Tom Dundon’s first day as Trail Blazers owner: ‘I can’t handle losing’

LOS ANGELES — Tom Dundon’s first day as owner of the Portland Trail Blazers came with a simple message to his players: The standard is changing.

In a short meeting with his team inside Intuit Dome before Tuesday’s game against the LA Clippers, Dundon told his players he appreciates what they do, but he expects more.

“Right now, where we are isn’t where I think we can be,” Dundon told the team.

Dundon, who also owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, is known as a demanding and calculated owner who relies on analytics and gut feeling. Since taking over in Carolina, the Hurricanes have made the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons and made the Eastern Conference final three times. This season, Carolina is tied for first in the East.

Dundon takes over a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2021 and has had dwindling attendance since a rebuild started in 2022.

In the minutes before the Blazers tipped off against the Clippers, Dundon gave an exclusive interview to The Athletic, touching on his vision for the franchise, the unease of employees fearing for their jobs, and the future of the Blazers in Portland amid their quest to secure public funding for $600 million in renovations to the Moda Center.

Here is a portion of Tuesday’s Q&A with Dundon.

Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Describe your first day …

Today was more just seeing what their process is on game day and meeting a bunch of people. I don’t know that we did anything super useful other than kind of absorb the information and just try to find the places where there’s the opportunity to get better, right? You’ve got to see how they do it today before you have an opinion about what ideas we can bring up to see if they want to consider things that could give us an advantage in the future.

What was your message to the team?

It was very short, and it was just, one, I appreciate what they do. They’re the product. They made it to the NBA, so it’s very impressive. But right now, where we are isn’t where I think we can be. And it’s more about maybe increasing the standards, increasing the commitment to excellence, increasing the intensity — things that I think everybody says, things everybody wants to do. Now, doing it and expecting to do it and every day getting better … that is not a debate with me. … It is going to happen. It always happens when I show up. And we’re gonna do it. I think they want it, too.

How do you do that?

I don’t know how to explain it because it just is. Like, I can’t accept it any other way. You know? For me, it’s not a choice. It’s like, whatever we’re doing, we’re trying to do better, and you just keep going and going. I’m just obsessed with trying to find a way to get better. I can’t handle losing. I can’t handle thinking something could be done better. And if you get all the players and the coaches and the staff, everybody thinking that way … you should get better.

And I think the organization the last couple years has been in a different place than they are now, where now it’s starting to build. Now we’ve got to get past those old habits that maybe weren’t as focused on the best outcome. So, pushing people past what they think is possible, and then doing it again and again and again. I don’t know, I just … I just do it.

I think there is a general unease among employees, worrying you are going to come in and make sweeping changes.

I mean, everybody who’s not thinking like that every day — like, regardless if there’s new ownership, if you don’t wake up fighting for your job, fighting for your spot, then that mindset is probably not very good anyway. So if it takes this for people to think like that, then that’s fine.

But I want people thinking about the future and not worrying about what I’m gonna do. They need to worry about what they’re gonna do. But I don’t like getting rid of people. I like to see who’s capable of taking that next step. So, I’m not looking to get rid of people. I’m looking to get better.

Still, you will have a couple of high-profile decisions to make at head coach (interim coach Tiago Splitter) and general manager (Joe Cronin). How soon will you come to those decisions?

I don’t know. Like, I’d need to acquire information. It would be hard for me to have an opinion about anything other than the level of intensity that I want. I have expectations that are probably higher than most people are used to. And so I think that’s where I’m starting with, is getting through to everybody what I like, what my expectations are, and then you gotta see if people can match that. And that’ll tell you more than me just guessing who can or can’t.

Some people are fearful you will move the team out of Portland. Can you offer any assurances that you won’t?

We haven’t spent any time on that. (Team president) Dewayne (Hankins) and the team have spent all their time trying to figure out how to renovate Moda Center. Anything that people write or say, it’s just made up, because nobody has spent any time on that. I fully expect to get everything we’re working on done. That’s all we can really do is work on that.

Why won’t you put any money into the arena?

Well, so the way the arena deal will work is we are going to commit to be here for a long term (20 years), and that commitment’s worth way more than anything else anybody’s gonna do. And so …

Twenty years is pretty standard, though.

I don’t think so in terms of the market.

So you think 20 years is enough currency, so to speak?

Twenty years? That’s a lot.

Historically, other owners have committed years and put in money …

In Portland?

Is there a message you want to deliver to fans?

I’m more like we just gotta do it, so you don’t really have to tell stories. You should be able to notice the team improves, and things get better. Hopefully, we’ll get people in and out of the arena faster. The food’s better. The experience is better. And when you go, we win more, and you can see the difference in the product and how we play.

I don’t think I’m supposed to promise people this or that because I can’t predict the future. I just know that the expectation should be high across the board.