Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon has been under fire for the last couple weeks, accused of being “cheap” due to various cost-cutting measures (and attendant rumors) enacted since he assumed control of the team at the start of the month.
Today NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared on the Pardon My Take show on Barstool Sports with host Big Cat. One of the topics of conversation was the Blazers not providing the customary t-shirts for playoffs home games, a long-standing NBA tradition lost to apparent
penny-pinching in Portland.
In response to that line of questioning, Silver defended Dundon. You can see the excerpt in this video clip from X:
Among the things Silver said of Dundon:
“So he knows what he’s doing and I think I like his mindset.”
“It’s a scrappy approach…focusing on details, making people feel that everything matters.”
“The idea that this guy paid one of the highest prices for a professional sports team in history is being called ‘cheap’ makes absolutely no sense to me. This guy’s a winner. He’s won in everything he’s ever been involved in, so let’s give him an opportunity.”
T-shirts or no, it appears that Portland’s new owner has at least one highly-placed supporter in the league office.
