China's new most popular team just got a whole lot of positive press. Even if Dame never makes it back to the court they just lined themselves up to sell a shit-ton of Dame merch plus reengaged Dame fans put off by his departure Pretty certainly in the 2026-27 season. Will he be any good is the real question. my guess is Scoot will thrive or not based on his own talent & work. If he excels though, Dame will get credit for it. got to spend it to make it In Portland, with his family living here as a favorite son. I root for the name on the front of the jersey much more then the one on the back. As competing for championships is my primary interest following the team and since I don't see this move likely to affect that, I'd rate this move... whatever STOMP
Dame will never be relevant as an owner of the Blazers. Does anyone care that Wade, Shaq, or Grant Hill invested in NBA teams? I bet most fans don't even know the franchises. Doesn't matter unless you have Michael Jordan wealth to become the majority owner. But today even he couldn't afford at current 4+ billion prices.
Then at least we get Dame for a short time. Either way, having Dame here is better for himself and the community than forcing him to be somewhere else.
True. It doesn't matter. Except that Dame is actually really good at marketing and could probably be a pretty good face of the franchise. And I don't think he would knowingly be a part of a deliberate scheme to move the team away from Oregon.
Dame can do all those things just the same with any future role being a player, coach, employee, consultant, brand ambassador, front office, announcer, spokesperson, etc with the Blazers. Him having a totally irrelevant fraction of a % ownership or getting a paycheck doesn't change any of that.
True. I expect he'll want an ownership stake. And I could see an ownership group being interested in him for the reasons I listed above.
Him being a good will ambassador of sorts for the franchise would be great, but I really don't want him anywhere in the vicinity of personnel decisions again. STOMP
He's admitted if it's up to him Sasha Pavlovic would still be on the team because he loves all his teammates.
