PORTLAND, Ore. — Jody Allen, chair of the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks, and trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust, said in a statement released Tuesday morning that "neither of the teams is for sale and there are no sales discussions happening."
The timing of Allen's statement is curious. There has been no reporting about a potential Blazers sale for more than a month. On June 2, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, and Alan Smolinisky, a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, had submitted an offer of more than $2 billion to buy the Blazers and that discussions between the potential ownership group and the trust were "ongoing."
At the time, the Blazers confirmed in a statement that Knight had made the offer but said the team wasn't for sale.
In Tuesday's statement, Allen said the Blazers and Seahawks aren't currently for sale but "a time will come when that changes given Paul's plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthrophy."
Allen continued: "Estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold."
Columnist John Canzano reported in May that "insiders expect the Blazers to be positioned for auction in the next 6-18 months."
Read Allen's full statement below:
"As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of. Like my brother Paul, I trust and expect our leaders and coaches to build winning teams that deliver results on and off the court and field.
"As we’ve stated before, neither of the teams is for sale and there are no sales discussions happening.
"A time will come when that changes given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.
Until then, my focus – and that of our teams – is on winning."
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