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Good on you, Damian Lillard. Rallying your teammates to donate your NBA playoffs bonuses to the support staff around Trail Blazers, Inc. was a cool move.
I know some of those 25 employees. They're trainers and massage therapists and workers who give up their nights and weekends, trying to help the team win. Some of them have medical bills, others have children, and so giving a $223,864 nod to the support staff was a nice move.
That goes for all the Blazers players. They each gave up $16,000 that, with other Blazers' teams, might have been spent on jewelry or sneakers.
Now, Dame, will you please buy this team someday? Seriously. I think you'd be great at it.
I wrote a column on the final night of the season about the broken culture of the organization. Culture -- let's be clear -- is not the same as locker room chemistry. It doesn't speak to the hearts of the players. Culture is an organizational trait. It starts top, down. And if the Blazers organization treated its employees over the years the way Lillard and Co. did in the case, Portland would be a far better NBA entry.
Secretive. Thin-skinned. Controlling.
Nobody ever stood in the winning circle at a Super Bowl, a World Series, a Final Four, or even the Kentucky Derby and used words like that. But as long as Paul Allen owns the Trail Blazers that's what they'll be. And maybe that's why it's futile for me to point out on a day like this that the Trail Blazers have it all backwards.
Lillard and his teammates are trying to lead. They're going to work out together in the summer. They've made a solid financial investment in the support staff by donating to them. They're making a concerted effort to try and lift the team somewhere greater. But ownership and management haven't survived over the years by anything else than a single acronym.
OGIT.
That stands for "Only Game In Town." It's why the organization approached some of its most loyal season-ticket holders three months ago, with the team sputtering, and informed them their season-ticket prices were being raised. One courtside season-ticket holder received a heft season increase for his pair of tickets. His bill rose from $22,000 this season to $31,000 next season.
"Their demo is dramatically different than the Timbers," the ticket-holder said. "They could use some real competition."
Maybe Lillard will stay in Portland forever, one day own the Trail Blazers, and lead from the top. Maybe he'll get fed up and leave like other franchise players have.
Years ago Scottie Pippen was interested in an ownership stake with the team when he finished playing in Portland. Pippen reached out to Allen numerous times after retirement but never received a call back. Allen hasn't appeared interested in selling the franchise, even when he threw the arena into bankruptcy and made us all wonder. A Trail Blazers vice president has corrected me over the years pointing out, technically, that Allen doesn't own the team -- Allen's company, Vulcan, Inc. does.
I used the Warriors as my example of great organizational culture in that season-ending column because they have it. Top down. They just plain get it. But that culture only flourished after Joe Lacob's group bought an operation that sputtered and stalled for decades.
Lacob had previously been part owner of the Celtics and walked in the doors with a 2008 NBA championship ring from the Celtics. Also, his venture capital firm: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers, had wild success with backing Amazon, Electronic Arts, and Sun Microsystems, among others.
My point is -- there was nothing accidental about Lacob's previous success. The Warriors success on the court is, therefore, not a surprise. But it's led by top-down thinking that can best be described as sunny, focused and collaborative. Those are words that are often used in the winning circle.
This is not a column about philanthropy. It's a column about leadership. Allen has given away millions to worthy causes and funded lots of endeavors. But when Lillard moved to urge his teammates to give their full bonuses to the support staff it made me wonder if the guy shouldn't be in charge.
The donation was first reported by the organization's media partner. The news story coincided with Lillard receiving an award from the Professional Basketball Writer's Association for being accessible and professional. This early off-season has left me thinking a lot about the organization, though.
Portland had the league's highest payroll for much of the season. That cost, apparently, is being passed onto some of the most-loyal season-ticket holders now.
The Blazers have lived off the "OGIT" mentality for years. They could use competition an NFL team or a Major League Baseball team or even an NHL team would bring. Competition makes you sharper, stronger, and more alert. Any great runner would tell you that he or she was made better by the person in the next lane.
But in the meantime, I'll just dream about an organization led by someone like Lillard someday. And buried in that a question for us all: Is the Trail Blazers organization willing to be led by a player?
-- @JohnCanzanoBFT
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...trail_blazers_inc_coul.html#incart_river_home
I know some of those 25 employees. They're trainers and massage therapists and workers who give up their nights and weekends, trying to help the team win. Some of them have medical bills, others have children, and so giving a $223,864 nod to the support staff was a nice move.
That goes for all the Blazers players. They each gave up $16,000 that, with other Blazers' teams, might have been spent on jewelry or sneakers.
Now, Dame, will you please buy this team someday? Seriously. I think you'd be great at it.
I wrote a column on the final night of the season about the broken culture of the organization. Culture -- let's be clear -- is not the same as locker room chemistry. It doesn't speak to the hearts of the players. Culture is an organizational trait. It starts top, down. And if the Blazers organization treated its employees over the years the way Lillard and Co. did in the case, Portland would be a far better NBA entry.
Secretive. Thin-skinned. Controlling.
Nobody ever stood in the winning circle at a Super Bowl, a World Series, a Final Four, or even the Kentucky Derby and used words like that. But as long as Paul Allen owns the Trail Blazers that's what they'll be. And maybe that's why it's futile for me to point out on a day like this that the Trail Blazers have it all backwards.
Lillard and his teammates are trying to lead. They're going to work out together in the summer. They've made a solid financial investment in the support staff by donating to them. They're making a concerted effort to try and lift the team somewhere greater. But ownership and management haven't survived over the years by anything else than a single acronym.
OGIT.
That stands for "Only Game In Town." It's why the organization approached some of its most loyal season-ticket holders three months ago, with the team sputtering, and informed them their season-ticket prices were being raised. One courtside season-ticket holder received a heft season increase for his pair of tickets. His bill rose from $22,000 this season to $31,000 next season.
"Their demo is dramatically different than the Timbers," the ticket-holder said. "They could use some real competition."
Maybe Lillard will stay in Portland forever, one day own the Trail Blazers, and lead from the top. Maybe he'll get fed up and leave like other franchise players have.
Years ago Scottie Pippen was interested in an ownership stake with the team when he finished playing in Portland. Pippen reached out to Allen numerous times after retirement but never received a call back. Allen hasn't appeared interested in selling the franchise, even when he threw the arena into bankruptcy and made us all wonder. A Trail Blazers vice president has corrected me over the years pointing out, technically, that Allen doesn't own the team -- Allen's company, Vulcan, Inc. does.
I used the Warriors as my example of great organizational culture in that season-ending column because they have it. Top down. They just plain get it. But that culture only flourished after Joe Lacob's group bought an operation that sputtered and stalled for decades.
Lacob had previously been part owner of the Celtics and walked in the doors with a 2008 NBA championship ring from the Celtics. Also, his venture capital firm: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers, had wild success with backing Amazon, Electronic Arts, and Sun Microsystems, among others.
My point is -- there was nothing accidental about Lacob's previous success. The Warriors success on the court is, therefore, not a surprise. But it's led by top-down thinking that can best be described as sunny, focused and collaborative. Those are words that are often used in the winning circle.
This is not a column about philanthropy. It's a column about leadership. Allen has given away millions to worthy causes and funded lots of endeavors. But when Lillard moved to urge his teammates to give their full bonuses to the support staff it made me wonder if the guy shouldn't be in charge.
The donation was first reported by the organization's media partner. The news story coincided with Lillard receiving an award from the Professional Basketball Writer's Association for being accessible and professional. This early off-season has left me thinking a lot about the organization, though.
Portland had the league's highest payroll for much of the season. That cost, apparently, is being passed onto some of the most-loyal season-ticket holders now.
The Blazers have lived off the "OGIT" mentality for years. They could use competition an NFL team or a Major League Baseball team or even an NHL team would bring. Competition makes you sharper, stronger, and more alert. Any great runner would tell you that he or she was made better by the person in the next lane.
But in the meantime, I'll just dream about an organization led by someone like Lillard someday. And buried in that a question for us all: Is the Trail Blazers organization willing to be led by a player?
-- @JohnCanzanoBFT
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...trail_blazers_inc_coul.html#incart_river_home
