like some economically challenged hard-liner and get about trying to win himself a championship in the only way that men like him know how: Go buy it." Canzano wrote, "Give up the autonomy to a genuine basketball man, and write a chapter to the end of this story that is palatable for everyone. Either that, or dump the franchise and save us all the trouble." There is "no better time for Allen to sell the Blazers." Flexibility is "at an all-time high," and payroll "is low." Canzano: "And you're no closer to an NBA championship than you were when you purchased the team for $70 million almost 25 years ago." However, there are "only 30 of these toys available." People in Portland "need the Blazers to get it together." Canzano: "Healthy or not, as a region, we're not diversified and are overly reliant upon the NBA franchise" (Portland OREGONIAN, 4/18).
ACTION AND REACTION: The OREGONIAN's Canzano writes Allen "threw a haymaker at me via Twitter while he was apparently en route to his team's final home basketball game of the NBA season." Canzano: "When I saw it, I was pleased to learn that Allen continues to read my column. ... Mostly, I was disappointed that in all Allen's creative expression, the guy who nicknamed himself 'Idea Man' failed to do the one thing that most of us care to know. You know, share an idea" (Portland OREGONIAN, 4/19). YAHOO SPORTS' Adam Sparks writes, "I'm all for this kind of stuff; Allen showing a personal side, hitting Canzano with a barb ... using a little humor to make his point." It was "funny, and well-played by the owner." And it "might have been even funnier, and might have endeared Allen to Blazers fans a little more, if not for all the issues with the team that they're currently blaming on him." As is his way, Canzano "hasn't exactly pulled punches in calling out Allen for many of the team's current issues." Sparks: "I like that Allen cares enough about what's going on to bother striking back at a newspaper columnist. It's far better than the apathy I typically assume he feels for the mess that his team has become" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/19).
