Tom Dundon Applies His Chintzy Tactics To The Trail Blazers

At the end of March, the NBA approved the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers to a group of investors led by Dallas billionaire Tom Dundon, at a valuation of about $4.25 billion. On paper, Dundon, who already owns the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, certainly looks the part of an NBA owner. He built his career on subprime lending, led businesses that were recently investigated by the state of Oregon for predatory lending practices, and invests enthusiastically in professional pickleball. However, barely one month into officially owning the Blazers, Dundon has already developed a reputation for industry-leading stinginess.

When Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was arrested in October as part of a federal gambling investigation, that vacated the seat for interim coach Tiago Splitter. Though Dundon was hoping to hire for the role, he doesn't intend to spend more than $1.5 million annually**** on the head coach's annual salary, according to Jake Fischer, writing last week for the Stein Line. That would be well below market rate, even for Splitter, so good luck with that.

NBA head coach salary is at least a seven-figure annual expenditure, but Dundon has also looked to scrimp and save on much humbler line items. Blazers staffers were recently seen gathered in a hotel lobby because they'd been asked to check out to avoid late checkout fees, as Chris Mannix reported last week at Sports Illustrated. And while it is customary practice for fans at playoff games to get free T-shirts, the Blazers won't be doing that for this series, according to team president Dewayne Hankins. Another investor in the Blazers ownership group, Sheel Tyle, tweeted that the team will be doing "something else" instead. Sounds promising.