Reports: Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon agrees to purchase Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are the latest NBA franchise to see their ownership change hands.

Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon agreed to buy the franchise from the estate of Paul G. Allen at a valuation of more than $4 billion (C$5.51 billion), ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.

Dundon confirmed the transaction to the Sports Business Journal, saying that a group he’s heading reached a tentative agreement.

The NBA Board of Governors must ratify any final purchase agreement.

According to Sportico, the group includes Blue Owl Capital co-president Marc Zahr and co-CEO of Collective Global Sheel Tyle. The new group of owners intends to keep the Trail Blazers in Portland, per Sportico.

Along with being the principal owner of the Hurricanes — which he purchased for $425 million (C$585 million) in 2018 — Dundon, 53, is a chairman and managing partner of Dundon Capital Partners as well as majority owner of Major League Pickleball.

Allen’s estate announced in May that it had begun the process of selling the Trail Blazers. The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, who died in 2018 at age 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, originally bought the Blazers in 1988 for $70 million (C$96.4 million).

Allen also owned the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and was a co-owner of Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders.

Since his death, Allen’s sister, Jody Allen, has served as chair of both teams and is a trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust. Paul Allen stipulated in his will the eventual sale of his teams, with the proceeds given to philanthropic endeavours.

The estate has not announced plans for the sale of the Seahawks or the 25 per cent stake in the Sounders.

Jody Allen reportedly rebuffed an offer to buy the Trail Blazers from Nike co-founder Phil Knight for more than $2 billion (C$2.75 billion) in 2022. At that time, there were no ongoing discussions about the sale of the teams, she said in a rare statement.

Portland recently re-acquired long-time point guard Damian Lillard after he was bought out by the Milwaukee Bucks earlier in the off-season. Though he’s slated to miss the entirety of next season while recovering from surgery on his Achilles, the 35-year-old will join as a veteran for a young team hoping to take the next steps in its rebuild.

The Trail Blazers are the third franchise to be sold this off-season after the Los Angeles Lakers sold for $10 billion (C$134 billion) and the Boston Celtics went for $6.1 billion (C$8.4 billion).

— With files from the Associated Press