Since taking over as the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, Tom Dundon has made a multitude of cost-cutting moves, including limiting the team’s coaching budget, not traveling Portland’s two-way players for the first two games of the postseason and pulling advanced scouts off of the road. He also laid off dozens of team employees earlier this week.
One particular Blazers legend has a bit of an issue with the way that Dundon has been running the organization since taking the reins.
Clyde Drexler Calls Out Tom Dundon for Frugal Approach to Ownership of Blazers
AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 09: NBA hall of famer Clyde Drexler during a panel discussion at SXSW on March 9, 2018 in Austin, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE.(Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Cisco Systems, Inc.)
While Clyde Drexler doesn’t have any issues with Dundon personally, he thinks that the new owner needs to be cognizant about how he treats individual players and the organization as a whole. He also thinks that Dundon should, frankly, act more like the billionaire that he is.
“I’ve talked to Tom once and he seemed like a nice guy. So I don’t really know him. But I know one thing. When you’re running a billion dollar industry, you can’t act like you don’t have any money. He bought the team for, what, $4 billion — 4.4 or something — whatever those numbers are?” Drexler said.
“I think the NBA has set a standard (for) every franchise. And the reason the best franchises are good, one, they value tradition. They take care of their players, they listen to the needs of their players. And usually they do whatever they can do to put themselves in a better competitive environment.
“I’m not telling him anything he probably doesn’t know,” Drexler added. “He seemed like a nice guy. He owns a hockey franchise, so he’s been around athletes before. But I think the best franchises are the ones that treat their players and fellow players the best. And that’s how they get the new recruits or the new free agents, because they have a track history of doing well by their players and coaches.”
Tom Dundon’s Response to ‘Cheap’ Allegations
Dundon has already addressed some of the complaints against him when it comes to his spending, or lack thereof. When it came to not traveling the team’s two-way players for the first two games of Portland’s first-round playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs, Dundon acknowledged that it was a mistake on his part due to not fully understanding the mechanics of the league.
“I just made a mistake. I just don’t understand the league,” Dundon said. “In hockey, we don’t travel extra people, because we’re not on vacation. We’re here to win, so we don’t want a distraction. The NBA seems to live with those distractions. It’s not how I think about it. So, you’ve got to learn what the differences are between the two leagues.”
Just like a player, Dundon will get an opportunity to learn and grow in his role. But, it’s certainly been a rough start for him in Portland.
Portland Trail Blazes Legend Blasts Owner Tom Dundon for Being Cheap