For nine years, Stephanie Smith-Leckness served as a flight attendant on Paul Allen’s private jet, which flew the Trail Blazers to all their road games.
“I truly loved a lot of the people who were part of the Trail Blazer organization through those years—people like Brian Wheeler, Jeff Curtin, Geoff Clark, Bobby Medina, Mike Rice, Kim Anderson,” says Smith-Leckness, who flew with the Blazers from 1997–2006. “The players would change, but a lot of the same people—trainers, coaches, TV and radio people—they remained. It was like a family, it really was.”
The plane was a 38-seat Boeing 757, now owned by Donald Trump, who bought it for $100 million from Allen in 2011. (The jet has Rolls Royce engines. The seat belts now, like everything else, are 24-carat gold-plated. There is a 57-inch television screen and the sound system of a top Hollywood screening room.)
“We called it B-1,” says Smith-Leckness, who also flew the Seahawks and Mariners on “B-2,” a bigger corporate jet also owned by Allen. “It was an unbelievably beautiful plane. When Paul would take B-1 to Hawaii at Christmas, the Blazers would use B-2.”
Allen had his own private bedroom on the plane.
“The players weren’t allowed in Paul’s bedroom. A couple of times, a player was sick, and I’d let him go in there and lie down for a while.”
