Portland Trail Blazers Ex-GM, Kevin Pritchard opens up about owner Paul Allen – NBA Update
Kevin Pritchard was one of the better General Managers in the league a few years back. His smart work with the Portland Trail Blazers, specially his nous for working to the teams advantage on draft night were looked upon with envy
by many of the owners around the league.
That was until his own owner, Paul Allen, fired Pritchard.
There was no particular reason stated for the firing. Outsiders believed that Paul Allen had grown weary of the acknowledgement and praise that Pritchard was receiving. There was believed to be an element of jealousy about the
decision. People just though Paul Allen wanted the spotlight more on himself rather than on Pritchard, even though the latter had clearly turned things around since arriving at the franchise, back when they were nick named the “Jail Blazers”.
When Kevin left, the team was young, vibrant and clearly on the rise. The rise however stalled after Kevin departed and his successor, Rich Cho, didn’t last long in the job either.
So when Kevin Pritchard turned up for a radio interview in Portland, he was inevitably asked about his relationship with Paul Allen.
Somewhat surprisingly, Pritchard didn’t take the opportunity vent some anger at the man who fired him. Instead his reply was very honest and respectful.
“He’s very complete in that he wants you to do the work and get to a certain place and then he’s going to challenge it…. He provided a lot of value with that and I learned a lot. He’s very demanding” said Pritchard about Allen,
who is a co-founder of Microsoft and certainly knows a thing or two about running a business.
Pritchard went on to describe the working relationship the two shared and commented on the fact that Allen was always involved with the goings on at the club,
“Every single day, in the seven and a half years I was there, I’m not sure there were many days that we didn’t communicate at least by e-mail or by phone, but he’s very interested and I welcomed that. We had developed a great relationship
the first four or five years I was there and we had an ability to talk pretty quickly and get down to the main issues, but he’s demanding and he’s tough.”
With Pritchard refusing to malign his ex-boss when he had the chance, the question the radio show host should have asked is why the h**l was Kevin Pritchard fired?
On the face of it there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason. Kevin knew what he was doing and he was doing it pretty well. Additionally the owner and the GM seem to have had a great working relationship.
Well, maybe Allen just felt like he needed change.
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