New Blazers owner Tom Dundon has been accused of being overly cheap by many people in NBA circles, and he has now pushed back on at least one of those specific narratives.
During a road trip in Phoenix, the Blazers’ training staff had to check out of their team hotel in the early afternoon when they had a game later that day. That prompted a report from Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, who said he was told by multiple sources that the team was attempting to avoid being hit by late checkout fees.Appearing on a recent episode of Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul, Dundon told his side of the story, saying that there was a shortage of hotel rooms in Phoenix in March and that the one they booked “really wanted us out because we needed the rooms.”
“They wanted us to pay for a second night, so we did that for the coaches and the players, but we got them to let us leave at 1 o’clock,” Dundon said. “I had a room at the hotel—I was there, and I was like, ‘Well, lunch starts at 1:45, we have a huge ballroom with this really nice lunch for everybody.’ So I said, ‘Look, we’ll do the players and the coaches, we’ll pay the extra night. For the staff, we have this huge ballroom, we’ll go down there and work.’”
