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Incoming Trail Blazers governor and owner Tom Dundon speaks Thursday along with fellow investors in the \u201cRip City Rising\u201d ownership group.<\/p>\n
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 While the Portland Trail Blazers have emphasized developing young talent in recent years, new owner Tom Dundon says that mindset is shifting toward loftier goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to get this message through the last couple of days that that was fun, and probably necessary, but it\u2019s more fun to win,\u201d Dundon said. \u201cIt\u2019s more fun to do the things that lead to success and hopefully we\u2019ll start creating more habits, that those processes lead to the kind of winning that I expect, and I think everybody expects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dundon spoke Thursday along with fellow investors in the \u201cRip City Rising\u201d ownership group. The NBA Board of Governors on Monday approved the reported $4.25 billion sale of the team by Paul Allen\u2019s estate and the new owners took over the team on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Blazers sit at 39-38 in the Western Conference, a half-game back of the eighth-place Los Angeles Clippers. Having already clinched a play-in spot, if Portland can move into the eighth spot it is an easier one-game shot at advancing to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The new owners group includes Dundon, Portland-based Sheel Tyle, the co-founder of investment firm Collective Global; Marc Zahr, co-president of Blue Owl Capital; the Cherng Family Trust, the investment firm of the co-founders of Panda Express; Stan Middleman of Freedom Mortgage who also owns a stake of the Philadelphia Phillies, and others.<\/p>\n
In addition to the Trail Blazers, the acquisition includes the Rip City Remix in the NBA G League and Rip City Management, which operates the Moda Center.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Dundon sold a portion of the NHL\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes to three new minority owners, a transaction reportedly worth $332.5 million for 12.5% of the team.<\/p>\n
Dundon bought a stake in the Hurricanes in 2017, became the majority owner in 2018 and took sole possession of the club in 2021. He is chairman and managing partner of the Dallas-based firm Dundon Capital Partners.<\/p>\n
Dundon said he won\u2019t shy from pulling off the big deal, adding Blazers general manager Joe Cronin had a possible deal at the trade deadline that would have made a splash.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that opportunity exists, I\u2019m probably more aggressive than most,\u201d Dundon said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t exist, then you\u2019ve got to go about finding the pieces to continue to get better, then decide if you can get good enough to win a championship, or you have to take a step back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portland has built in recent years around a nucleus of young players, including Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan. The team\u2019s top scorer is Deni Avdija, in his fifth season.<\/p>\n
The sale of the Trail Blazers comes after the Oregon Legislature approved funds for the renovation of the Moda Center in early March. The measure gives the state joint ownership of the 30-year-old arena with the city and provides a mechanism to secure $365 million for the building\u2019s renovation ahead of the women\u2019s NCAA Final Four in 2030.<\/p>\n
Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who died in 2018, bought the Blazers in 1988 for $70 million. His estate announced last May it had begun the process of selling the team. Allen also owned the NFL\u2019s Seattle Seahawks and a minority share of Major League Soccer\u2019s Seattle Sounders.<\/p>\n
Allen stipulated in his will the eventual sale of his teams, with the proceeds to be given to philanthropic endeavors. Allen\u2019s estate announced it began the process of selling the Seahawks in mid-February, about two weeks after the team captured the franchise\u2019s second Super Bowl championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incoming Trail Blazers governor and owner Tom Dundon speaks Thursday along with fellow investors in the \u201cRip City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,178835,178227],"class_list":{"0":"post-372383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tom-dundon","12":"tag-trail-blazers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}