Don Ryan / AP file

Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen says he has come to terms with selling the team which has the worst record in the NBA this season and which, he says, has been costing him millions of dollars to keep afloat

updated 8:39 p.m. ET April 15, 2006

PORTLAND, Ore. - Former Trail Blazers guard Terry Porter said he is rounding up potential investors interested in buying the team and the Rose Garden.

Owner Paul Allen told The Oregonian newspaper in Los Angeles on Friday night that he has come to terms with selling the troubled team, which has the worst record in the NBA this season and which, he says, has been costing him millions of dollars to keep afloat.

He said he planned to attend Portland’s home game against Golden State on Saturday night, and “that could be my last home game as Blazers owner.

“I’ve come to terms with it.”

Allen said any decision likely would come before the June 28 draft. He deflected questions on what the asking price might be.

Porter, one of the most popular players in franchise history, played 10 years for Portland and later coached the Milwaukee Bucks for two years. They fired him at the end of last season. He also was an assistant coach for a season for the Sacramento Kings.

Porter still holds some Portland franchise records. His time with the Blazers included the 1990 and 1992 seasons, when the team got to the NBA Finals.

He said he will be in Portland soon to meet with wealthy prospects. Some of the richer Oregonians, including Nike chairman Phil Knight, already have said they want no part of it.

Porter said his group already has $100 million in debt financing lined up but would not say how much they hope to raise, or from whom. He also said he will approach other former Blazers.

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NBA commissioner David Stern has said the franchise and the Rose Garden are worth at least $300 million.

Andy Brimmer, a spokesman for Allen’s privately held investment company, Vulcan Capital, said the group is “open to any reasonable option that would fix the broken economic model.”

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