Portland fans know what happens when Vulcan gets involved with their franchise and they don't like it.
I'll get to that in a minute, but first, let me fill in the blanks for those of you that don't know about Paul Allen's ownership company called Vulcan.
In 1988, current Portland Trail Blazersowner purchased the now booming franchise, but it wasn't always so.
Let's start with Mr. Allen. His empire began in 1975 when he and Bill Gates started the company Microsoft. His investment in the company paid off and he was set for life. From then on he invested for his own pleasure.
Starting with his purchase of the Portland Trail Blazers organization for a cool $70 million dollars (The franchise is estimated to be well over $300 million today), then the new home of the Blazers in 1995, and finally the purchase of the Seattle Seahawks organization in 1997.
This is when Mr. Allen began his own financial management company called Vulcan Inc. He did this because he needed someone to help him keep track of each an every financial decision and make the correct business move.
And it immediately hurt the team.
The Portland franchise lost its human element and began to make decisions by the numbers. Hiring front office officials with very little experience and, more importantly, very little basketball knowledge.
They then drafted the best athlete out of every draft. This movement to draft potential instead of proven ability led to immaturity and troubles with the law.
The Vulcan's ability to make good business decisions must have been lacking in the late 1990's and early 2000's because they signed some players to really bad contracts as well.
Let's just look at Vulcan's history of Basketball knowledge.
Jermaine O' Neal - had great potential but showed the unwillingness to grow up and develop his game.
Rasheed Wallace - led the league in technical fouls in 1999-2001 with 38 technical fouls and 40 technical fouls in those years. Arrested for dope possession in 1996.
Quintel Woods - Arrested for dog fighting charges and for marijuana possession while with the team.
Damon Stoudamire - While with the Blazers, Police were alerted by a burglar alarm at Damon's house. They arrive at the house and immediately smell marijuana smoke. They walk in to investigate and find Damon hiding his dope, later finding almost a pound of grass hidden in the crawl space.
He was arrested multiple times in his career for dope possession, including a time when he was trying to sneak marijuana through a Tucson airport.
Ruben Patterson - Tried to rape his children's nanny, and was a registered sex offender while on the Blazers.
Derek Anderson - Was once spotted at a McDonald's drive through while his teammates were in the second quarter of a regular season home game... He was expected to play that game.
Darius Miles - Suspended by the league for smoking dope and is a perfect example of how the Vulcan-run Blazers management drafted players. Athleticism over ability. What a loser.
Bonzi Wells - Pot head as well as a bad teammate. Flipped off the fans at a home game while walking off the court.
Zach Randolph - Arrested for smoking weed while driving. Also sucker punched his teammate (at the time) and sex offender, Ruben Patterson, breaking Ruben's eye socket.
This was the 'Jail Blazers' era of the late 90's and early 2000's. All induced by Paul Allens financial management guru's.
Paul Allen then filed for bankruptcy in 2004 for the Rose Garden Arena. The team was hemorrhaging money and Mr. Allen did not have full ownership of the stadium its self.
Mr. Allen then decided to take control of the franchise once again.
The Portland Trail Blazers were in the middle of another dismal season in which they would win 21 games. They fire then coach Maurice Cheeks and Kevin Pritchard is named interim head coach.
They finish out the season and prepare for the NBA lottery, a lottery that would end up solidifying Kevin Pritchard as an NBA General Manager.
Allen starts from scratch with his Front Office. Starting with the naming of KP as their GM and Larry Miller as the President of basketball operations. The two then build the staff around them in preparation of the NBA draft.
Long story short, Kevin Pritchard snags LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy, two cornerstones to the current Blazers team. Pritchard would then go on to secure the rights to Nic Batum and Rudy Fernandez in later draft picks.
But don't you see what happens when you let basketball people do basketball specific tasks?
You get good results.
Earlier this year Owner Paul Allen was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and is currently in the healing process. It is a disease that most people recover from.
But earlier in the year, the local newspaper ran an article that I feel made many Blazers fans shutter.
"Trail Blazers, Vulcan look ahead as Paul Allen faces cancer"
"Regardless of what happens, I believe that Vulcan will be proud to be the owner of the Blazers," said Larry Miller, the team's president.
Unfortunately the Henchmen of Vulcan have gotten their hands dirty within the Trail Blazers franchise within the past few weeks. Recently firing Vice president Tom Penn for what the people around the issue called "philosophical issues."
That's not the end to their reign of terror, either.
Many are fearing that Kevin Pritchard could be next in line.
The Blazers draft day Golden Boy has been linked to articles speaking of his departure.
While I don't believe Vulcan will go that far, it makes me worry about what they have the ability to do while Paul Allen is weak.
So please Paul Allen, get better soon.
This team is on the verge of such great things and they cannot do it without you.
Again, Get well, Mr. Allen.
And as for you Vulcan Henchmen, go crunch numbers for the Seattle Seahawks. The team doesn't need you to interfere any longer.
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