The Los Angeles Lakers Sold for $10 BILLION. What Does That Mean for the Sale of the Trail Blazers?

The Los Angeles Lakers Sold for $10 BILLION. What Does That Mean for the Sale of the Trail Blazers?

in today’s show the Lakers sold for $10 billion that’s billions with a B and 10 like one more billion than nine what does that mean for a potential sale of the Trailblazers welcome to Locked on Blazers let’s get into it you are Locked On Trailblazers your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day what’s up world it’s your past first point guard Trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond listen to another episode of Locked on Blazers part of the Locked On podcast network available wherever you get podcasts and also on YouTube thanks for making this show your first listen coming at you each and every weekday Monday through Friday so make it a part of your daily routine make it your first listen tell your friends to do the same as locked on Blazers your team every day in today’s show we’re talking ownership sales and all of that the Los Angeles Lakers reportedly will be sold or are going to be sold for $10 billion to Mark Walter a uh current minority owner of the of the Lakers the primary owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a rich person who’s got his hands in a lot of different athletic entities because the Blazers are in the process of being sold they will be sold over the next year or so uh considering what MB other NBA teams what happens when other NBA teams sold I think is is worthwhile so that’s what we’re going to get into today i want to talk about the Lakers sale i want to talk about what it means for the Blazers and like spoiler before we get into it almost nothing uh but we will get into why I think it means almost nothing uh and and then I want to talk about what makes a good owner and what owners can do and what they can’t do and what this means because I think there’s a perception of the helpfulness or hurtfulness of ownership to some extent and I want to talk about that because when the Blazers do change hands when they are sold they’re not going to be sold for no $10 billion but when they are sold um there will be an impact um and and and like the value of good ownership i want I want to talk about what what that looks like in practice a little bit and we’ll use this lens of the Lakers sale to do that but let’s talk about this sale first um the bus family the bus family’s own this team since 1979 they are real cashing out and after the family business it’s one of the only teams in the league uh where ownership group basically made their money from the NBA and wasn’t like fabulously independently wealthy from an independent business venture the the Lakers were a family business of sorts uh just happened to be a massive global brand that kept employing the league’s best players for uh most of that ownership group from Magic Johnson to Shaq and Kobe obviously Kareem in there as well and now freaking LeBron James and Luca Donic it is um it’s good to be based in Southern California and not be the little brother Clippers the sale price though the Lakers will be sold for as as told you at the top of the show for a valuation of $10 billion is first reported by ESPN and a couple other places including the Athletic um the buyer is Mark Walter who is the I’ll tell you a little bit more about him in a moment but the the primary owner of the Dodgers uh he purchased the Dodgers in 2012 he owns a bunch of other sports things he in 2021 purchased a minority stake in uh the Lakers wikipedia has it at 20% uh The Athletic reported today that it was uh that along with Todd Bailey or Bolley that uh Walter purchased 27% share of the Lakers in 2021 uh who were then valued at at the 21% when they purchased that was a value $5 billion valuation but what this means for the Blazers is that private equity is probably coming to purchase them because Mark Walter is a private equity billionaire he’s the CEO the chief executive of Guggenheim Partners um it’s a global financial services firm CA private equity firm with uh according to Wikipedia at least $325 billion in assets big private equity investors um again like I said he’s owned the Dodgers for a little over a decade and he’s the primary owner own owner and chairman although he was part of like a the Guggenheim partners group that purchased it which included Allen Smolinsky uh who was part of the ownership group who was attempting to buy the Blazers along with Uncle Phil Knight um so like 10 billion is a lot let’s start there um 10 billion is a lot in 2024 December 2024 Sportico listed a valuation of NBA teams uh and the Lakers were the third projected to be the third like highest valued team in the league at 8 billion 8.07 billion just according to Sportico um so they were a little low you could say that they were um whatever $2 billion shy $2,000 million shy uh but like they were kind of right on in some other recent sales i think like the Lakers are a special entity the this is the most expensive North American sports team franchise sale ever when it goes through it will be um it’ll top the freaking uh Celtics sale by $4 billion the Celtics were sold uh in May of excuse me March of 2025 um for $6.1 billion back in December of 2024 Sporico had the Celtics at $5.6 billion they were basically right on if you consider half a million dollars right on uh but like the Dallas sold the Mavericks sold for a $3.5 billion valuation in 2023 the Hornets sold for a $3 billion valuation in 2023 that’s why I don’t think this means anything for the Blazers i don’t think the Celtics sale means anything for the Blazers either i think that puts the highend on on what’s franchises are sold for the Lakers puts a new highend on it if the Warriors or or or Knicks or or even maybe potentially the Chicago Bulls teams like that were to sell you could get that kind of money other than that there’s just it’s just a different entity the Blazers don’t play in LA it’s not Los Angeles it’s not the Laker brand they don’t have 17 championships they’re not a massive global brand they don’t employ LeBron James like it isn’t they aren’t a massive global brand with uh like guaranteed to be a massive global brand of the future it’s just a different thing the low end of NBA franchises seems to be like that that that Hornet sale of $3 billion um the Sportico valuations had the Blazers at 3.6 billion if I had to guess the sale price is going to be right in that $4 billion range and it’s probably going to be purchased by someone who is part of private equity just just like uh just like Mark Walter because that’s who has this crazy billions of dollars because because it is a closed ecosystems there’s 30 teams um it’s a these are assets uh maybe one of the few in the whole world that have always appreciated over their entire existence maybe there is a a belief that uh sporting teams aren’t going to and particularly maybe North American sports teams uh with not to speak to what’s going on in European soccer but like uh North American sports teams maybe there maybe there’s a belief that they’re not always going to go up right because maybe that’s why Cuban got out and why the Lakers are getting out and why um and why we you know why MJ got out or maybe MJ was just over it in in Charlotte like maybe there’s maybe there’s a belief right that that everybody’s kind of dodging this right is like jumping out of here or maybe $10 billion is a whole bunch and the bus family needed some money according to ESPN they’re going to keep a 15% um uh they’re going to keep a 15% minority share um at least for a peri for a for some period of time espn in the way that Trump writes has absolutely no details on what for a period of time means um it’s just like clarity is not what my man is doing but Walter is someone like so as I said like this is who’s going to buy the the Blazers someone like this private equity the difference in this sale and what eventual sale of the Blazers would be is that Mark Walter owned 20% of the Lakers he bought he bought in like let’s call it a quarter he owned a he was a minority owner at about a quarter of the because it’s either 20% according to Wikipedia’s uh Wikipedia citing an article in Forbes or um or 27% according to according to the Athletic we’ll call it we call it 25% he owned a quarter of he was a minority owner owned a quarter of the team that’s not how the the Blazers sales going to be right it’s you not going to be able to there aren’t minority owners that are going to be able to jump up and say “Yeah I used to own 11% of the Blazers and now I own 52%.” Because the Allen estate not only owns it outright but they can’t they’re not going to keep a stake they’re not going to keep 15% the way that the as far as I understand it they have to sell all of their controlling interest in the team so it’s going to be like private equity someone’s going to buy 56% of the team and then there’s going to be another you know 40 some percent 44% floating out there and buy smaller owners smaller minority owners that is the most likely like configuration for the Blazers sale will be somebody like this mark Walter owns 13% of Chelsea in the Premier League and also 13% of Strasburg Alcas in the French and in in playing French footie he also owns the LA Sparks in the WNBA he is the principal owner of Andredy Global which is the Cadillac Formula 1 team he owns the professional women’s hockey league shout out to the Minnesota Frost like the dude has is wellinvested in the sports world and decide to expand those investments and as the principal owner of the Dodgers he spent a bunch of money and then there’s been some speculation that the bus family were broke and now that Mark Walter is in charge the Lakers will be able to spend but I would contest will they is that even how it works let’s talk about how it works what owners actually do in the league because I think when you’re thinking about the Blazers changing hands right like it doesn’t matter that the Lakers sold for $10 billion the Blazers are still going to sell for about $4 billion it doesn’t make them it doesn’t drive the valuation up at all in my opinion uh maybe it will i don’t know i’m I’m speculating to for the most part i don’t know billionaires like that um but like a change in ownership a material change in ownership does have impacts what do they do what are the what do owners actually do what what are the actual ways that you can change things cuz spending money isn’t really one of them it’s you’re not going to you can’t pay LeBron James and Luca Donic any more money than they already make you can’t outspend on the roster so let’s talk about what you actually can do as an owner we we will do that in the second segment join me there before we get there though I want to tell you about a new kind of soda that’s right is lollipop listen for the pop i’m right here on a beautiful Wednesday evening drinking a crisp apple lollipop um and if you are a soda drinker or someone who’s just looking for a yummy beverage maybe lollipop could be for you if you do drink soda you’re getting a lot of sugar in there a regular Coke 39 gram of sugar an orange Fanta 44 gram of sugar this crisp apple lollipop that I’m going to drink right here 5 g of sugar and how about this 9 g of your dietary fiber uh because that’s what Lollipop is doing it’s made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that supports their health and Lollipop is reimagining soda in a way that’s better for your gut we’re talking a third of your daily fiber in one of these cans it’s um the prebiotic blend with Ali Smarts prebiotic blend it’s going to help your guts help your insides and taste great along the way um if you want to drink something delicious that’s going to help your gut and is going to replace maybe a high sugar a high sugar soda habit that you have you can do it and you can get a free can along the way a free can of lollipop for you you just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one how it works is you head to drinkllipop.com/lockton NBA to claim your free can and find lollipop near you that’s drinkallop.com/lockedonba [Music] all right so what do owners do like what what what like what what do owners actually do let’s start here before we talk into owners what actually do what makes a good owner like what is a good owner when the Blazers are sold what are you rooting for what are you rooting for because it is going to be like one of these billionaires right like they probably these are these people aren’t your friends they have a lot of money and you hope that they make the laundry you root for have success but what like what does a good owner do step one is hiring the right people and getting the heck out of the way the worst like all this like nightmare be careful what you wish for stuff with ownership is always just meddling it’s always the Matt Ishbia’s meddling but like good ownership makes makes decisions hires the right people and then lets them do the dang job to it the Oklahoma City Thunder uh you’re listening to uh June 19th program on June 19th Thursday evening the Oklahoma City Thunder will play game six of their quest and and have a chance to close out the NBA finals so first first game first closeout game of the finals and if they win the championship we’re going to hear more about Sam Prey the boy genius who was hired at 29 years old in 2007 to lead uh the front office in Oklahoma City he’s still there 18 years later he’s still there but even to wit under prey in they’ve got three people who are listed as VP of basketball operations functionally assistant GMs who’ve gotten uh whatever uh better titles jesse Gold’s been there for 16 years rob Henigan who was uh former one time the GM of the Orlando Magic for about 5 years has been there for 12 years win Sullivan has been there for 12 years you hire the right people get out of the way preie has been there for 18 years uh but his crew has been there for over a decade together building this thing it didn’t work out they had to trade everybody they built it back fresh after 2 years in the gutter you hire the right people and get out of the way and that’s what Klay Bennett did he stole the damn franchise from Seattle um like a cowboy more on that more on that at the end of the program but he hired Prey at 29 he hired the right person and got out of the way and look at the Thunder they’re like the model franchise in sports bennett and Prey are the second longest pairing of a team owner and a NBA like head decision maker in the league heading into the season they were the second longest tenure of anyone in the league the longest tenur group was in San Antonio that’s how it works these are the model franchises these are the teams that have sustained success you hire the right people and get out of the way it doesn’t mean you’re always going to hire the right people but when you do you let them do the job uh I think Steve Balmer is a decent look at this um and he took over in 2024 uh or excuse me in 2014 he spent two seasons the 14-15 and the 16 and the 1516 season uh excuse me three seasons uh with Doc Rivers as the GMN coach and he said “This doesn’t work.” He got Doc up out of there he moved he moved him out of the out of the GM role and said “You like this doesn’t work for us.” He hired Lawrence Frank he hired Jerry West and the Clippers have had more success ever since then it took Bulmer a little while to figure it out but he hired the right people get out of the way you know what Lawrence Frank is still doing he’s running the Clippers hire the right people and get out of the way the other thing you can actually do as an owner is ancillary spending because you’re up against a salary cap um we’ll talk about that in a moment you’re up against a salary cap it’s a salary cap league is a salary cap league with a hard cap so there’s a luxury tax that you have to start paying taxes on once you cross a certain line and then when you get too deep in luxury tax they start making it too hard to build a a team they pun they actively punish you and make it harder for you to keep a team together you can’t outspend but you can’t an you can do some ancillary spending like the Houston Rockets who have this like beautiful team plane tilman Fertitta um who was kind of bullied a little bit for being cheap uh a lot of teams rent planes in the league the Blazers are a team that that Paul Allen used to own a plane at one point um but uh before he passed the Blazers had had long since moved on from owning the outright owning a plane now and now they lease planes they I believe I believe they’re a Delta partner uh but they lease they you know they they’re they are the the private flights that they’re flying on are not owned by the team but they are you know they they lease a series of jets the Rockets got their own jet it’s got beds on it it’s huge i saw this is back in 2022 when he bought it but the Rockets players on on social media like like check out the new plane looked incredible i never flown anything like that looked like a yacht a sky yacht that’s ancillary spending where owner can actually make a difference right quality of life once you’re on the team uh this week I I listened to Desmond Bane’s introductory press conference in uh in Orlando where they made him wear a jersey it’s so weird he’s wearing a jersey with no shirt on and he’s standing up in like a media scram it was a very funny way to do an introductory press conference but I watched all of it and one of the things they asked Desmond Bane about was like sort of his early impressions of of of the of the team and the facility and and and and the Magic franchise and he said like “There’s a window here we’re in the practice facility and there’s a window here there’s natural light coming in.” And where I was in Memphis there was no windows in the whole thing we would joke it was the dungeon and now I’m in Orlando and it’s like not only is there a window but there’s inside outside work workout space like I can work there’s you know I can go out there and lift weights and like get a you know get some cardio in out in the Florida Central Florida sun if I choose to do so that’s ancillary spending buying spending money to build a nice practice facility so once players are on your team quality of life the plane is nicer the practice facility is nicer things like that the locker rooms in the arena are nicer that’s ancillary spending and then the other thing owners like what what makes a good owner something they can actually do that makes a good owner you hire the right people and get out of the way you do some ancillary spending along the way um and then like once you once it’s a willingness to spend once your team is good right cuz you’re not there’s no guarantee your team is going to be good that’s like you know you can do a good job at some of the stuff but like once you do have a window to be good spend the money um it can’t be forever because of the way the leak works i’ll talk about this to close the show it’s like the CBA just doesn’t let you spend forever anymore you can’t chase it paul Allen had a $100 million roster in the late 90s early 2000s um he was ahead of the curve in being willing to spend all that money you literally can’t do that now so you can’t chase it forever the the Celtics are going to kind of bump up against that now this season where they’re going to have to shed some salary but you can stay in it you can stay in the mix for a while like when the Nuggets won the championship in in 2022 um there was uh there was a window where they could they they chose to get a little bit cheaper and bet on themselves when they could have kept the Bruce Brown Jeff Green uh KCP eventually intact but but Bruce Brown and Jeff Green initially like and they would have been a tax team it would have been deeper into the tax and they chose not to do that cuz they already had an expensive roster and they probably closed the window tighter than it needed to be with the best player who will ever play for the Denver Nuggets right like they they they chose not to spend and it bit them right it bit them and I think the Pacers are a good um test for this the Pacers clearly are good they made these conference finals last year they’re in the finals this year they’re like a couple bounces away from being NBA champions 5 minutes away in game four from taking a 3-1 lead in the finals this is not not a guarantee but boy is it a good chance like they’re good they’re championship good and they’ve historically basically never paid the luxury tax um this is a pretty good test this summer will they pay to keep this group together and like your your your window is never that big it’s two two to five years at the most five is a huge number of years for a contention window it’s probably something like the maximum you have is three seasons before bad injury luck and and egos and money get in the way right the the the Pacers might be entering that three-year window so the question is does Herb Simon pay the luxury tax does he does he say “Yeah cool let’s keep this group together let’s at least give ourselves at at at a minimum one more chance in 2026 and then figure it out.” That’s what good ownership does they hire the right people and get the heck out of the way they spend money for quality of life upgrades once players are on the roster and they have a willingness to spend when there is once the team is actually good do they pay the money to keep that group together um both teams Oklahoma City and Indiana are in the championship without being luxury tax teams but if these teams want to get back their ownership will have to pay to get them back that that’s almost certainly if they if if these teams return to the to the finals um maybe not OKC right away because they’re just a special group in terms of uh the timing of how good they are uh but like if they want to get back there’ll be expensive rosters that is typically how it’s been but ownership doesn’t outspend like the fact that that the like Mark Walter has spent out the wazoo for the Dodgers is partially because Sho Otani has all this deferred money and the like Major League Baseball is a criminal organization go Rockies um but like it is the NBA is different you just can’t chase it you can’t be rich you can do these other things I just mentioned the sign of good ownership but what you can’t do is is is change things so let’s talk about what ownership doesn’t do with a couple of examples and if you’re rooting for a change in ownership for the Blazers things that just are impossible for them to overcome join me in that third segment we’ll talk about it first though let’s talk game time is the place for lastminute tickets whether you are trying to go to the final two games of the NBA finals because you’re close to Oklahoma City or Indianapolis or willing to travel there uh Game Time makes it easy because they’ve got killer last minute deals they’ve got panoramic seat views so you can view the exact view from your seat before you purchase anything plus they got no surprise fees at checkout so what you see is what you get when you’re trying to buy tickets when you’re when you’re browsing that’s the price you see is the price you’re going to pay uh if you’re in Portland you can get really good really good deals on game time to go see the Thorns this Saturday they’re at home and you can get in the building get in the get into Providence Park $23 to sit upstairs 56 bucks to sit on the north side right by the river section on like the adjacent uh the adjacent section to to the supporters great place to sit great awesome play awesome uh awesome awesome awesome vibes uh you will get you will get an incredible in arena experience in in stadium experience you want to sit on the club side 64 bucks for the cheapest seats uh on the east side of the arena east side of the stadium i’m a I’m a basketball guy i keep saying arena that’s what Game Time does they take the guesswork out of buying tickets so download the Game Time app create an account use code locked on NBA you get $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and use that redemption code LC k NBA that’s locked on NBA for $20 off download the Game Time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed still a pass first point guard i’m still Mike Richmond you’re still listening to Locked on Blazers look ownership can do some stuff some quality of life upgrades they cannot change the rules you cannot outspend at one point in the league you could chase it with money and Paul Allen got the Blazers to the brink at the turn of the century by spending by having the most expensive rosters in the league you can’t do that anymore you can’t do that for a couple reasons um one there’s a luxury tax and eventually every dollar you spend you’re paying you know 77 $750 on the dollar on top of it so you’re talking like a $10 million contract is a $75 million contract like it’s just is a lot right if it it becomes a lot of money and and even billionaires it’s like punitive obviously like it doesn’t really matter when you have like when you own the Dodgers and the Lakers it doesn’t ma you can you can spend all this money because like these things appreciate and like you can operate at a loss like but but but it is there’s like a there’s punitive stuff with the luxury tax but then beyond that in the NBA like the if you’re a sack apron team for too long it is it you you can’t build a competitive team and stick in the second s second apron for too wrong because you get your draft pick frozen so you can’t trade draft picks um uh you can’t trade draft picks that far out you get your first round draft pick pushed to the end of the first round so no matter where you finish you’re picking in the end of the first round and you can’t use exceptions trade exceptions you can’t use um the mid-level exceptions you can’t aggregate players in trades it becomes impossible to roster build effectively once you get too expensive so not only is there the punitive like billionaires don’t want to pay the tax which some billionaires have but Balmer and Lake in in LA and and Joe Leica in in uh Golden States uh in in the Bay with with the Warriors they’ve they’ve shown a willingness to pay and pay really really expensive teams right um but there is now there’s it’s more punitive than just the tax because there’s actual team roster building stuff that that prohibits you from being really expensive and max contracts exist there isn’t it isn’t baseball like what what you are doing like you can’t an owner can’t change the salary cap structure i mean like maybe Mark Walter can like money launder some Dodgers equity to LeBron James or something like that but like above board um I’m not suggesting that that will happen that’s a joke um if it does happen it wasn’t a joke i’m dead serious but like you can’t um you know because max contracts exist and because players of at the highest level kind of know exactly what deal they’re getting when they get it like there’s not a lot of negotiating for star players ownership can’t do anything about that and even overpaying at the lower levels to chase role players it ends up being punitive because of the sacin aprons you you can’t ownership can’t change the child cap structure and they can’t really attract free agents um like this what what matters for free agents is the size of the contracts playing time proximity to a championship and lifestyle those are the four things and they matter at different levels for different players for the highest level of players you can cross out size of contracts and you can cross out playing time those are stars they know how much they’re going to get paid the max they know how much they’re going to play all of it so you’re talking just proximity of a championship and lifestyle to players on the lower end of the spectrum who are not max contract guys who are in that sort of middle range um the size of the contract and playing time matter to an extent but like you that is not something that that’s a roster building thing that’s not ownership ownership can’t change that necessarily what they can do is once guys are already on the team they can do the ancillary spending stuff the f practice facility is great the plane is great you want to stay around because you because it’s nice to be there quality of life stuff and you’ve hired the right people so it’s not just that um Oklahoma City has three guys working under Sam Prey who’ve been there for over a decade it’s that they’ve hired someone who is a players and families liaison who has been with the team since they were the Sonics this is someone who’s helped helped players find their way within the organization since 2009 excuse me 2006 is Ayana Lawson who’s this executive VP title I’m talking about with with OKC is is she the reason that the that the Thunder are in the finals no but it’s quality of life stuff it’s running a good organization that’s what ownership can do they can make life better once you’re there because the other roster building stuff is out of their control ownership also can’t impact luck during a marathon the NBA like they can help you can do a lot of things to help teams be in a position to win you hire the right coach you hire the right executives you make quality of life better so the like minimum role players are more likely to um stick around once they’re there you spend when you’re in the luxury tax so you can keep a good team together for as long as your sort of small window allows you to do it but like when Tyrese Halburn comes up lame in the NBA finals you did everything you possibly can and you can’t change the luck i would say Steve Balmer is a pretty good example of this i think Balmer has done about as good a job as an owner can possibly do at turning around the fortunes of one of the most sad sack franchises in the history of sports and the Clippers have had dealt with some really horrendous luck under his watch in fact like the year the Blazers beat him in the playoffs Chris Paul broke his hand and and uh Blake Griffin like ruptured his hamstring or whatever it was hurt his hamstring real bad like in like a three minute span bang that was it game you know it it like that’s game that that was game five and you and you know that um you did all the right things you’ve made a lot of the right decisions but you can’t impact luck you can set things in order but the NBA season is so reliant on luck that ownership can only put you in set the wheels in motion and the final thing that ownership can’t do and I think this is really important in the context of the Blazers getting new ownership is they can’t and they won’t care about you they don’t they don’t you hope there’s some civic pride right and you the like you hope the players don’t move that would be a bummer but like you hope there’s some civic pride but most of the things that I think are like civic pride about ownership we ascribe to I would also describe as real estate place investing in like making a neighborhood in and around the arena newer maybe not even nicer but newer building new stuff in and around an arena that’s like that is a way that like ownership shows they care like they make the arena nicer they make the arena nicer so you go in there and buy a $20 beer like it’s it is it like they don’t care about you they don’t and and as anam final example of this Klay Bennett I told you I we’re going to get back to him and I want to promise here klay Bennett’s a good owner he did steal the team pretty um ruthlessly from Seattle and he should be um pilliord for that like that’s not that that was a Howard Schultz the NBA Klay Bennett all criminals in in in that act but Klay Bennett’s a good owner he hired the right people he got out of the way it’s what you want to do klay Bennett is getting half a billion dollars of public money to build a new arena excuse me uh I said half a billion it’s $850 million of a projected $900 million arena klay Bennett doesn’t care about the the folks of Oklahoma City he’s leveraging the fear because the fear is this is the only team in town and so Oklahoma City is getting a new arena for a building that has been in operation for less than 20 years for less than 20 years and they are imposing a tax on citizens to get $850 million in tax public money to build a new stadium right next door it’s under construction right now clay Bennett doesn’t care about the care about the folks of Oklahoma City they can’t they care about this is a way to make more money and get things be shinier there’s there is ownership can do a lot of things that are valuable to help the laundry you root for get closer to a championship good ownership can absolutely do that but hoping that these people um do right by you is always a mistake because as soon as Klay Bennett could leverage the the Klay Bennett’s a great owner as soon as he could leverage the good people of Oklahoma City to raise taxes new taxes to build him a new arena this is a dude who’s who stole a team from another city you know why they got stolen from Seattle is because the people of Seattle didn’t want to build a new arena they didn’t want to there was a a political action group known as Citizens for More important things and they said “No we are not ponying up to upgrade key arena the billionaire should pay for it.” Well well Klay Bennett is leveraging that same fear against the people of Oklahoma City ownership will never care about you they can’t change they cannot change the NBA salary structure i mean they can but they won’t and even they can’t change it drastically they can’t change some of the sort of free agent appeal they can change quality of life but they can’t change free agent appeal and they certainly can’t ever care about you in a meaningful way but what they can do is hire great coaches hire great GMs make great quality of life for players who are on the team and when there is small windows to get better spend that money to and pay pay the tax that it costs to be competitive for as long as possible extend the window of your competition so when the Blazers do change hands you got to hope for that the Lakers just change hands mark Walter can’t save them but he can make the do some of the little things that make that will give the Lakers mild competitive advantages hiring executives and scouts and all of the sort of spending money in the places where there is no salary cap that that’s the place you can do it and so when the Blazers do get a new ownership when they do get new ownership in next year that’s what you’re rooting for the little behind-the-scenes stuff and the willingness to spend when it matters because there are things out of new ownership’s control no matter how incredibly rich some private equity person who who purchases the team is no matter how rich they are there’s some things that are out of their control and should it should they need it or should they want to leverage the fear these folks will steal our money that could be going to more important things new ownership can help new ownership is important and I think it is fascinating when the Blazers do change hands how it works because good ownership is incredibly valuable but the missteps and I didn’t really detail too many of them here the meddling and the hiring the wrong folks and the firing coaches and the not having stability boy is that a problem as well those are my thoughts on ownership i knew I had a lot of them and I’m glad I got to share them with you come back for tomorrow’s show um it fingers crossed Kandre Ashley from Hoop and Elect is going to be on the program we’ve we’ve uh look for that one in your show in your feeds wherever you listen to this on Friday tell your friends about the program next week is draft week and so we’re going to talk all things NBA draft uh heading into the weekend to get you prepped and then we will get all things draft everything you need to know next week and then the draft is Wednesday and Thursday of next week let’s go um going to be a bunch of fun uh tell your friends about the program wherever they get podcasts wherever or on YouTube uh wherever you’re listening to this send them a link that’s the best way to share it um I appreciate you listening i’ll talk to you soon

A $10 Billion valuation is so much money. The Trail Blazers won’t sell for anything close to that. But the impacts of new ownership are worth exploring. We explore them in today’s show.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBlazers?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

Watch the show and subscribe on YouTube
📺 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeE7WdPaNWwA-IZGfHek90Q?sub_confirmation=1

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
OLIPOP
Get a free can of OLIPOP! Just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one. Head to drinkolipop.com/LOCKEDONNBA to claim your free can and find OLIPOP near you.

CarGurus
Buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus at CarGurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal.

WayFair
Give your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.

Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

#TrailBlazers #NBA