Twitter is such an equalizing force. How else can the billionaire owner of a struggling NBA franchise make his feelings known about the sports columnist for the local newspaper?
That’s the situation right now between Paul Allen, the Portland Trailblazers owner (and Microsoft co-founder), and Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano. Following a column this week in which Canzano called on Allen to raise his game as the team’s owner, Allen posted the photo montage above to his website, comparing the columnist to a Dumbo Octopus (possibly shot from Allen’s submarine?).
It’s titled, “The Four Stages of reading a John Canzano column about the Portland Trail Blazers,” with these captions …
- Stage 1: Uh oh, another Canzano column!
- Stage 2: Wow, even more bombastic and grandiose than usual!
- Stage 3: He’s frolicking again with unnamed sources and their murky agendas.
- Stage 4: Movin’ on … (Does his editor even bother to read these?)
Then Allen tweeted a link to the page to his 41,000 followers, and it has gone viral.
I don’t follow the Blazers, but it’s clear that this is not the first spat between Allen and Conzano. It’s just that now Allen has a quick forum for making his feelings known, albeit in an offbeat way.
Conzano addresses the issue in his column today — writing that he and Allen will “need couples counseling if we’re ever to communicate.”
Via Yahoo Sports. Thanks to Isaac Alexander for the tip.
