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Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinisky have made an offer over $2 billion to purchase the Portland Trail Blazers, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Nike founder Phil Knight and Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinisky have made a $2 billion-plus written offer to purchase the Portland Trail Blazers, sources tell ESPN. Discussions are ongoing with the Paul Allen trust that's overseeing ownership of team. Story soon.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2022
The Blazers are currently controlled by billionaire Jody Allen, who temporarily took reins of the franchise after the 2018 death of her brother, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
As noted by veteran Oregon sports reporter John Canzano, details of the Paul G. Allen Trust specified the Blazers must be sold shortly after his death. Recent reports indicate the team was expected to be sold before tipoff of the 2023-24 NBA season.
Knight, the co-founder of Nike, was born and raised in Portland, graduating from the University of Oregon. Nike's flagship campus is in Beaverton, a short drive from Moda Center in East Portland. Smolinisky, an entrepreneur and investor whose fortune began in commercial real estate, purchased a share of the Dodgers in 2019.
Expect the sale of the Blazers to be a relatively slow process. The franchise, along with the Seattle Seahawks, is actually owned by Paul Allen's trust rather than Jody Allen outright.
A Blazers sale is going to be more complicated than most team sales are. The team (and the Seahawks) aren't actually owned by Jody — they're held in Paul Allen's trust which she's the trustee of. A lot more legal stuff that has to be untangled for anything to get done.
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 2, 2022
Portland boasted the league's longest active playoff streak before 2021-22, advancing to eight straight postseasons. But a core muscle injury sidelined franchise player Damian Lillard in early January, leaving newly-minted interim general manager Joe Cronin the latitude to finally break up the team's longstanding core and hit reset ahead of next season.
Lillard is reportedly seeking a two-year, $107 million extension this summer on the massive four-year deal he signed in July 2019, after Portland's underdog run to the Western Conference Finals. The Blazers also own the seventh overall pick in the June 23 draft, one they're largely expected to trade for an impact player before addressing free agencies of incumbent stalwarts Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic.
