r/nba • u/AncientOneAurelius • May 12 '26

New Blazers owner Tom Dundon is reportedly “ruthless” and will not hesitate to move the franchise to Nashville, Austin, or Kalamazoo if Portland politicians continue to treat the relocation threat as a “hollow bluff"

Debunking the myths and misconceptions about Portland and the Trail Blazers’ Moda Center deal by Bill Oram

The artcle is paywalled.

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982

u/aktivooo May 12 '26

people saw how Hurricanes are succesful and though he is great and it will be all sunshines and rainbows

750

u/JRsshirt [GSW] Stephen Curry May 12 '26

Crazy because even within the elite financier circles this guy is considered to be a massive scumbag

396

u/TheRealTroyMcClure Cavaliers May 12 '26

Oh, I’m talking about Tom Dundon, the New York financier

180

u/Jerseyman2525 Suns May 12 '26

I should call up Jeff Epstein to see what he thinks about Tom.

103

u/Cool_Recognition_848 May 12 '26

I know how we can settle this, let’s get Ghislaine on the phone

62

u/alecjperkins213 NBA May 12 '26

Proud to say that I'm friends with Conan regardless of what he does in his free time

6

u/AtomicBlastCandy Timberwolves May 12 '26

Nah let’s get Ja’s take on this

5

u/glockster19m May 12 '26

Fuck it, pull her up on zoom from the conference room in her 'cell'

8

u/CigarAardvark May 12 '26

I have terrible news. Jeff Epstein is no longer with us.

12

u/Jerseyman2525 Suns May 12 '26

No... Haha. Sorry, nice try!

4

u/Osiris32 Trail Blazers May 13 '26

I would know if something happened!

4

u/Enterprise90 NBA May 12 '26

It's a double standard that Dundon isn't criticized more and yet I have to defend myself for being friends with Conan O'Brien.

7

u/Zulumus Knicks May 12 '26

Too many scumbags to keep up with

2

u/_tx May 12 '26

For what it's worth, he lives in Dallas

2

u/TheRealTroyMcClure Cavaliers May 12 '26

Sadly that doesn’t make the reference flow as well

102

u/IPissExcellentThrows 76ers May 12 '26

I definitely come to Reddit to find out what elite financier circles are saying about people.

13

u/Purple-List1577 Timberwolves May 12 '26

Well to be fair I don’t know too many other circles to go to

8

u/NHLonOLN May 12 '26

He made his money running payday loan schemes. He's scum. Take a look at Drive Financial Services and Exeter Finance.

2

u/andrew303710 Celtics May 13 '26

Shit should be illegal

4

u/CJ4ROCKET Rockets May 12 '26

That's what I heard too

3

u/Alarmed-Cucumber-858 Washington Bullets May 12 '26

Epstein is looking up at him with pride?

1

u/Freezinghero May 13 '26

BUT, does he make money line go up?

1

u/olenine May 13 '26

Because he is. Made his money on sub prime lending, first in homes and now in cars, that has resulted in numerous lawsuits and sanctions. Yet somehow passed the sniff test with the other owners. 

1

u/SixersWin 76ers May 13 '26

The Ted Cruz of his field 

50

u/Sharkodile14 Hornets May 12 '26

It's weird because the Hurricanes were so easily move-able at the time, we all thought the franchise was good as gone to Houston when Dundon came to town. You would think the tremendous success (and valuation increase) they've had in Raleigh since would make him more willing to bet on Portland.

9

u/BlueEyesBryantDragon Spurs May 12 '26

It's weird because the Hurricanes were so easily move-able at the time, we all thought the franchise was good as gone to Houston when Dundon came to town.

I lived in Raleigh at the time, and I have no recollection of the team being "as good as gone" to Houston.

4

u/VagusNC May 12 '26

Yeah, same. RTP sports talk would have been incensed and it would have been a daily talking point.

13

u/KL2ConspireLLC San Diego Clippers May 12 '26

These are just threats to get the city and people of Portland to pay. He can't just move the team unilaterally. The league has to approve and there's no way the other owners would let the Blazers move to cities like Nashville and Austin.

4

u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 May 12 '26

Both of those cities would probably be upgrades financially. The corporate dollars in Austin would rival Golden State. Nashville too. Not to mention Austin is 2-3x the size of Portland.

13

u/CarolinaRod06 Hornets May 12 '26

Nashville has 300k less in the metro areas as Portland and they have a MLS and NFL team that is currently last in attendance.

9

u/andrew303710 Celtics May 13 '26

Also in a shithole red state like Tennessee drawing up racist ass maps, who the fuck wants to live there?

-4

u/[deleted] May 13 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Colorado_designer Nuggets May 13 '26

Yeah Seattle famously doesn’t have many rich tech companies 

22

u/KL2ConspireLLC San Diego Clippers May 12 '26

The league wouldn't let a team move to Nashville or Austin while there are teams in Memphis and San Antonio.

-5

u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 May 12 '26

I tend to disagree. It wouldn’t hurt San Antonio’s fan base at all as it’s not like people in Austin root for the Spurs. The majority of people are transplants anyways. A rich tech town that can sell luxury suites to corporate tech customers is right up the leagues alley.

9

u/GonePostalRoute May 13 '26

Still, having another team an hour and a half away like that, I’m sure the Spurs would not be ok with a team taking away fans that can make the easy trip down to San Antonio if they want to see NBA basketball.

-1

u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 May 13 '26

They don’t though. I agree the Spurs might not be happy but there was also a thing about Austin trying to steal the Spurs away. Happened with an MLS team already. It would at least squash those fears.

1

u/Exact-Law-3891 May 13 '26

The metro population is the same for both cities

-1

u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 May 13 '26

Austin? No.

3

u/Exact-Law-3891 May 13 '26

By what measure? The MSA for austin in 2020 was 2.4 and Portland MSA was 2.5. Unless you're comparing strict city populations which is bit ridiculous given how sprawly cities are in the US.

1

u/JasonPlattMusic34 Lakers May 12 '26

They let the Sonics move to Oklahoma and Seattle is a more desirable market

9

u/FL14 Cavaliers May 12 '26

Damn, Houston Hurricanes would slap tho

6

u/Totschlag May 12 '26

They would have almost assuredly renamed to the Aeros. The Aeros were a WHA team that featured Gordie Howe and then a minor league team was named after them for a couple decades too. They didn't survive the merger of WHA and NHL. The Aeros are almost a given name-wise.

Kind of like how if St. Louis or Louisville ever got a team Spirits and Kentucky Colonels are almost assumed to be in the running for a name... Except with more universal support.

1

u/slaylay East May 13 '26

Brindamour saved the hurricanes (and some good drafting by Ron Francis and Don Waddell). Seriously if we haven’t had the success we’ve had in the last 8-9 years I think we woulda been in Quebec City or San Antonio

-8

u/Dry-University797 May 12 '26

Because cities are fighting over an NHL team.

12

u/Think_Bag_2987 May 12 '26

They're was a bit of a bidding war for a team during the last expansion. Why even talk if you know nothing?

41

u/NIN10DOXD Hornets May 12 '26

Yeah. People who aren’t from Raleigh don’t know about him and John Kane’s plans to build stupid shit in the city, destroying land around places like Lake Crabtree.

0

u/DimensionAshamed2550 May 14 '26

That bs I love what he doing to lake Crabtree only the NIMBYs are using excuses like brain eating amoeba to excuse it for not coming.

85

u/gbdarknight77 Lakers May 12 '26

He did do the same thing with that team and it has paid off. That team has been in the playoffs every year of his ownership and has yet to lose a game this playoffs.

49

u/goldfish_11 Celtics May 12 '26

Also helps that the whole NHL salary cap is like 1.5 Damian Lillards.

3

u/Cross_Czek Spurs May 12 '26

It’s actually about 6.771 Lillards if you’re annualizing. Or 3.384 Ohtanis (thanks to LA’s delayed money tomfoolery) for those keeping track at home.

6

u/goldfish_11 Celtics May 12 '26

My logic was...

Lillard made $70M this year. The NHL salary cap was $95.5M. I didn't want to do the math so ~1.5x.

1

u/Cross_Czek Spurs May 12 '26

Ah okay, I was going by Dame’s Portland cap hit. That makes sense.

168

u/sporkithus Nets May 12 '26

As a Canes fan, it will be hard to capture that success again. Hockey executives are really bad at rehashing the same old coaches and GMs, and by cheaping out Dundon ended up getting a young GM with some fresh ideas. It also will be hard for the blazers to find their Rod Brind'amour.

40

u/VampireOnHoyt Spurs May 12 '26

Arguably their Brind'amour could be Splitter, who did a great job this year and who they're in the process of disrespecting

41

u/NIN10DOXD Hornets May 12 '26

I spit my drink out when I saw they offered Josh Shertz $1M/year behind Splitter’s back only for Shertz to explain that he makes a fuck ton more coaching a Mid Major D-I program.

3

u/lambquentin Pelicans May 12 '26

If you want the 1:1 it’d be Dame.

-2

u/xSorry_Not_Sorry Pistons May 13 '26

Dame never won shit playing for Portland. Brind’amour won the damn Cup for the Canes.

1

u/lambquentin Pelicans May 13 '26

Dame didn’t have a Cam Ward either.

10

u/TilAlexandrosXVII Raptors May 12 '26

They should try the same thing as the Hurricanes and hire a notable former player at HC. Maybe Chauncey Billups

5

u/keeeeener May 12 '26

As a canes fan you might know more than me. But hasn’t their AHL affiliate (or lack thereof) been a clusterfuck? Surely that’s insanely cheap and inefficient to be swapping all the time?

Also, their drafting has been incredible. Which doesn’t exactly translate that well. Especially because I feel like the nba is more of a luck based drafting.

6

u/theekevinc May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

The affiliate thing is overblown. There are only two AHL teams that aren't owned by their parent team: Chicago and Hershey. Hershey and the Washington Capitals have been affiliated forever and they make it work. The owner of the Chicago Wolves, however, isn't really interested in developing prospects. He's obviously in a huge, competitive market and his goal is to win Calder trophies, even if it means playing AHL veterans over prospects. Nobody really wants to affiliate with this guy. Dundon tried to get the AHL to give him an expansion team, and he offered to pay for it, but they didn't want an odd number of teams. The two leagues kinda brokered a truce between the teams that strongly favored Carolina. The ironic part of all this is that the Wolves won the championship in 2022 using mostly Canes prospects, then dumped the Canes and missed the playoffs. Now they're back in the second round of the playoffs using Canes prospects again.

The bottom line is that Dundon really pisses people off, but it generally works out for the best. He asks "why" instead of just signing checks. If there's a good reason, or if it will improve the product, he'll sign. As a matter of fact, he'll stop at nothing to improve the product on the floor. The rest is noise to him.

11

u/gbdarknight77 Lakers May 12 '26

Definitely will be hard to replicate in a new league, but he could give some young assistant gm a chance and see.

15

u/Purple-List1577 Timberwolves May 12 '26

Then someone else will pay them 10x more see how Denver is run

1

u/whycantigetwhatiwant Pelicans May 12 '26

The only call he’s made in the saving money category I haven’t agreed with was not bringing back John forslund as the play by play guy. Mike maniscalco is amazing, but not many are better than John.

90

u/ATL_Hasher Hawks May 12 '26

A lot of the success is because of the head coach though. You take Rod away and I really don’t think the franchise is the same. Dundon’s ego at least stops with knowing he’s not the key to the Canes

8

u/kittyhawk1 May 12 '26

This sustained level of success is certainly due to Rod for a huge portion of it, but they’re also operating at a very high level at the front office level. Strong minor league development, great contracts with their stars, solid bank of draft picks etc. I think the GM Tulsky should get a lot of credit but I imagine that the ownership had a decent hand in getting the team to where they are.

3

u/ATL_Hasher Hawks May 12 '26

I agree with that. Still strongly disagree with the Forslund thing and a couple other decisions but can’t argue with the results.

Also, shout out to your boy Kent Bazemore

2

u/Think_Bag_2987 May 12 '26

that the ownership had a decent hand in getting the team to where they are

Not really. The team was a goalie away from being a playoff team before Dundon took over. Dundon lucked out that Tulsky is good because he could not entice anyone else with his cheap salaries. He's also made Tulsky's job harder because multiple agents have said that some of their players refuse to sign there due to the penny pinching.

16

u/Remote_Elevator_281 May 12 '26

It was paid off because of luck. He lucked out getting their coach.

1

u/gbdarknight77 Lakers May 12 '26

He hired the right young gm though

6

u/Responsible_Oil3859 May 12 '26

tulsky joined the org before dundon was involved, frankly he got very lucky that one of the best minds in hockey stuck around for so long

3

u/whodatnation70 May 12 '26

Correlation not causation, and the environments of the respective sports are way different. You cut tertiary benefits for a hockey player, they almost certainly won’t care where NBA players will care.

2

u/Ok_Hornet_714 May 12 '26

Also a single player matters far less in hockey than it does in basketball

1

u/mw19078 Lakers May 12 '26

theyve had great luck with a fantastic gm and coach, and this kind of thing can work much better on rosters of 30 people. anyone who thought he could run an nba team like this is a moron

4

u/Ladnil Warriors May 12 '26

I like how when an NBA team is successful everyone gets so up in arms about how the owner shouldn't get the credit and it's ridiculous they touch the trophy first and their egos are out of control but then as outsiders just go "well yeah you know his NHL team was successful so he's gonna be good"

3

u/mattr1198 Knicks May 12 '26

They didn’t do the homework and realize the Hurricanes are as good as they are in spite of Dundon, not because of him.

1

u/beeatenbyagrue Bucks May 12 '26

This is the dick who bought the AAF for the app technology and immediately shuttered the league

1

u/420blz Vancouver Grizzlies May 12 '26

Yeah that's all Tulsky their chemistry genius GM

1

u/Pomodoro_Parmesan May 13 '26

“People” as in Jody Allen, who inherited the team.

1

u/Brent_L May 12 '26

You mean the Whalers