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State of Oregon’s Sporting Insanity Now Extends to Trail Blazers’ Front Office Flap

Mar 20, 2010, 6:30 PM UTC

â†µâ†µFor the last couple of months, I’ve been all over the Oregon Ducks’ batty offseason. But the better drama in the Beaver State may actually be happening in Portland.â†µ

â†µâ†µOn Thursday, news broke that the firing of Tom Penn had folks close to Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard worried for his job. The agent for Penn and Pritchard said then that he was concerned Portland’s ownership could “do a drive-by” on the man widely credited as the architect of one of the NBA’s best young teams.â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd today, TrueHoop proprietor and Blazers fan Henry Abbott writes that unrest has fans talking about riots. â†µ

â†µâ†µNo, really.â†µ

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â†µâ†µâ‡¥â‡¥“If they fire KP,” said a comment from “iDea” on the Blazersedge blog, “after building the team back to being respectable and with a winning culture, it’ll be the last straw with most fans.”â‡¥â‡¥â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥â‡¥“Could you imagine the scene if KP left ... There might be an actual riot” writes “blazeraddict.” Another commenter, “somanluna,” quickly added: “I would be in it (the riot) It would absurd to let the man responsible for rebuilding the franchise to what it is today go at this point. He’s done so much and is very passionate about the team and doing what’s right for it so who would be better?”â‡¥â‡¥â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µWhile that riot talk may be more about Internet courage than justified outrage, it comes from a loyal and savvy fanbase. Oh, and most observers agree with the fans that firing Pritchard would be colossally stupid. â†µ

â†µâ†µAbbott runs down what seems to be a power struggle in his post, and it’s hard not to suspect that Paul Allen and the rest of the money men in Portland have been engaged in a power struggle with Penn, Pritchard, and the rest of basketball operations for some time. The Oregonian’s John Canzano speculates that something that happened in the draft war room in 2007 might still be stuck in Allen’s craw.â†µ

â†µâ†µIt’s a rule of corporate life: if the folks with tons of money and nearly as much pettiness are perturbed, it might be that no amount of aptitude can save the targets of the ire. Pritchard better hope that the hostility he’s dealing with doesn’t lead to a takeover in Portland.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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