Whitsitt Increases His Scope Backed By Trail Blazers Owner, Confident Exec Runs An Empire

He works at the right hand of Paul Allen, the wealthiest owner in pro sports, rebuilding Allen’s beloved Trail Blazers, overseeing the tentative purchase of the Seattle Seahawks and considering a foray into the NHL.

As the unquestioned head of Allen’s sports empire, Bob Whitsitt is a portrait of unshaken self-confidence. When a player or agent calls him a liar, as Clifford Robinson’s agent Brad Marshall did this summer, Whitsitt says he shrugs it off as part of the business.

“We don’t lie. It’s that simple,” Whitsitt said.

Marshall, Whitsitt said, “is a guy who’s not real professional and doesn’t have that many clients. I’ve done hundreds of deals. When you’re doing deals with some of the most powerful agents in the league and there’s not a squeak, you’re doing OK.”

Whitsitt was general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics for eight years before leaving in a bitter spat with owner Barry Ackerley two years ago. Allen, who lives in suburban Seattle, had known and admired Whitsitt and quickly hired him to run the Blazers.

Since then, Whitsitt’s responsibilities have grown to the point where he runs the Blazers business and basketball operations as president. When Allen decided he would buy the Seahawks to keep them in Seattle, if a new stadium is built, he told Whitsitt to oversee the football venture, too.

“If Paul asks me to do something, I’ll do it,” Whitsitt said. “I’ll give him all the hours I have in the day. And the good thing is, I know that he’ll always make sure that improving the basketball team is my number one priority because that’s what I want my priority to be and that’s what he wants it to be.”

The Blazers are Allen’s passion, Whitsitt said, and when a man with $7.5 billion wants a winning team, he’d better get one.

But when Whitsitt came to Portland, he inherited a team headed downhill after making it to the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992. The roster had several players with balloon contracts, making it almost impossible to trade them. He also inherited a coach, P.J. Carlesimo, whom Allen had hired shortly before Whitsitt joined the Blazers.

“If I didn’t feel good about P.J., I would not have taken this job,” Whitsitt said. “I had choices. I didn’t have to take the job. I looked at all factors. The ship was going down. Most guys want to take the job when the ship’s rising. That’s the smart way to do it. But the tough ones are when it’s going down, to regroup and get moving again.”

Whitsitt didn’t get moving for awhile, and Blazers fans wondered why the man who had earned the nickname “Trader Bob” while building the SuperSonics into a contender wasn’t doing any trading in Portland.

The first big trade wasn’t done by choice. Clyde Drexler demanded to be traded, and Whitsitt sent him to Houston. Even though Drexler was traded to his hometown and went on to win a championship with the Rockets, he was clearly bitter toward Whitsitt.

As the Rockets moved toward the title, Drexler would make it clear that he was not unhappy with Carlesimo. “It was the other guy,” he said, referring to Whitsitt.

Whitsitt insists he doesn’t know what he did to upset Drexler so much. Drexler didn’t like that Allen had fired coach Rick Adelman or that the previous general manager, Geoff Petrie, had resigned. But all that was done before Whitsitt arrived.

“I fired the old team doctor who was his business partner,” Whitsitt said. “That may have been it.”

Whitsitt’s first major move came a year ago, when the Blazers found room under their tight salary cap to sign Arvydas Sabonis, who went on to finish second in the rookie of the year and best sixth man voting.

Whitsitt let loose this summer.

He went after three former high draft picks who had struggled for varying reasons. He signed free agent Kenny Anderson to replace disgruntled point guard Rod Strickland, then traded for Isiah Rider and Rasheed Wallace.

Anderson has been an all-star but had not lived up to expectations. Rider had criminal problems and a bad reputation off the court. Wallace was hot-tempered and inconsistent, but had played well at times as a rookie last season.

“It was a great opportunity for us to get those kinds of guys,” Whitsitt said.