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Vincent Goodwill: Adam Silver on the Portland situation: “I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland.” “At the same time…We need a state of the art arena (in Portland).”
Josh Giddey on Tiago Splitter: “Yeah, he’s been great. He’s been really good, and I think as a guy that’s a former player in the NBA, he understands it, and he obviously did a great job with Portland last year. I’m super excited. I’ve had a lot of conversations with him. Obviously, he was in Portland last year, so I didn’t know him a lot, but since he’s been in Chicago, I’ve gotten to know him and spend time with him and talk with him. “Everything he’s about kind of aligns with how we want to play and go about things. He’s been great, and the conversations I’ve had with him have been great. I’m super excited to play for him and ramp things up as we get closer to the season.”
Simply put, coming off an injury, Portland expectedly didn’t give him their blessing to play, a similar situation to that of Giannis and the Greek national team, with the Greek Freak also finishing the season injured and missing the qualifiers. As Deni Avdija wrote: “I usually don’t feel the need to explain myself, but this time it’s important to me to say a few words. Anyone who knows me and my way with the Israeli national team knows what this shirt means to me. I came to the team when I was in pain. I came when I wasn’t at 100%. I came during summers when maybe the ‘right’ thing for my personal career was to rest. I came even when I was facing a contract year, a time when any injury could change a career. I never looked for an excuse not to show up. On the contrary. As long as I could wear Israel’s shirt and step onto the court, I was there. This time, I wanted to be there just as much. But this summer I dealt with a complex back injury. An injury that those who haven’t gone through it really can’t understand what it demands, and the decision not to participate in this window wasn’t one I made alone. Portland wasn’t willing to take a risk with my health, and in the situation that arose, I simply didn’t have the option to step up and play.
Rasheed Wallace: "Got traded to Portland for Rod Strickland because I guess the Bullets didn't like their guards. Mark Price retired. They ended up trading Brent Price. They got rid of all their guards pretty much, except Chris Whitney. They had Rod and Chris Whitney. Yeah, it was a big culture shock because now you're going to a predominantly white town, and everything that you were used to before, they ain't doing that out here. The music is different, everything is different."
Channing Frye: "In Portland, Moda Center is one of the oldest, least renovated or up-to-date arenas in the NBA. It's just a fact. Is it a good arena? For sure. Is it compared to where the Suns play, Sacramento play, not even going to talk about LA games, we're not going to talk about Utah's redone, I said Phoenix, San Antonio, like you need to move Moda Center so that there's a mini city around it."
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A key piece of public funding is coming into place for planned renovations to Portland’s Moda Center, home of the Trail Blazers, but there’s plenty more work to be done. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved late Thursday by a 4–1 vote a term sheet that would provide up to $101.6 million to help upgrade the 31-year-old, publicly owned building. The measure, an increase from $88 million originally proposed in the spring, is not a final funding package, and is instead a framework to begin formal discussions with the Blazers and city of Portland.
The vote Thursday does not finalize funding. It merely serves as a starting ground for negotiations between the county and the Blazers, both of which will join the city of Portland in talks before a December vote. The Blazers are hoping to receive at least $573 million in total from county, city and state officials. Portland’s city council is set to vote next week on whether to approve its share of $120 million. The state legislature has already appropriated $365 million, which the Blazers would receive if the other lines of funding come through and if the city and the team reach a deal on a new lease by the end of the calendar year.
Hurricanes fans hated him, too, until he started winning. They captured the Stanley Cup in June and have made the playoffs eight straight years since Dundon took over, so who are any of us to tell him he should run anything differently with the basketball team he just bought? Portland's 12-member city council, long thought to be too dysfunctional and ideologically divided to get their act together for this project, has done a lot in the last month to show they're ready to make it happen. The Blazers, meanwhile, stay hung up on things that shouldn't be obstacles if they actually have the same end goal as the city. Any benefit of the doubt Dundon had on that front when he first took over is gone now. Despite all of this, I've never been particularly worried about the Blazers actually leaving Portland, and I'm still not.
The game also carries a strong Portland link for Lions head coach Tautvydas Sabonis. His father, Arvydas Sabonis, spent seven seasons with the Trail Blazers between 1995 and 2003 and remains one of the most beloved European players ever to wear a Blazers shirt.
Iman Shumpert: ‘I’m so excited for him to start this journey in Portland. I want him to prove everybody wrong so bad. It make me so angry and it's in retrospect, but it's like, out of anybody that's need to have one, y'all don't think he would like, just the audacity of the state when people are like, what is he ever going for? I'm like, bro, they making $200 million a year. Like, in three years, they going to have $200 million. Like, you don't think he going to have a firearm to defend himself? I'm like, a security guard will rob him. It's all security. Like, what? Like, it's a lot of money, so it's perspective wise, I just, yeah, he did a dumb thing by going on the internet with it. But it's like, I just want him to be able to write the wrong, not even off the court, but on the court, to be healthy and doing the thing that it's like, this is what got him in this situation.’
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While the Blazers kept throwing their “threat of litigation” screwball throughout Thursday’s session, they also mixed in some curveballs — most notably, how much they are taxed and how difficult it is to do business in Portland. Hankins said the Blazers are “paying taxes higher than any other team” and that the city’s term sheet contained more than 20 material departures from the bill signed by the Oregon state legislature in March — all of them costing the Blazers more money to operate. These asks by the city, Hankins said, come after the Blazers have paid an estimated $1 billion over the last 30 years to build, maintain and upgrade the arena. “Portland’s current stagnant business climate, high income taxes, and divisive political environment makes this a tough city to invest in,’’ Hankins told the council. “It makes it harder to sell tickets, secure corporate sponsorships and recruit players.’’
Throughout the meeting, the Trail Blazers contingent projected mixed signals to the council. Conyers and Hankins said negotiations between the team and the city never stopped, but they “appreciate the invitation” to meet with Mayor Keith Wilson, who is the primary contact for talks with the city. Hankins gave an opening statement saying Dundon’s ownership group wants to keep the team in Portland and reach a resolution with the city. “They do believe Portland has the best fans in the world,” Hankins said. “They believe we can build a team that Rip City can be proud of. And they believe that Portland is the best and most obvious choice for this team.”
The existing lease between the city and the Blazers establishes that Rip City Management is responsible for “maintaining the arena in a first-class manner,” as well as funding repairs, maintenance and improvement projects. That means if the Blazers decide to leave Portland, the city could sue for the money required to upgrade the Moda Center. But the Blazers say the first-class provision — and the threat of litigation — is a sticking point in its negotiations with the city, which owns the arena. “We need the city to take the prospect of litigation off the table by affirming the work the team has done to maintain Moda Center in a first-class condition,” Blazers spokesperson Charles Boyle told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday. “Removing that threat is a critical first step to unlock a freer flow of information about the building and the renovation.”