Tom Dundon, the Trail Blazers’ new majority owner, told Bill Oram of The Oregonian that laying off 70 employees of the franchise last week was mainly due to overstaffing rather than frugality. Dundon said the organization had twice as many employees as the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, another franchise he owns.
“My experience is that less layers gives people more accountability and they do a better job,” Dundon said. “Then you know that you’re getting a great job done and you don’t end up in the situation where many companies end up, which is everyone’s looking around for somebody else to do it, complaining about what’s fair and not fair. I’ve seen the job done really well with a lot of accountability, no drama and a lot of, honestly, happiness. People are happier when they’re busy and productive. That is the way I think things should be done. And more people just creates more problems, usually. I think Portland just had too many people.”
Dundon has also been criticized for some cost-cutting measures involving the team. They were reportedly the only team not to bring their two-way players on the road for their first-round series; they have begun requiring support staffers to check out of their hotel rooms early in order to avoid incurring late check-out fees; and they reportedly want to pay their next permanent head coach a bargain-basement rate.
However, Dundon insisted he would not pinch pennies when it came to the players.
“This was mostly on the business side,” Dundon said of his budgetary decisions. “The basketball, they’re two separate businesses. Taking care of the players is not… We don’t have a budget for that. It’s whatever it takes to put them in the best position to win. That’s what we’re going to do. The business I’m going to run like you run every other business.”
Here’s more from Oram’s interview with the Blazers owner:
On the Portland City Council’s impasse regarding funding for Moda Center renovations (the state has already agreed to contribute $365MM):
“I don’t know enough about their process. I know that we came in with an intention to do something that, that could just start moving forward immediately. Because the building is older and we do need to get to work and time never helps deals. And now they have a choice. I would have thought it would be done by now, but they are elected to do their job and they’re going to do whatever they think is right and then we’ll respond to that.”
On the team’s trade deadline approach this past season:
“We were talking during the trade deadline and we had a choice. You could sell off some things for (future assets) or you could try to create the culture where you win. To me, that’s way more important than the stuff that’s out there. The choice we made was to add a piece (Vit Krejci) and try to create the culture of we’re here to win. And a lot of these other things, I don’t think have anything to do with that. I haven’t been in a lot of situations where people don’t think that the relentless pursuit of trying to win (is) an advantage. I’m pretty sure over time that will become obvious.”
On duplicating the success of the Hurricanes with the Blazers:
“Ultimately, you do everything you can to get the best players possible. Create a culture where they taken care of but also pushed. And creating a culture where everybody is doing what’s best for the team. It’s some of the cliche stuff. Great coaching and accountability and standards. I think we’ll be at the top of the league in creating that environment where we get the best out of players and we create a roster full of players that, that are put in the best position to win. And I think that’s replicable.”
He’ll be the first owner to pay the players an hourly wage.
This dude is so out of touch
No he’s not. “My experience is that less layers gives people more accountability and they do a better job,” is my experience as well.
A-players don’t like to work with mercenaries just there for a paycheck; they want to win, and play an active part in that process. People just trying to get through life with a paycheck independent of their performance don’t belong in that kind of organization.
“People are happier when they’re busy and productive.” is also consistent with my own experience. If I were a member of the Trailblazers, I would want to play a tangible part and not have to contend with the office politics of middle management to decide for me where my part begins, and where it ends.
So you actually buy the concept that the Blazers just had 70 employees hanging around doing nothing? They were totally duplicative?
If you don’t believe that, I really wonder what line of work you’re in or were in. 70 seems maybe a little high but I can guarantee you that’s closer to reality than what you’re suggesting. You absolutely don’t need 10 kids to run your instagram account or 15 writers for your in house website. Especially because none of that matters at unless the team is an annual contender.
Is it harsh and uncaring? Yeah a little. Welcome to real life. You aren’t owed a do nothing job from your local billionaire just because you exist. Pretty telling that the average mindset seems to resist this. Always someone else’s fault lol
Every forum has to have one of you. Defending an idiot who made his fortune in predictably unscrupulous ways & you can’t wait to service him.
It’s obvious he’s going to run the Blazers into irrelevancy. All your rhetoric won’t change that inevitability.
You can’t guarantee anything and you know it. The only thing you’ve conveyed to us is old man yells at cloud energy by referring to Instagram and the kids. And calling it real life is just a catch-all excuse for a weak argument.
Were some of those terminations likely justifiable? Sure. Should anyone trust that most of these firings were sensible when the owner essentially came in with a mandate to make cuts in short order? No. There’s a big difference between looking to trim unnecessary fat and essentially claiming unnecessary fat must exist and ordering it to be removed.
Obviously the owner is free to do as he wishes, fair or not, just as the fans are free to give him flak for it. Why do you have a problem with the latter but not the former? No one suggested what he is doing is illegal. Moreover, few are judging Dundon in isolation for these actions alone. It’s when you take the full context into account that he doesn’t look good.
I’ll admit that his austerity measures could work out (well, more likely just hiring the right front office personnel), so Blazers fans may end up happy in the end and this will become a long forgotten memory. I won’t pretend to know otherwise this early in the game. But that doesn’t mean I won’t still judge him for the way he has conducted himself thus far while also being cheap outside of his supposed goals to put that money toward the players. There was a way to go about achieving that goal without treating people the way he did. He just didn’t care.
How many billionaires have to destroy every industry & entertainment venue before you accept the undeniable truth?
So because it’s “consistent with your experience” that means it’s the only way to do something? Lol
Also, you don’t really believe any of those people actually decided where Blazers’ players “part begins and where it ends.” There’s no way you think that was really a thing.
Take a look at the full list of people let go and get back to us on how well this line of thinking would fit with their respective roles.
Also, isn’t it a little naive to think such a comprehensive deep dive of the organization was done so quickly? This seems more DOGE than careful autopsy.
I’ll be curious to see how it shakes out since his Hurricanes are doing so well right now under a much, more strict salary cap.
Obviously it’s not apples to apples due to multiple differences between the NBA and NHL so it’ll be interesting to see.
One of the biggest tools in sports ownership. But he doesn’t care what anyone thinks, he’s a billionaire and will do what he wants. Not like Portland fans are going to boycott the team or, even if they did, he would care. He will make all his profits from media deals and rely upon AI to run the team.
Soon the Trailblazers will be playing in a county rec center
Perfect avatar for a declining civilization.
This is how the uber rich operate…
Pay less and expect more… Exploit the system and live comfortably off of the work of their employees…
No one will want to play for this clown other than overpaid players.
The man has been a godsend for us Hurricanes fans. We’d forgotten what the playoffs were before he bought the team. Now, we’re in it every season and making deep runs because he spends wisely.
We’ll see if it’s because he spends wisely or got lucky with his hires.
People thought Dolan was a bad owner and for a long time he was due to some god awful hires. But now look at where the Knicks are. All it takes is hiring the right person and letting them do their thing. But that works both ways, of course.
Dude, Dolan is a terrible team owner. Someone finally got through to him with all the meddling that he used to do. And, sh*t, he still meddles to this day. Just not as much. Not that title is being held by the Kings team owner
I mean, I wasn’t trying to say he’s great now, but he certainly looks a lot better now than he did back then. I don’t think that’s super controversial to say even if Dolan probably has not changed much as a person.
Anyway, my main point was sometimes it’s about being a competent owner and consistently making smart choices, other times it’s about getting lucky (aka Dolan). Not sure Dundon realizes that possibility given how sure he is that his NHL success will carry over, particularly through his austerity measures.
Of course, because leaner always means lower wages.