That's what Ben Golliver of CBS Sports (and Blazers Edge) proposes after yesterday's stalling of talks. He is brutally candid in the takedown of the owner he covers.
Why, you might be asking, would the owners pick Allen, of all people, to deliver the hard-line message to the union that ultimately led to the disintegration of talks and all sorts of harsh accusations on Thursday?
Because he's so rich that he's immune to the criticism, as capable of buying silence and peace of mind for himself as anyone on the planet. A man who has been cleanly divorced from the common man for decades. A man who claims to have lost a billion dollars on the Blazers in his two decades of ownership and therefore couldn't care less about the fallout that results from a nuclear explosion in the middle of labor talks.
It does seem like a very harsh assessment of Allen. He has kept the Blazers in Portland all these years. You can say a lot about Allen taking a hardline stance in these negotiations, but his commitment to the city of Portland has to be considered admirable--there are lots of small market owners who would love to be in the big lights, and that Allen would keep the team in the Pacific Northwest after the brutal departure of the Sonics is a quality to be admired.
Still, Golliver is going after him for a reason. Allen seems ready to lose a season over this, a season which could end up hurting the Blazers anyway. And his ownership style the past few seasons has been rather questionable. Not good times to be an NBA fan, or an Allen fan either.
(For Seahawks fans, there is a snippet of Allen being a control freak and passing time on Twitter with Pete Carroll choosing the Thursday morning practice song. Yesterday it was Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World).