Portland politicians aren’t calling a bluff, they’re signing the Blazers’ death certificate

The Trail Blazers’ offseason will not be defined by whether they trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaylen Brown or Kevin Durant.

History won’t remember whether they retain Tiago Splitter, spend on a top-flight head coach, or have an AI assistant draw up the plays.

The only thing that matters for the Trail Blazers this summer — really, truly, actually matters — is whether Portland’s politicians figure out that losing this team, be it to Nashville, Austin or Kalamazoo, is not some hollow threat by a greedy billionaire.

It’s as serious as wildfires in a summer drought. And our representatives are cackling while tossing firecrackers into the trees.

They’re laying dynamite along the Cascadia fault and dumping crude oil in Netarts Bay.

Council President Jamie Dunphy told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the city won’t pay for the Blazers’ “executive suites or their locker rooms,” while Councilor Angelita Morillo told a roomful of supporters last month that the threat of relocation is a “massive bluff.”

“We need to call them on that bluff,” she said.

We do?!

The Schonz just gasped. Wy’east is about to blow her lid.

Dunphy and Morillo may be scoring political points with a small group of constituents. But this is what happens when a generation raised on Aaron Sorkin dialogue and majestic cello crescendos is handed actual power.

“I think they think if they vote no they are sticking it to the new ownership group,” a source close to the negotiations said. “But what I don’t think they realize is that if they vote no it gives the new ownership group a window to move the team.”

At risk here is a fragile agreement between the state, city and Multnomah County to put together a funding package that will pay to renovate the 31-year-old Moda Center. The state approved $365 million toward the project, signed into law last month by Gov. Tina Kotek, but that funding is contingent on the Blazers agreeing to a long-term lease at Moda Center and the city and county making good on Mayor Keith Wilson’s and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s financial pledges.

Without all those components, the deal falls apart. And the Blazers go bye-bye. You can count on that.

Kotek told me last month that the project had “majority support on City Council.” When she said that, another source diplomatically offered, “She is entitled to her own opinion.”

But she is not entitled to her own facts, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously declared.

The facts are precarious. The council is not yet on board — it’s not just Dunphy and Morillo — the mayor is forging ahead and the people holding the cards don’t seem to understand the stakes.

New owner Tom Dundon isn’t evil. He’s not a cartoon villain, but he is ruthless. If given the opportunity to say that he tried and that the city didn’t want the Blazers, he won’t hesitate. He bought this franchise as a business.

And if you aren’t sure whether Portland is good for business right now, you can meet me at the downtown Target to discuss it.

The more councilors like Morillo and Dunphy try to tweak or extract, the more unstable the situation becomes.

What leverage do they think they have? Why do they think time is on their side?

The Blazers want to have a lease signed by the start of next season, sources said.

“If we go into the season without a lease,” one source said, “it triggers other things.”

What things? I’ll let you figure that out, but the words “Clay” and “Bennett” should be echoing in your mind.

Proposed NBA expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas doesn’t dampen the potential for relocation, it enhances it. Once the league grows to 32 teams, the only chance other major cities have of landing a team is by poaching one from another city.

By stealing ours.

We shouldn’t leave the keys on the seat of an unlocked Porsche.

I love Portland with my whole heart. I want it to thrive. But I also recognize its imperfections and pray they do not become fatal flaws.

We tax high earners, like basketball superstars, at a rate higher than any NBA city outside of New York.

The Blazers ranked dead last in the NBA last season in sponsorship dollars and 27th of 30 teams in total revenue. How is that supposed to improve in a city that is bleeding corporate infrastructure?

Did you notice who sponsored the Blazers jersey patch last season? They were the only NBA team without one because no local company stepped up to pay for it.

The Blazers’ ability to succeed as a business is a direct reflection of the health of the local economy.

While ticket prices increased during the postseason, angering some season-ticket holders, they were still the cheapest among all 16 playoff teams.

From an economic standpoint, Portland isn’t a mid-sized market; by NBA standards, it’s a one-stoplight backwater.

Why do you think Dundon is so concerned with the cost of things?

If you are a businessperson focused on the bottom line, at what point do you have a financial responsibility to your partners — in this case, the other owners in a league built on shared revenue — to consider how different it might look in a different city and state?

The only leverage the city has is to execute the pact the Blazers already made with the state. They will sign a 20-year lease if the full renovations are publicly financed.

I can appreciate the spirit of wanting to hold firm against a bully, to insist on the best deal for Portland. I want that, too. But any deal that keeps the Blazers here saves us from the worst outcome, one that I simply refuse to accept.

So, now is not the time for the idealism that some in this city wear with such stubborn pride.

Idealism can’t shoot 3s. It can’t fill an arena. It can’t bring 20,000 people to downtown Portland on a weeknight in December or 500,000 to a parade in some distant or not-so-distant June. It can’t generate hundreds of millions of dollars in spending at local restaurants and independent retailers. Or provide jobs. It can’t bond a community, cause us to scream with a swish or cry with a clank.

Only the Trail Blazers can do that. They have done it for 56 years.

The only thing idealism — noble in intent, perhaps, but catastrophic in practice — can do is drive away our most vital civic asset.

The Blazers can trade for Giannis, sure. And if the right people don’t get hip to reality, he won’t have to worry about paying Portland taxes.

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Portland politicians aren’t calling a bluff, they’re signing the Blazers’ death certificate | Bill Oram

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