Tough Schedule Exactly What Trail Blazers Need

We haven't really touched on this just because I don't feel like we are the people to deliver this news, but the city state and county have passed their public funding $573 million to the Portland trailblazers.

They will now go through four months of negotiations.

But to me, that was always the biggest hurdle because when we are looking at whether the blazers will stay in Portland.

It all hinged on, one, do you have, are you winning the PR battle? Absolutely, they're winning the PR battle right now.

Two, do you have public funds committed, signed in writing? Yes, you do.

That's something the Seattle Supersonics never had after they left in 2000.

And three, the Blazers are, I wouldn't say they are a flagship NBA franchise, but they are maybe a tier below because when you factor in that they have been in the NBA for 57 years, They've won a championship.

They have made the finals three times.

They have three members of the NBA's top 75 team of all time.

And really, there have only been two stretches of that 57-year history where you look from, I think, probably... 04 to 09 and then 22 to 2026 where they were bottom feeders.

They have been a consistent pillar of the NBA community and that's what they should strive for.

You don't want to be a bottom feeder who's constantly tanking, who's in the lottery, never in the news.

They are there and there's good fan support Everything about it, it feels like the team will stay in Portland as long as they got that funding passed, which they did.

And sure, nobody's going to want to negotiate with Tom Dundon.

We've had our thoughts about him as well.

But now he is relatively now backed into a corner as well.

There's no getting out of this deal unless he sells.

the team like we saw the Lakers sell some of their shares just a couple of days ago because there's no markets to move to.

He's not cash rich enough to go.

He just spent how many million?

He's not like that.

And there's the support to keep the team here.

So I am feeling very confident that something will get worked out where we will continue to have Blazer basketball in Portland for a long time.

And I'm really thankful for that because there was a period of time there where I wasn't sure the public funding was going to get passed, and that's what really concerned me, that we could get down to some dicey situations.

And I couldn't imagine myself not living in this city without the Portland Trailblazers because having a team, even a bad team, is better than having no team at all.