Tom Dundon Facing Criticism Over Micah Nori Contract

It’s been an eventful couple of months for new Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon. With the franchise seemingly on the upswing after its first playoff appearance in five seasons, Dundon’s reported vision for the team caused NBA fans on the outside looking in to wonder whether his master plan is set for success of failure.

Most recently, the Trail Blazers hired a new head coach to one of the more unorthodox contracts in NBA history. Portland brought Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori in to fill the position on a three-year contract, where the second and third seasons are team options. Essentially, Nori only has one guaranteed campaign in Portland, which drew the ire of Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

“He shouldn’t have to be in that position to make a decision like that because of all the work that coaches before us have put in,” Bickerstaff said. “(You’re) trying to set a precedent that devalues the job of what coaches have done to help grow the NBA and these teams into billion-dollar businesses. (That’s) a serious concern for us as coaches.”

Bickerstaff continued, “Support matters. The type of leadership that you work under as a coach matters. If you have a disagreement with a player, or you want them to play a specific role, and you’re battling the idea that the people above you don’t necessarily have your back, that makes your job extremely difficult.”

In his introductory press conference, Nori appeared to take the high road despite the frustration some of his coaching brethren expressed about the contract he received.

“The way I look at this is, opportunity, he said. “For 28 years, the first 25 years I never had an agent. I never look at money or years. I know that if I’m successful, the rest of these things will take care of themselves.”

Micah Nori: “As a first-time head coach, you very rarely get an opportunity to coach a team that’s been in the playoffs. Usually, you’re taking over a bad situation.”

— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 25, 2026

Nori also wants to put the topic on the backburner and focus on basketball.

“To me, it’s done, it’s finished,” Nori said. “This is one of these things, you can have eight million people watching this press conference; you can have 100,000. Next week, nobody’s really going to care about this press conference. What they will care about is what we do.”

Nori’s contract is, in the eyes of some, the latest example of Dundon’s preference to save money rather than take care of the franchise he just purchased.

During Portland’s first round playoff series, the franchise did not give out free T-shirts to fans who attended the Trail Blazers’ home games.

Additionally, the Trail Blazers also laid off a “large” number of business-side employees this spring, which Dundon pushed as a necessary cost cutting measure.

Dundon, who also owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, expressed a need to get the Trail Blazers’ finances in line.

“The Hurricanes, since I bought the team, have the first- or second-best record in the league,” Dundon said on the Game Over podcast. “So I’m just not going to waste $100 million just because somebody wants to write an article calling me cheap. I’m just not going to do it.”

Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon wants taxpayers to pay the entire $600 million bill for the team’s arena renovations.

“It feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates,” the billionaire said this week in Portland.

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) June 25, 2026

Dundon is also in the public eye for stating that he won’t contribute to arena upgrades, and that funding should exclusively come from taxpayers.