But I find this situation a little bit ironic:

A week ago, when all you could do was talk to free agents, suitors were lined up at the door at midnight. Mark Cuban flew into New York to speak with Jason Kidd, the Trail Blazers had Hedo Turkoglu’s agent on the phone, there was all sorts of activity — just a few seconds after the talking period began.

But now, when you can actually get somebody’s name on the dotted line, there’s no rush. I expected to wake up this morning and read about four or five players who had already signed. But no, apparently no hurry today.

If I had an agreement with someone, I think I’d be out there pretty fast getting his name signed to it. People can change their mind, you know. Nothing’s binding until you get it inked, which I guess Trail Blazer fans already understand.

Which kind of reminds me that Brian Wheeler said on his radio show yesterday that Turkoglu’s commitment to the Trail Blazers last week was so strong that he’d already selected his uniform number (I think he said it was going to be 26, but I must admit that for me uniform numbers are so insignificant, I couldn’t be 100 percent certain).

I believe there are still some people in the Trail Blazer front office who are very upset with Hedo Turkoglu.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Kidd, Mark Cuban, Portland Trail Blazers

Sports Illustrated names its top five NBA owners and the Trail Blazer guy isn’t mentioned. All I can think of is that perhaps the whole arena bankruptcy issue played a part in that — although I’d more likely treat it as another sign that he’s so low-profile that nobody remembers him.

I mean, none of the people on the list do more for their players than Paul Allen. Or have been willing to lose as much money in pursuit of a championship — which, to me, is the No. 1 quality of a great owner. Mark Cuban and Les Alexander? Puh-lease. No. 1 is Jerry Buss, the owner of the Lakers. Come on, he owns the Lakers. Anyone could succeed with that franchise.

One thing, though — I can assure you that Paul’s not losing any sleep over it. The last thing that guy seems to want is attention.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Les Alexander, Mark Cuban, NBA owners, Paul Allen, Sports Illustrated

That thought popped into my head this morning as I read Dallas owner Mark Cuban’s apology to the mother of Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin, which appeared on Twitter and Cuban’s blog.

Cuban, to a lot of fans, is the perfect owner. He’s a self-made billionaire and a sort of regular guy. Imperfect like us all, a fan first and an owner second. I mean, for a lot of people, if they owned a team they’d want to be just like Cuban — sit on the bench with the team, travel with it, just sort of be one of the guys.

His players seem to love him — and they ought to because he spoils them to death. He’s taken the Mavericks up a notch in Dallas and he obviously seems willing to do anything to win. Perfect owner, right?

Well, I’m not so sure his fellow owners and the league office believe that. They see him as a royal pain in the ass, complaining about stuff all the time, screaming at referees and even at players on other teams. To them, he’s an uncouth embarrassment, a very loud, undignified example of what an owner of a professional sports team ought to be. And from what I’ve heard, they rue the day they allowed him into their private club.

On the other hand, we have Paul Allen. He also wants to win and is perfectly willing to put his money where his heart is. Truth be told, the man has lost hundreds of millions of dollars on his Trail Blazers, all in search of an NBA championship.

But he’s quiet. He doesn’t often bother with owners meetings and has never gotten into the social part of being an owner in the NBA. You’ll see him on the baseline, under the basket, munching on some popcorn, cheering, chatting with his general manager. But this is never going to be the guy who is caught screaming at a player on another team — or that player’s mother. I’ve never seen him where he didn’t seem to be totally under control.

Paul’s deal isn’t hanging out with the team, although in the early days of his ownership, there were some H-O-R-S-E games with Clyde Drexler and Kiki Vandeweghe. Allen likes the player personnel side of it all. He’s heavily involved in the draft and in trades. He’s got his own opinions, and as the owner of the team, expresses them. Probably quietly, I’m guessing. But when you own the joint, you don’t need to speak loudly. People listen.

As long as you aren’t in his crosshairs, Cuban is hard to dislike. He’s a character. He’s different. The Mavericks almost seem to be named after their owner and I kind of wish there were more like him. I like Allen, too. In fact, my only regret is never having a chance to get to know him better. I think we’d have some very interesting conversations. 

I’m happy they’re both in the league. Balance is nice. And really, I have to tell you it would be kind of fun to have at least one goofy guy around here to keep things lively.

I could just picture Cuban, as the owner of the Blazers, on the floor going crazy when Trevor Ariza took out Rudy Fernandez. . .

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Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Dwight Jaynes, Kenyon Martin, Mark Cuban, NBA, Paul Allen, Portland Trail Blazers