Billionaire Owner Food For Thought

Your Portland Trail Blazers are on a huge roll right now and things are looking up for this young roster. They are a couple games over .500 and they just came back from an incredibly successful road trip.

Meanwhile, 180 miles to the north, the Seattle Seahawks are having a whirlwind roll. Sunday they were in the nation’s capital and beat the Redskins in the Wild Card round. They go to Atlanta next week to try and continue their miraculous season on the right arm of rookie QB Russell Wilson.

How do these two things have anything in common?

The connection between the two is Paul Allen. Allen is the mega-wealthy owner of both teams. He has been criticized and praised throughout the years in both cities.

The rebuilding situation of one of the teams (Trail Blazers) and the overachievement of the other (Seahawks), makes me wonder where Allen's head is at this point.

Last year he was criticized in Portland for not being as involved with the team. He wasn't always in his courtside seat and was even more sheltered from the media than usual. The hiring of Neil Olshey was seen as a way for Allen to disconnect a little more because people though that Allen trusted Olshey more than he had any other GM.

Let's be honest, no one likes to lose and if Allen were to choose one franchise to hold onto, I think the one in his hometown that is winning would be the easy choice. Now I am not saying that Allen is looking to sell anything or that he should, I'm just wondering how long he will accept being mediocre in Portland.

This Blazer team is overachieving right now but their schedule gets extremely difficult. Even with their recent success, I don't think many people would predict that this is a playoff team. Does Allen want to be in the lottery again? If so, how much longer will he be able to stay patient?

Allen is reported to be worth $13.5-$15 billion and most people would say that he wouldn't need to sell. I would agree with that but also I wonder who his time and money will go towards. If it came down to overspending in Seattle or Portland, who would he choose? If it came down to selling a franchise to fun his next mega-yacht or space ship, which would it be? Just some billionaire-owner-food-for-thought.

Garrett Thornton is on Twitter. Follow him at @PortlandGarrett