It’s hard to make sense of the Blazers’ strategy regarding the negotiation for a lease extension for the Blazers’ home stadium, Moda Center. Is owner Tom Dundon playing hardball in an effort to extract as much money as possible from local governments? Or is this all theater in service to the ultimate goal of moving the team to some more lucrative (cough) market?
There’s an assumption being made by media and fans that Dundon is executing some master strategy. If the fact that what he’s doing doesn’t
make much sense to us, it’s just proof that he’s some Magnus Carlsen of the NBA-ownership chessboard. Is the city of Portland one move away from check and five moves away from mate?
There’s another explanation for his perplexing decisions, such as not disclosing how they would spend the hundreds of millions of dollars they are supposed to be receiving, and arguing about points of the current lease instead of working on the next one. Maybe the explanation that explains everything is really simple: Tom Dundon isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.
A truism that I never forget is that 50% of people are below average. More accurately, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I’m confident that I’m in the top 50% in playing coin-op video games of the 80s, but in the bottom 50% of eating vegetables. What if Tom Dundon is in the bottom 50% in getting what he wants as an NBA owner? What if everything he is doing to alienate the citizens of Portland, and his strategies for dealing with the city, are just… not very smart? Wouldn’t that explain an awful lot? Whether his endgame is to simply get the best deal he can to stay in Portland, or if the goal is to move the team, he’s certainly not demonstrated some masterful talent for getting his way, and we shouldn’t forget that. Maybe there is some great hidden master plan, and when this is all over I’ll have to admit that he is some owner-extraordinaire that had us all hoodwinked. More likely is that he’ll fail up and get what he wants in spite of himself. It’s not like we haven’t seen that too many times to count with the not-so-bright super-rich. Until this plays out, though, the operating explanation for everything going on should be that Tom Dundon is below average. Maybe more than a little.
