Nike founder Phil Knight remains all in on the potential purchase of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise. However, regardless of his efforts to do so alongside real-estate mogul Alan Smolinsky, it has now become increasingly clear that no deal is imminent. At this point, the team remains to be not for sale.

It has now been nearly five years since the passing of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, whose estate also owns the Blazers franchise. Before his death, the billionaire mandated the sale of the team, although there clearly was no urgency to do so. Right now, Paul's whole is managed by his sister, Jody Allen, who has also indicated that she has no intention of selling at the moment:

“As Jody publicly said last year, the sports teams are not for sale,” a spokesman for Vulcan Inc., the company that oversees Allen's multitude of businesses, told Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal. “That will eventually change pursuant to Paul’s wishes, but there is no pre-ordained timeline for when that will happen. Interested parties can engage when we establish a sales process at some point in the future.”

Along with the Blazers, Allen's estate also owns the Seattle Seahawks, which similar to Portland, remains not for sale as well in spite of interest from potential buyers.

The important thing to note here is that the Blazers (and the Seahawks) will eventually be sold. It has now become a matter of timing as the values of NBA and NFL teams continue to grow significantly. Whether or not this ultimately benefits Phil Knight, however, remains to be seen.