TRANSCRIPT OF MAY 15, 2006 TRAIL BLAZERS PRESIDENT

STEVE PATTERSON INTERVIEW WITH OREGONIAN’S JASON QUICK

Jason Quick of the Oregonian just completed a three-part story on the history of the Trail Blazers during the past six years. This is the transcript from his interview with Trail Blazers President Steve Patterson. We are going to make a concentrated effort to bring you these types of interviews on trailblazers.com on a more frequent basis so you can see the entire context and nature of the complete conversation between media and members of our organization. This allows us to become more open while giving our fans access to the entire story. Not every interview with a player or member of the front office will be posted on trailblazers.com, but we'll make an effort to include those conversations we believe the fans would find interesting and compelling.

Jason Quick: What happened going in, you know, they trade Jermaine, they trade for Shawn Kemp, next year this happens, next year this happens, next year this happens.

Steve Patterson: Yeah.

JQ: So starting with you guys, when you come in. 50 win team right?

SP: Year before, yeah.

JQ: 50 win team, what is your guys’ mindset then? As you would take over that team.

SP: Well 50 win ballclub that got beat in the first round. Got a payroll two and half times the cap.

JQ: No, just 73 million, but plus Shawn’s 15, so it’s 80...

SP: No, it’s 100…

JQ: I don’t think at that time…

SP: 105

JQ: I don’t think so.

SP: Yeah, when I got here, was over 100, 105

JQ: Not going into that year. Not going into the next year.

SP: I mean, I’ll look at the numbers, check and see what it was

JQ: We’ll go back to that later.

SP: Ok, and a club that lost nearly 130 million dollars.

JQ: In that year?

SP: Yeah.

JQ: Because of the luxury tax?

SP: And certainly had a community that was unhappy, because of the image of the franchise, and did not reflect the values that the community wanted. Had plenty of the off-court incidents, an aging roster at several key positions, had to make some decisions about bringing some of the veterans back or not. You look at Scottie Pippen and talked to all the doctors and their expectation was, he wasn’t going to be able to go for two a days, probably not ready to play in the pre-season - he might get 20 games into the regular season, might be able to play 20 minutes a night tops. Probably every other night, and high likelihood that he’d crater, which is exactly what happened.

Sabonis with a contract that was structured in such a way, that if he came back, you’re going to be obligated to multiple years or its gonna cost you 20 plus million dollars a year between the tax and the way the contract was structured. And he wasn’t really sure he wanted to come back.

JQ: Antonio?

SP: Antonio was a guy that, given the players that were there, and given the tax position and given the coaching staff wasn’t that high on having him return…

JQ: When you came in, how much did you interact with Bob Whitsitt? Did you pick his brain, did you de-brief, did you…

SP: We talked to him some, yeah.

JQ: He painted the picture where you guys didn’t, where he had several deals that he was already working on, that he, that you guys could have done, that he never had a chance to tell you because you never asked.

SP: He had plenty of chances to tell

JQ: He had plenty of chances to tell?

SP: Yeah

JQ: Ok

SP: I think the reality is too is you have a very different operating environment, that wasn’t going to be the same operating environment, where previously its been spend at all costs, what happened off the floor didn’t matter, it was up to the coach to figure out the chemistry. The approach after that was one of trying to balance character, have fiscal responsibility, create some cap room.

JQ: Ok, you guys talked about fiscal responsibility, and then, since your first summer after you take over, you have a year, and then you spend 167 million dollars in the span of two months, well you commit 167 million dollars…

SP: You try to load up multiple years if it’s just one year…

JQ: Yeah, you gotta commit that much money. It’s actually a little bit more when you…
So, is that a shift or is that, what was the mindset there when you guys commit that much to those three players?

SP: Well I think if you look at Zach, a 20-10 player, at the time he was 22, right?

JQ: He’s 24 now

SP: 22 year old guy for a 20 and 10 player, and you look at that contract and given how its structured, given the amount deferred in it, the fact that there’s no trade kickers in it, there’s no trade clauses or weird signing bonuses or…

JQ: There was an All-Star bonus though right?

SP: Yes, an All-Star bonus. But I’m saying there’s none of the bonuses that make it tougher to trade a guy. Given he’s paid over 16 years, probably a sub-market deal if he is a free agent.

JQ: But the fact that it’s deferred doesn’t affect the cap right? You still got it.

SP: Doesn’t effect the cap, but it certainly affects the financial numbers.

JQ: For Paul

SP: Well it affects the financials for whoever owns the club that he plays for. Regardless of who the owner is. You look at the value of the contract, it’s two-thirds or less than the other guys that have signed that summer.

JQ: How do figure?

SP: It’s considerably less because we have to pay it over 16 years. So, the guys who were out there that summer, the Gasol’s…Kirelenko’s…Jefferson. If he’s a free agent in the market he gets that kind of a contract. One that is far less attractive from the club’s standpoint.

JQ: Darius, nobody makes an offer for him.

SP: That is untrue and you guys have constantly, constantly said that and that’s not true.

JQ: Nobody filed a…

SP: Denver was ready to pay him.

JQ: They didn’t and it expired…the date expired

SP: No they were ready to pay him.

JQ: July 15th

SP: They would have done the deal…in a trade before or they would have done the deal straight up.

JQ: The amount for Darius…

SP: You guys constantly said that nobody…

JQ: No team filed an offer to the NBA office where you guys had to match. You guys did not have to match any offer filed to the NBA. That is fact. That’s why we reported it.

SP: That doesn’t mean someone wasn’t willing to do it.

JQ: Then tell us that. I mean…

SP: I’ve said it every time. If you talked to Kiki he would tell you the same thing.

JQ: The fact is that you didn’t have to because nobody made an offer to him.

SP: No, you can look at it and let it play out the one year and then you’re in the environment where the guys coming off a good year. Maggette’s young, 22-years-old. You know there’s somebody out there that’s willing to pay. You know they’ll have the cap room the following summer and you don’t know what the rules are the following summer. Whether you’ll have a right to match for whatever there is to match. And so, you have to look at it with the information you have at that point of time. You know you have a bidder. In this league you only need one bidder. The league golden rule. And generally it becomes more expensive letting guys go to full free agency.

JQ: The amount you paid. How did you come to that? I know in talking to Jeff all summer, they were looking at a something, six million dollars. Even Darius said at the time it was more money than he’d thought he could get. How’d you come to the average?

SP: That what the market was out there. And, you’re talking a difference of a million dollars a year. Doesn’t make a big difference.

JQ: Theo was the other one you signed that summer. Thought process on that?

SP: He had a great year. He had been healthy. He would be one of the most attractive free agents and the extension was short and it was at the market. If you look at the Dalembert’s, the Curry’s, the Chandler’s, Dampier, Foyle, lesser players. The market. You can’t predict into the future that a guy’s going to get hurt.

JQ: So, I have you guys at 60 million right now give or take. I’m pretty sure you started with a 72 salary.

SP: There’s no way.

JQ: Ok, I’ll go back. We got…

SP: I know what it was, it was 105 million bucks.

JQ: So, like I think in Bob’s years they were. I think maybe that team was coming to that. Because Scottie was making…that team that you inherited, the team that you inherited had a 105.

SP: Yeah

JQ: But the team that Bob was directing, then they lost game seven, and the team that you took over heading into that next year had a salary of 72 plus Shawn’s 15, which made it 88-89.

SP: Ok, were talking about the next year.

JQ: Yeah heading into, yeah.

SP: Uh, we were probably…

JQ: Scottie came off…

SP: Yeah we were probably in the seventies. That next year that’s probably right. I thought you meant the year that…

JQ: No, No, when you guys took over, the team that you had, minus Sabonis, Pippen, Daniels.

SP: Once you take those guys off

JQ: That’s thirty million dollars.

SP: Yeah that’s probably right. Yeah, I would have to look to see exactly. That’s in the book.

JQ: So, it’s at 72, three years later you’re at 60. So you’ve cut 12 million dollars in salary. You’ve done that with getting rid of Bonzi Wells, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff McInnis, Dale Davis, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Gill, Wesley Person, Shareef, Van Exel, DA, Sabonis, Dickau, Stoudamire and Pip. All those players. And what you have left to show for it is Viktor Khryapa, Brian Skinner, and Darius Miles. That’s it. Do you think that is adequate? I know a lot of those players were old, aging, overpaid. But do feel like you’ve got enough in return. Both salary cap wise and in assets for all those players.

SP: Some of them are still with us – DA is still with us from a cap standpoint that is - 9-10 million dollars. The alternative was then to take other people’s problems or what would have perpetuated a 100 million dollar payroll for guys that were middle of the road players. In Shareef’s case, we did actually trade him to New Jersey but he failed the physical. But, the rest of those guys…we did try to make a deal with Sabonis and we got outbid. We would have had more cap room. But, at the end of the day if your going to get the payroll down, and move the older, overpaid guys that have shaky character, there’s not a great market for them out there for young, underpaid, sterling character, great talent.

JQ: Are you satisfied with what you got in return for Rasheed?

SP: I don’t think there were a lot of great alternatives. Yeah at the time I thought we made a good run with those two guys. I think we made the best deal.

JQ: And Bonzi? Getting Wesley and Sergei.

SP: Bonzi had to go. Bonzi blew up in Memphis – was on his best behavior this year in Sacramento. We’ll see what he looks like the year after. Guys can behave themselves in contract years.

SP: What would you have liked to have gotten for him?

JQ: I don’t know. I’m not a GM. I’m not out there. I don’t know what was offered. Pretty good player…but I agree he had to go.

SP: Well, what would you have liked to get if a guys gotta go. You are presuming there was something else to get for him.

JQ: I have no idea what you could get for him.

JQ: I do know that Shaq was out there. And that was presented to you guys. Why did you feel that wasn’t a good fit?

SP: Well, I don’t think that your paper presented that accurately in the past, because you guys wrote a year ago, when it was the last off the cuff question. After an entirely different discussion with John (Canzano), he asked for one of the reasons and you guys got a different answer from John (Nash) and you guys try to present it, as we were at odds. Any time you make a trade, there can be scores of reasons why things happen and don’t happen. One would be cap space. One would be whether a player is looking for a contract in the future. Another would be what you have to give up. Another would be what your ball club looks like after you give up what you might have to give up to get the player. Another would be whether a player wants to come to that city or not. So there’s probably a dozen issues there and reasons that it didn’t happen.

JQ: You regret it?

SP: I don’t regret something that can’t get done.

JQ: Why couldn’t it get done?

SP: There’s a whole bunch of reasons. About a dozen reasons. Am I making sense or not?

JQ: I hear ya.

SP: A guy doesn’t want to come play some place, you know you can’t compensate the other team. Deals don’t happen. 99.9 percent of every trade conversation doesn’t happen.

JQ: There’s a camp out there who feels that you will take this financial change and take whatever Paul says. That’s your answer. You know, there’s an intimidation factor. That what he says goes.

SP: What I’ve found it to be is that Paul is very open and wanting to know what our recommendations are. I think it is a healthy environment.

JQ: Have you gone to him and said, no, no, no? Have you talked him out or into anything?

SP: I think yeah, you have a healthy discussion about a whole host of issues. Being business or basketball. We would come to an agreement.

JQ: Guess what I am wondering, can you recall a time when you came and sold a deal to Paul.

SP: I don’t think that you should be trying to sell something that if you are implying that it’s not in the best interest of the ball club.

JQ: Theoretically, you are more knowledgeable about basketball than Paul. I mean Paul is a fan and all that, but he is a fan. Theoretically, you are very well schooled, in salary cap level, character, what a guy means to a team, and a vision for building the team, and if you know that there’s somebody out there, or that something’s been presented - then Paul’s knee jerk reaction is, no, I don’t know, well, can it win us a championship. I’m asking, do you feel like you’ve had the ability to convince him, to sell.

SP: I think we’ve had the environment to be able to convince Paul of what our recommendations are. Yeah, I think that’s different than using the word sell. I think it’s been a healthy environment to have internal discussion and debate and try to come to the best resolution and I find that he is somebody who puts us all through our paces. He’s a veteran owner, who’ll poke and prod to make sure you’ve done your homework. If anything, he’s been more willing, throughout the history of the franchise, to over commit to try to be competitive than any other owner is the history of professional sports. So I think it unfair to try to cast him in an unfavorable light.

JQ: I don't think that's what I'm trying to do

SP: Ok

JQ: I’m asking, like, do you have the ability to go to him and talk him in or talk him out of something from a basketball standpoint? Not a…sort of not looking it as a fan, from a passionate standpoint.

SP: Yeah, I think there’s an environment for honest dialogue. Whether it is in and is the best interest of the franchise. I really object to talking the way we’re talking now, that implies that…

JQ: Changing his mind.

SP: Yeah he can change his mind, yeah. In a well presented case.

JQ: The Telfair draft, in talking to some of those departed scouts. They went into that day that night, feeling that Jefferson was going to be the guy. There was the greatest crop of point guards coming up the next year, next year’s draft. Why the shift?

SP: Well, I think the initial recommendation was from the scouts was Tiago Splitter. Maybe someday Tiago Splitter will be the next great player in the league but we haven’t seen him yet. Al Jefferson was a last minute recommendation. Young man refused to come in and work out and refused to take any tests. He was playing the same position where we had Shareef and Zach. Maybe someday he’ll be a good player. I don’t think anybody can say for sure yet.

JQ: Was there a shift in focus there though? Did you guys go into that day feeling like Jefferson was the guy?

SP: No, I think the discussion around Jefferson came in as a last minute guy after Splitter pulled out of the draft. There was discussion about Telfair, a whole host of others. But I think that if we got a guy that won’t work out, won’t take a test. We finally had to fly a psychologist down there for him to take a test. He had difficulty with it. There were some other things that weren’t positive about him that I’m not going to talk about in the interview. And quite frankly, we were coming up on having nobody under contract in the backcourt, quick, after the year. We had one year left on Damon.

JQ: Oh yeah, and then you signed Nick after the draft. You got Nick.

SP: We did the trade for Dale Davis.

JQ: One thing I’m not sure on, when you guys first came was right around the draft. Was Travis your pick or was it a pick from the previous?

SP: Previous

JQ: Did they promise something to him? How was that? How do I phrase that? It’s not your pick?

SP: I can’t comment on that.

JQ: Ok. I’ll just say it’s not your pick.

SP: I think if we were in a more trusting environment Jason, we could probably trade stories.

JQ: What do you make of where you’re at right now?

SP: I think any time your going through a re-tooling process, you can expect some rough sledding for a while. But I think we have good young players. We’re going to get another good young player out of this year’s draft. We are moving towards having more flexibility. We are going to continue down that road. People in this community want to see players with good character, like the guys we brought in. Whether it’s Martell, Sebastian’s, or Viktor, the Blake’s, Dixon’s, or Theo or…you know those kind of guys, their good guys. Anytime you have a very young roster it’s going to take them some time to develop.

JQ: Did you ever think you would get to this point though, where you’re the worst team in the NBA?

SP: Well, if you’re not going to be in the playoffs, you want to maximize the development of your young guys. Put yourself in a position to be as good as you can be in a particular draft. Do I like where our record was this year? No. Do I wish we were better? Yeah. You go through a process, to rebuild the roster with young players so that you can make that next run. This was a club that was so egregiously over leveraged that it takes time to work out of it. Maybe Bob had the magic bullets but he sure didn’t offer it to us. There were certainly guys on the staff that you would of thought would be privy to that but didn’t bring it up. You had a different operating environment. You look at any club that’s been at the top for a while. Sooner or later they have to re-tool. Detroit’s gone through it. They’re in good shape now. Chicago’s gone through it, they’re back in the playoffs. Boston’s gone through it. LA’s gone through it. Houston’s gone through it. It is something eventually that has to happen. And I don’t think it makes sense to be stuck in between. I don’t think any of us think it makes sense. The worst place to be is in the sort of netherworld of 30 win seasons that you can’t seem to get out of.

JQ: As you head to New Jersey to participate. What are your emotions?

SP: I hate going to New Jersey for the lottery. I hate it.

JQ: Because it signifies that you’ve been a loser? Or that your team has been a loser?

SP: Signifies that you team didn’t win enough ball games to get in the playoffs to win a championship. I hate it.

JQ: I envision you going with a sense of, let’s hope something good can happen for once. Let’s get it good.

SP: I think that good things happened last year.

JQ: Yeah, I mean, ok

SP: You want to continue that. You hope that your ping-pong balls come up, sure. I think it’s a chance to continue the rebuilding process. Get another bright young player in here. We got Detroit’s pick. We got our second round pick.

JQ: Seems like a lot of optimism.

SP: I’m always optimistic. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.

JQ: Nash’s status. Where are you with determining that?

SP: We’re going to sit down and determine that. I play fair with everybody, when it gets resolved it gets resolved. I am not talking to others about it either.

JQ: When it gets resolved it gets resolved?

SP: Yeah

JQ: Ok, that’s all I need. I think. Big mess to sort out.

SP: It was a big mess to sort out when I got here.

JQ: Yeah, there’s some differing views from up north but...

SP: From up north being…Bob?

JQ: From up north.

SP: Well.

JQ: They feel that your guys’ hand that you inherited had several face cards and now it doesn’t.

SP: Well it depends on what operating environment your are in. If you want to continue to have a 100 million dollar player payroll and continue to lose 130 million dollars a year, I wouldn’t disagree with that. But that means that your spending 45 million dollars a year in luxury tax and continue to have that high a payroll. And, I’ll tell you in large part that club that came back, wasn’t a playoff club either.

JQ: That came back from game seven in Dallas?

SP: The next year. The next year’s club.

JQ: That you had.

SP: Yeah. The guys we inherited. Pippen couldn’t play anymore. Sabonis wasn’t going to play anymore. Basically put that team back on the floor. You know it wasn’t a playoff club.

JQ: What you guys go, 41-41? With a strong finish.

SP: Yeah, strong finish. We were on trajectory for 35 wins or something and a club that the community hated. That year we got a 48 percent renewal rate on season tickets for contracts that were up. And, wasn’t going to go any distance in the playoffs. And going to have the second highest payroll in the league. So you gotta look at the entire picture. If we wanted to stay at 100 million dollars and keep losing 130 million dollars a year, yeah I won’t disagree. Contracts that we could have probably done something with but again to have players that for their contributions on and off the court were egregiously over compensated. And if you look at where the guys have gone since, and how they’ve been compensated, they’re all getting paid dramatically less. Most of them…

JQ: Except maybe Antonio.

SP: Antonio yes. He’s the only one. Everybody else is making a quarter of what they were making. Something tells you those weren’t market rate deals. I’m not here to criticize Bob. The environment’s different.

JQ: Have you made mistakes?

SP: Oh Jeez. Sure everyone makes mistakes

JQ: Wanna share what any of them are?

SP: I don’t know if that’s productive

JQ: I think that people out there wonder where you think things have gone wrong.

SP: I think there is a difference between what’s wrong or what people perceive to be wrong or right. The objective is to try to get to a younger club at a more manageable payroll that reflects the community standards. More so, we’ve made progress in that direction. Have we been perfect? No. I certainly would like the ball club to be more competitive than it has been. It takes young guys time to develop. I think there was good progress made with Nate’s addition. Guys will learn, grow and get better. It’s not time to write them off.

End of interview