Portland Trail Blazers all about the business of basketball

:MARIS61:

 

There's a small room off the side of the hallway outside the Trail Blazers locker room that general manager Neil Olshey uses on game night as his meeting space. During 41 evenings a season team president Chris McGowan works to catch the GM and get down to business on matters that concern both.

"Neil is not seen as a big email or text guy," one Portland front-office official said on Saturday. "You have to talk, and meet with him."

The GM and the president are an interesting pair. Both family men. Both have sons who play sports. McGowan can be found on a winter weekend at a youth soccer game, Olshey at a lacrosse field. But it's the manner in which the basketball operation and the business operation have come together after they were hired four months apart in 2012 that matters today.

Under these men, the Blazers have become all about basketball.

On Friday, the Blazers whipped the defending world champion Warriors by 32 points. Damian Lillard scored 51. A fan hit a half-court shot and won a car. It was the kind of evening that energized fans, but also the sort that glues an organization together.

"If they were boxers, Neil would be the guy who wins a lot by knockout," the front-office staffer continued. "McGowan would have a sparkling W-L record, with more victories by decision than KO."

Olshey's roster delivered a haymaker to Golden State's chin on Friday. But McGowan's roster of salespeople end up the real beneficiaries. The Blazers are likable on the court, they work hard and they're easy to root for. They're 28-27 and flattened both the Cavaliers and Warriors this season, but it's the business side of the operation currently giggling.

If you're among the season-ticket customers who balked at the hike in renewal prices for next season, or expressed an indifference to re-upping as the deadline approaches, your name is on a list. McGowan has begun personally calling those customers in the last few days, and you can wager with Friday's catalyst moment that his reception next week will be warmer.

The basketball operations side of Trail Blazers Inc. hasn't always meshed with the business side. Those saddled with trying to sell sponsorship packages and season tickets in the 2000s, slapped their foreheads and threw their arms up when the players derailed their momentum with off-court issues. The business side resented the lack of control it had over the basketball operation.

Under president Steve Patterson and GM John Nash, the training table buffet was eliminated to save a few dollars. The food spread in the locker room after games and practices evaporated. It was a foolish shift in philosophy that rankled players who were used to red-carpet conditions under Bob Whitsitt, who held both the GM and president title.

The divide between basketball and business widened as Patterson threw lavish sponsorship parties, hired crisis-management consultants at five-figure retainers, and fostered a running joke around the offices at One Center Court. The acronym "SPAM" was born -- which stood for "Spending Paul Allen's Money." And not in ways the basketball-operations side wanted.

In 2008-09, the Larry Miller-Kevin Pritchard combination wobbled, too. GM Pritchard's roster snapped a dismal five-year lottery streak by making the playoffs, where the Blazers were matched with Yao Ming and the Rockets. Coach Nate McMillan was delighted. Fans were in a frenzy. Pritchard was the new franchise golden boy. And Miller, team president, along with his chief lieutenant, Sarah Mensah, hatched a plan that bowled the basketball-operations side over.

The business side wanted a parade to celebrate making the playoffs. The Blazers business side wanted to fan the flames of enthusiasm as it tried to sell sponsorship dollars and season-ticket packages for the following season.

"A parade for making the postseason?" McMillan said. "Wow. OK."

More than 10,000 fans crowded Pioneer Courthouse Square to celebrate with a team that should have been focused on the Rockets. Houston won Game 1 by 27 points. The players were frustrated and confused. Center Greg Oden said, "Who else gets a parade for just making the playoffs?"

The focus with Trail Blazers Inc. officially stopped being basketball-first. Players were asked to make extra public appearances, showing up at grocery stores, banks and bowling alleys. It became clear that the business operation was driving the franchise. Players were even asked to make appearances at sponsor events after lengthy road trips, a practice Olshey immediately stopped.

In 2011, three-time All-Star guard Brandon Roy was recovering from knee surgery when he was sent to Big Al's bowling center. I spoke with Roy while he was at the event for an interview on my radio show. By combining a sponsor appearance, the fan-appreciation event and a media interview that promoted both, the business side was getting maximum benefit.

Roy?

He went along with it. But those on the basketball-operations side of the franchise felt pulled apart at the seams at times.

Olshey is a basketball-first guy. It would be easy to pin the culture shift on him. But those who work closely with McGowan know he's shrewd and calculating, in fact, one of his first moves after being hired was to meet privately with those he in the community he viewed as key influencers. He solicited feedback on the organization, gathering string and sorting through the perspectives.

McGowan was especially interested in how the business side of the organization had become so heavy with middle managers. What followed in late 2012 and early 2013 was three rounds of layoffs that resulted in the dismissal of line of long-time front-office employees, many with "vice president" titles.

What's been better under McGowan?

The fan experience improved. The organization stopped posturing and started genuinely soliciting feedback from fans. The franchise stopped perpetrating the long-running sellout streak myth. And it stopped making excuses when it failed.

The frantic nickel and dime marketing and sponsorship approach that the prior regime had become dependent upon stopped. McGowan instead directed his staff to make fewer, larger scale, sponsorship deals. Transparency improved. Internal drama dissipated. And McGowan preached to his lieutenants that Trail Blazers, Inc. was now an "Entertainment Company," responsible for running the arena and team as one.

Olshey focused on basketball, as he's always done. He evaluated players and sold owner Paul Allen on his vision. The Blazers drafted Lillard, then CJ McCollum. And Terry Stotts, a modest hire at first glance, has been a home run. Even as this season stacked up to be a letdown, the organization has pulled itself together -- business and basketball -- in a way that has fans engaged.

"The prevailing feedback I get from fans," one Blazers season-ticket account representative said, "is this team is fun to watch."

It helps that McGowan has loads of humility. I can't imagine Patterson or Miller making regular trips to the Blazers locker room on game night to meet on the general manager's turf. In fact, Patterson nicknamed his own office at One Center Court, "The Point." He held court with a window behind him overlooking the arena. Olshey's primary office is in the team practice facility near Tualatin. McGowan shows up there, too, whenever there's a decision to be made.

McGowan, 42, and Olshey, 51, may have both migrated from Los Angeles to Portland, but they're not similar in style or personality. Staffers will tell you the men don't socialize outside of work. And I agree with those in the organization who believe Olshey, who rants comically at times about the lack of valet parking at Portland restaurants, is destined to someday work in Los Angeles again. Meanwhile, McGowan feels like a guy who might decide to stay in Oregon forever.

The organization has become about basketball again over the last four years. Win or lose, the basketball leads and the business follows. What the Blazers have is a pair of leaders who work very closely together promoting vision, talking strategy, and organization messaging. For the first time since Whitsitt held both jobs, there's a shared vision.

On a night such as Friday, when the basketball is humming and the president is better equipped to call a line of season-ticket holdouts the organization feels whole again.

"It's not perfect or flawless," said a basketball-operations employee, "but it's working."

-- @JohnCanzanoBFT

 

Blazers are all about the money, no longer care that one of their original season ticket holders has been in the ICU for 10+ days.

 

I think he finally got moved out of the ICU today but he's still in the hospital.