PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Nike co-founder Phil Knight said Wednesday he is not interested in buying the Portland Trail Blazers, who are up for sale.
Paul Allen’s estate said Tuesday it has begun the process of finding a new owner for the team. Allen, the billionaire cofounder of Microsoft who died in 2018, stipulated the eventual sale of his sports properties in his will.
There was speculation Knight, the chairman emeritus of Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc., might step in to buy the Blazers because he had expressed interest a few years back.
“Five years ago, when I was a younger man, I had a great interest in being a part of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise. However, at my current age, I can confirm that I no longer have interest in acquiring the team,” Knight said in a statement via Nike.
Allen owned the Trail Blazers, the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and a stake in Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders before his death at age 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since then, his sister, Jody Allen, has served as chair of the Blazers and the Seahawks and trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust.
Allen’s estate said in its announcement that the sale of the Blazers is consistent with Allen’s “directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all estate proceeds to philanthropy.” Neither the Seahawks nor the Sounders are currently for sale.
Jody Allen reportedly rebuffed Knight’s offer to buy the Blazers for more than $2 billion in 2022. At that time, there were no ongoing discussions about the sale of the teams, she said in a rare statement.
“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,” she said. “There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.”
The estate has hired the New York investment firm Allen & Company and the law firm Hogan Lovells to lead the sales process, which is expected to continue into the next NBA season.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday wrote NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, urging the NBA to make sure the Blazers stay in Portland, where the team has been since 1970.
He noted the team’s NBA championship in 1977, and the “Blazermania” that captured the city and made heroes out of players including Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas.
CNBC earlier this year valued the Trail Blazers at $3.65 billion. In March, the Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion.
The Trail Blazers finished 36-46 this season and missed out on the playoffs for the fourth straight year. They have the 11th pick in the next month’s NBA draft.
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