New Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon joined The Ringer’s “Game Over” podcast, his first interview since his introductory press conference. Dundon discussed the notion of him being cheap, saying he just does not “want to waste money” but he wants to “invest it.” Dundon said he has been over the cap “multiple times” as Hurricanes owner, but “at the same time, when I walk out of a room, I turn off the lights.” He said he is “not going to waste $100M, just because somebody wants to write an article calling me cheap.” Dundon also covered several other topics:
On the decision not to travel with two-way players in the playoff: “I just made a mistake. I just don’t understand the league. In hockey, we don’t travel extra people, because we’re not on vacation. We’re here to win, so we don’t want a distraction. The NBA seems to live with those distractions. It’s not how I think about it. So, you’ve got to learn what’s the differences between the two leagues.”On the subject of moving the team out of Portland: “When I bought the Hurricanes, all I heard — because I was from Texas — we were going to move the team to Houston. Moving a team is difficult. We didn’t move the Hurricanes. We ended up getting a deal done. We went through the same thing in Portland. Before I even bought the team, I had an agreement with the city and the state. We had an agreement in principle. They’ve already approved half of it. Assuming that all gets done, then this is a non-story. For me, it’s never been really a thing. We didn’t buy the team to move it. We bought the Portland Trail Blazers.”On what happens if the funding bill falls apart: “We would deal with that if it ever comes up. But, obviously, we have to solve problems when we have problems. Today, the problem we’re trying to solve is just to get a lease extension and get the building renovated” (“Game Over,” 5/15).