(Los Angeles) Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and Alan Smolinisky, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise, have made an offer of more than 2 billion US dollars to buy the NBA club from the Portland Trail Blazers, ESPN reports Thursday.
Posted at 7:06 p.m.
Knight and Smolinisky had already entered into discussions with the Paul G. Allen Trust, owner of the franchise, and these discussions are expected to continue based on the offer made, the sports outlet claims, citing unnamed sources.
Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who bought the Trail Blazers in 1988, died in October 2018.
Although Portland is considered a fairly modest market for an NBA team, the Blazers enjoy strong fan support. In 2021, Forbes valued the franchise at $2.05 billion.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, of roughly the same stature, were sold in 2021 for $1.5 billion, a deal that included the Lynx, a women’s team playing in the WNBA.
Aged 84, Phil Knight, whose personal fortune was estimated by Forbes at around $47 billion in 2021, was born in Portland and graduated from the University of Oregon. He stepped down as chairman and CEO of Nike in 2015, after 52 years at the helm of the company.