Wouldn’t he have climbed on the T Wolves GM ladder given the chance?

It smells wrong.

All these C-level types are always allowed to “resign” for “personal reasons” so they can have “more time to spend with their families.” Especially when your contract or employment terms gives you a golden parachute for nice soft landing and extended vacation before looking for a new job.

Now clearly, we know that PA is a passionate dude, and per the Darius Miles letter from last year, that he is willing to rattle sabers over issues of principle, even though it’s not the best move on a tactical basis. So TP didn’t necessarily do anything felonious, but he clearly crossed a big enough line with ownership that he was not given the opportunity to exit gracefully.

probably got a new job, team found out about it and fired him on the spot.

Sophia

Anybody see the connection between the recent trade and the reports of the Clips being interested in Penn for the GM? Sounds like something is up Donald Sterling’s sleeve…

on Oregonlive with quotes from Tom

KP,
I’ve been a lazy slacker in many jobs, but for you I’ll work like hell 24/7.

Philosophical differences, hmm:

Portland Trail Blazers Team President Larry Miller announced today that Tom Penn has been relieved of his duties as Vice President of Basketball Operations, effective immediately.

Miller cited philosophical differences as the reason for the dismissal of Penn, who joined the Trail Blazers as assistant general manager in 2007.

“We felt it was in the organization’s best interest to move in a different direction at this time,” Miller said. “This was not an easy decision, as Tom has played an integral role for us the past three seasons. We thank him for his contributions and wish him the best in the future.”

Found via Twitter

This is actually a collaboration between the famously evil ownership of the Clippers and the infamously evil ownership of the Grizzlies. Thanks to Tom Penn, The PTB got a black eye from the whole Darius Miles fiasco without any kind of cap relief whatsoever. Thanks to Tom, the Grizzlies now have the all-star version of Zach Randolph willing to share the ball and play D. Thanks to Tom, the Clippers got Blake and Outlaw and will get Camby back during the summer. Thanks to Tom, we decided on Oden over Durant.

Wait you ask, where does Oden come into this? By secretly sabotaging Oden all through his rookie deal, he hopes that we will let Oden go when his time is up, allowing Greg to rejoin his old friend Mike Conley Jr in Memphis. At that point, Oden will finally show his true potential, giving Memphis the strongest frontcourt in the league with Z-bo, Gasol, and Oden, who, along with their other assets, will become the dynasty we hoped we’d become.

Now you may be asking at this point, what do the Clippers get out of this besides Blake and Outlaw? Well think about it… who really liked having Blake as his mate in the backcourt? Whose best friend is Travis Outlaw? Had Tom stayed with the organization, there’s no doubt that Phase III would be in full effect, where Tom gradually poisons the front office relationship with Brandon Roy. Demoralized, lonely, and seeing the team’s lack of potential without a quality Center, Brandon demands to be traded. The Clippers, not having had enough ammo to fight other below-cap teams in free-agent-palooza, kept their powder dry for just this moment. Rather than pay tons of luxury tax for an imploded team, we do a “lopsided trade” with the Clippers. They get Roy, we get Blake Griffin’s sole remaining kneecap.

The dismantling of the Portland Trail Blazers is finally complete. The Grizzlies/Clippers ownership cackles maniacally like twin Emperor Palpatines while Penn stands there silently in full Darth Vader mode.

Kudos to PA for finally unraveling the schemes against us and firing Penn before we lost Brandon. Hopefully Camby was just a pawn in this deal and not a willing participant. We might be able to keep him.

Pull our heads together and play the draft/ salary cap game for the Blazers and save a bundle of money