Trail Blazers commence formal sale process of NBA franchise

The Portland Trail Blazers are officially in search of new ownership.

The team announced on Monday that the estate of former owner Paul G. Allen has commenced a formal sales process for the NBA franchise and has selected investment bank Allen & Company and law firm Hogan Lovells to lead the juncture.

Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, purchased the Trail Blazers in 1988 for $70 million and helmed the team until his passing in 2018, following complications due to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Younger sister Jody Allen was then named executor and trustee of the billionaire’s estate. Aside from the Trail Blazers, she’s led majority ownership of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and a minority stake (25 per cent) in the MLS’s Seattle Sounders FC.

While Jody has remained in control for the last seven years, selling the team was always Paul’s intention, per terms laid out in his will and trust.

All proceeds from selling Portland’s NBA team will go towards philanthropic efforts, as per the former owner’s wishes. The Blazers were valued at $3.28 billion in 2024, per HoopsHype.

Meanwhile, the sale of the NBA franchise will not impact Allen’s estate’s ownership stake in the Seahawks or Sounders, per the team’s statement, as “neither is for sale.”

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the sales process is estimated to continue into next season.

It’s unclear what selling the team might mean for the future of basketball in the Portland area, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver has expressed in the past that he’d like the franchise to stay put.

As for prospective new owners, ESPN reported in 2022 that Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Alan Smolinisky delivered a written offer of $2 billion in an attempt to purchase the Blazers but were denied at the time because the team was “not for sale.”

Knight has a long-standing relationship with Silver, and much of his work with Nike is based around the Oregon area, where the company’s headquarters are located.