Sean Highkin

If you care at all about the future of the Blazers this is the kind of stuff you should become a paid subscriber for. I learned a lot about the guy who’s going to own the team next week in researching this and I think you will too.

With the Blazers' sale set to close in the next week, I reviewed hours of interviews with Tom Dundon for a deep dive on the good and bad of his track record owning the Carolina Hurricanes. Story: rosegardenreport.com/what-kind-of-o…

Silver: "Jody Allen and Bert Kolde were focused on their brother's legacy. They made very clear to any interested buyers they weren't entertaining interest from groups whose intention was not to work their hardest to keep the team long-term in Portland." rosegardenreport.com/adam-silver-ad…

Adam Silver touched on the Blazers sale on at his press conference this afternoon. Afterwards, he talked for a few minutes with myself and @BlazerFreeman and went into much more depth about the arena plans and the team's future in Portland. Story: rosegardenreport.com/adam-silver-ad…

@JoelXLorenzi @JCowleyHoops @elementalcoffee My guy!!

The old man (@JCowleyHoops) is side-eyeing me. He ran to @elementalcoffee when I told him Jimmy Butler co-signed it. He’s a fan. We need better production for Joe Bean’s Up. His iPhone has a home button. The camera looks like 2012 Instagram.

YANG HANSEN POSTER 🤯‼️

A note on Silver's "local media situation" comment in here: I checked on this with a couple people and I think he was talking more generally about teams league-wide having their local broadcasts up in the air with the death of RSNs/FanDuel going under. rosegardenreport.com/adam-silver-ad…

Finally, expansion draft details

Among the things Silver said today: -The Allen Estate was clear in the sale process that they weren't interested in bids from groups who wanted to move the team -Having teams in both Portland and Seattle makes the NBA schedule-makers' jobs much easier rosegardenreport.com/adam-silver-ad…

From yesterday...

Hot take: Most sports journalists get worse at analysis when they stop writing and go full podcast/video mode. And it makes sense why. Writing forces you to slow down and organize your thoughts. Writing is where you pressure-test your ideas. Podcasts let you just… say stuff.

New: Documents obtained by ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting reveal that Tom Dundon was behind what regulators called an “aggressive push” to waive proof-of-income requirements at Santander Consumer USA. propub.li/40Tuskf

Good evening from New York where we took a look at the NBA meetings and what it all could mean for the possible return of the SuperSonics. seattletimes.com/sports/sonics/…

Would be a disaster to run the TV simulcast as a replacement for radio. The greatest calls in Blazers history have all come from the radio and getting rid of it would be a massive loss for fans, but also from a marketing perspective, to lose such a valuable storytelling piece.

The pathway to re-sign Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones is challenging but not impossible. A look into some of the numbers thanks to the new CBA: nypost.com/2026/03/23/spo…

Much more Fire/W coverage coming from me in the coming weeks and months as the season gets underway. rosegardenreport.com/subscribe