The NBA is quickly learning this is who Tom Dundon is

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Unlike most pieces at this site, this aimed toward more of an NBA audience.

Now I don’t really watch the NBA, I do tune in for the NBA Finals each season, but being a hockey writer the head-to-head schedules have made it close to impossible for me to pay much attention.

So, when I saw the multitude of headlines about the Portland Trailblazers and their new owner, Tom Dundon, and the shock about his cost-cutting tactics including not sending their team reporter, photographer, and two-way players on the road for the playoffs, I was kind of surprised, frankly, at the surprise.

Maybe I’m nose blind to it or it’s my naivety, but as someone who’s covered the NHL, this was simply others realizing who and what Dundon is and it tends to mirror what’s happened with the Carolina Hurricanes, a team he’s owned since 2018.

Dundon is blunt, doesn’t care what you think about him, and doesn’t like spending money on things that don’t really impact the product on the ice (or now the court). In Carolina, John Forslund had been the voice of hockey since it moved there from Hartford, once Dundon took over he eventually left for Seattle, despite his family living in Raleigh for while after the move, because the Hurricanes wanted to turn him from a full-time employee into an independent contract with salary based on team attendance.

The Hurricanes also have reportedly paid their off-ice staff less than others and at NHL events I’ve been to, like the NHL Draft, it’s become a running joke that Hurricanes scouts are often — not always — in the most cost-efficient hotel compared to their peers from other teams. The Hurricanes also had an awkward one-year divorce from their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, largely over cost distributions, a situation that only developed after they had a prior cost-related dispute with their former AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, that is actually in their home state.

From a coaching perspective, multiple sources have told me that coaches in Carolina make anywhere from 10 to 20 percent below market rate, and that was only made public when Rod Brind’Amour’s contract details became slightly more public in his push for a larger deal to remain the head coach and then signed an extension in 2024.

I’ve also spoken to Dundon directly multiple times, he doesn’t hide from the media in my experiences and doesn’t have any qualms with being blunt. He told me directly that if he had his way, he’d put more jersey advertisements on the Hurricanes sweater, almost NASCAR-esque, and that from a revenue-driving perspective he had several ideas that would upset typical NHL status quo.

Now, players are largely protected from this, I’ve spoken to many Hurricanes players over the years and the cost-cutting rarely impacts them. They are paid well, the Hurricanes spend to the salary cap, and Dundon is willing to put the money into the 20 individuals that will wear the jersey that evening. But the surrounding stuff, like broadcasts or team photographers (in the Trailblazers case), can often be down just as well, business-wise, by independent contractors or someone willing to work for less.

That’s one of the worst-kept secrets about the sports industry, it creates millionaires and billionaires, but unless you have keys to the owners suite or are one of the players, it’s not too hard to find someone that can do your job for cheaper, especially if production on the playing surface isn’t going to matter.

Look at the Trailblazers’ recent decisions, while it’s pretty nasty of them not to bring the players on two-way contracts like every other NBA team, it’s also not really going to impact whether they win or lose their series with the Spurs. And while how two-way players were treated will be remembered by some players, the reality is most NHL and NBA deals are typically decided by money and term, not how players were treated at the minor-league/tweener levels.

The other thing that I can’t help but bring up and I think hasn’t been brought up enough in the Dundon/Trailblazers coverage is the fact that the Hurricanes are extremely lucky that Brind’Amour loves the Hurricanes. Brind’Amour worked below his market rate and still works below his market, he’s one of the best coaches in the NHL on a year-over-year basis, has built a culture, and isn’t paid like a Todd McClellan or Pete DeBoer.

When I read stories about the Trailblazers and I read the passing line that Dundon has built a winning organization in Carolina I have to scoff at it, because it’s missing the vital context that Brind’Amour really built that culture and was willing to do so at a pay scale that hasn’t always reflected his true value.

I don’t know the NBA well enough, but are the Trailblazers going to find their version of Rob Brind’Amour? I have a hard time believing that’s even possible.

Most of what I’ve written here is pretty public knowledge in NHL circles. Dundon is different and isn’t shy about it, and what he’s doing in Portland isn’t any different than what he’s done in Raleigh with the Hurricanes.

The NBA, I can only imagine, had to know this about Dundon when he purchased the team. Gary Bettman still has many close ties to the NBA and I would be stunned if NBA executives didn’t at least check in with Bettman and other NHL brass about what type of person they’d be inviting to the owner’s meetings.

Whether you think Dundon is right or wrong isn’t really the point.

The point is that none of this is new. And if the NBA is surprised, it didn’t do enough homework.