Blazers' Situation Should Make Rockets Fans Appreciate Tilman Fertitta

It's been a long road for Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, on the likability and popularity side, in the eyes of the masses. More specifically, in the eyes of Houston Rockets fans.

Fertitta purchased the Rockets from former owner Les Alexander in September of 2017 for $2.2 billion -- an NBA record, at the time. Fertitta had long been interested in acquiring the Rockets but had finally been granted the opportunity. 

At the time, the Rockets were in win-now mode. They had a good thing going. 

They were coming off a 55-27 season that saw them reach the Western Conference Semifinals. They'd followed that up with the Chris Paul trade, and went 65-17 after making the trade (less than one year after the purchase by Fertitta).

Fertitta's unwillingness to pay the luxury tax sparked the "frugal" moniker, by fans. To many, when you're that close to contention, you have to spend the necessary amount of money to capitalize on that window and maximize the opportunity. 

The Rockets actually made cost-cutting moves at the trade deadline to duck the tax (multiple times). And Fertitta was at the forefront of Houston’s botched contract negotiations with Mike D'Antoni, who Houston had been trying to keep beyond the 2019-20 season, which is when his contract expired.

Fast forward five years and the Rockets were taxpayers and head coach Ime Udoka is making $11 million per year -- a franchise record and one of the highest numbers around the league. And Fertitta has rose in popularity, to many, due to a $300 million deal to bring the beloved-but-defunct Houston Comets back to Clutch City, by way of the Connecticut Sun.

The frugal moniker is a thing of the past, and was never really a thing. Especially in comparison to Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon. 

It's known that Dundon is targeting an annual number of just one million for Portland's next coach -- a number that most college coaches earn an excess of. And this is for a Western Conference postseason team.

Most assistant coaches make much more than that. Even D'Antoni was offered five million by Fertitta, during their failed contract negotiations. Their hang-up was the number of years.

Former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, now an assistant with the LA Clippers, makes three million annually and he had an 18-year break away from coaching, following a two-decade stint as a broadcaster on ESPN.  Which will be interesting to follow, as he's viewed as a finalist for the job.

The Blazers owner also orchestrated a mass team-wide company layoff that terminated 70 employees, including Rockets legend Clyde Drexler, who called out the Blazers owner for being cheap. 

Dundon also refused to pay the late checkout fees for the Blazers staff, following their play-in game against the Phoenix Suns. In addition, he refused to allow Portland's two-way players to fly to road games during the Blazers' first round postseason series against the San Antonio Spurs, while also removing Blazers advanced scouts off the road in the postseason.

This seems much worse than anything from Fertitta, at any point.. And based on the outrage towards Fertitta, for much less egregious decisions (and in some cases, viable decisions), one can't even imagine how the fanbase would've responded to the Blazers owner's cost-cutting approach, if it had been implemented by Fertitta back then.