Portland columnist suspicious Paul Allen will move Trail Blazers to Seattle

Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen watches during the first half of Game 1 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and the Blazers in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, May 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) less Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen watches during the first half of Game 1 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and the Blazers in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, May ... more Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Portland columnist suspicious Paul Allen will move Trail Blazers to Seattle 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

Paul Allen might try to sneak the Trail Blazers out of Portland and bring the NBA back to Seattle.

That at least was the theory floated by columnist John Canzano in his column Sunday for The Oregonian. Allen is from Seattle and owns the Seahawks, the city's NFL franchise.

The watershed moment for Canzano's conspiracy theory came Friday when the Trail Blazers hired longtime SuperSonics play-by-play man Kevin Calabro as the team's new voice.

It was a curious move.

Allen hired "Mr. Sonic," Nate McMillan to coach his team once. He drafted Seattle prep star Martell Webster over Chris Paul once. Allen's Blazers grabbed University of Washington star Brandon Roy on draft day in 2006. Allen even put another beloved Seattleite, Jamal Crawford, in black and red for a stretch. Yes, Allen loves him some Seattle. And for reasons that are understandable to little brothers everywhere, Portland mostly does not. Which is only to say, it feels like we're approaching a standoff moment.

After dismissing television team of Mike Barrett and Mike Rice, as well as radio voice Antonio Harvey, the Trail Blazers hired Calabro for television two days later. He has been the lead play-by-play man on ESPN Radio's NBA broadcasts since his 21-year run with the SuperSonics ended in 2008 when the franchise moved to Oklahoma City.

Bringing in Calabro does not just appease fans of Pacific Northwest basketball, Canzano argues. It's more sinister.

It's possible, I suppose, that Allen would love to someday move the Trail Blazers to Seattle. He owns enough property there. He already built a football stadium. Even as the taxpayers there revolted over the idea of funding a basketball venue, he's a billionaire and billionaires get what they want one way or another. They'd throw him a parade. The Blazers executive team doesn't like this "Would the Blazers ever move to Seattle?" theory floated. Trust me. I floated it publicly after the team hired Calabro. I wondered if Allen might attempt someday to cut his commute short and bundle all his sports entities. The folks at One Center Court were not pleased. One team executive called it an, "unfounded conspiracy theory."

Canzano seems to think it's anything but unfounded. The Trail Blazers have an exciting young team with stars and are committed to play its games in Portland until 2023, he concedes, and that could mean that Allen just wants to market the Blazers to Seattle as its surrogate NBA team (it has radio deals there), but Canzano still isn't buying it.

Later Friday, a Portland television station sent a camera to interview Trail Blazers president Chris McGowan on the hiring of Calabro. The cameraman posed the same Seattle-themed question to McGowan, one that a lot of fans were asking. McGowan's chief public relations lieutenant is team Vice President Michael Lewellen. And as the question was asked to McGowan, Lewellen could be heard off camera barking, "Don't ask that question." Sheesh. Sorry veep. Nothing personal, but when the franchise starts taking on green and yellow hues, that's exactly the question to ask. People in Portland just want some solid reassurance that the franchise still belongs to them. In fact, their loyalty to the Blazers depends on it.

And then Canzano signed off with a warning to Portland's entire front office.

Don't know if they care, but I'd caution Allen here. Tread lightly. Be more delicate. Blazers fans may stick around when you sign bad guys, or whiff on draft picks, and even when you lose loads of games. But if you start acting like the Blazers belong to Seattle, then, well, then, you just might have a problem on your hands.

You can read all of his column here.

Visit seattlepi.com for more Seattle sports news. Contact sports intern Sam Fortier at samfortier@seattlepi.com or @sam4tr.



