Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, has repeatedly tried to reach the late Paul Allen’s sister in hopes of buying the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, but the late Microsoft co-founder’s sibling refuses to take his call, according to a report.
Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner and real estate mogul Alan Smolinisky offered $2 billion to buy the Trail Blazers, but Jody Allen, the executor and trustee of her late brother’s $20 billion estate, rejected the bid without so much as a counteroffer, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Phil Knight and I have not spoken,” Jody Allen told The Journal last year.
Knight, the Portland native who built Nike from a fledgling track-and-field shoe maker to an international apparel giant worth billions, is said to be eager to buy the Blazers so as to ensure that the team remains in his hometown.
Jody Allen told The Journal that she referred Knight and Smolinisky to Bert Kolde, the vice chairman of the Trail Blazers and a longtime associated of Paul Allen.
According to Jody Allen, Kolde communicated to Knight and Smolinisky that the “Trail Blazers remain not for sale.”
Earlier this year, Knight and Smolinisky made additional overtures to Jody Allen, this time upping their initial offer in light of the surging value of sports teams.
But Jody Allen reportedly rebuffed the duo once again, referring them to Kolde.
When that didn’t work, Smolinisky reportedly sent a handwritten letter to Jody Allen indicating that he and Knight were eager to sit down and hash out a deal for the Blazers, The Journal reported.
But an associated of Jody Allen replied with an email to Smolinisky saying that the team was not for sale, according to the report.
Paul Allen, who along with Bill Gates founded Microsoft in the late 1970s, died in 2018. He was 65.
His wish was for most of his fortune to be liquidated and the proceeds donated to charity.
Paul Allen never married and had no children, and details of his estate aren’t known.
Allen was a strong backer of Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge” to donate the majority of their wealth to charity.
Jody Allen has made clear that neither the Trail Blazers or her brother’s other prized possession, the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, are on the market, according to The Journal.
She plans to sell off late brother’s vast holdings piece by piece in a lengthy process that could take as long as 20 years, according to The Journal.
“As Jody said publicly last year, the sports teams are not for sale,” a spokesperson for Vulcan, the umbrella firm founded by Paul and Jody Allen in 1986, told The Journal.
“That will eventually change pursuant to Paul’s wishes, but there is no pre-ordained timeline for when that will happen.”
“Interested parties can engage when we establish a sales process at some point in the future,” the spokesperson said.
Paul Allen bought the Trail Blazers for $70 million in 1988. Nearly a decade later, he paid $194 million for the Seahawks.
According to Forbes, the Trail Blazers would today fetch at least $2.1 billion.
The Seahawks are said to be worth some $4.5 billion.
The Post has sought comment from Vulcan, the Seahawks, the Blazers, and Nike.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
