It would be difficult to whip up much sympathy for Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen even if he weren’t the seventh richest man it the world. Add that to the other things that have gone wrong since he bought the NBA basketball team in 1988, though, and sympathy flies out the window. Allen’s now threatening to sell the team or move it if things don’t change, and the city of Portland, Multnomah County, the state of Oregon – any government agency asked – should limit its response to a quick wave goodbye.

While Allen may not be responsible for all the team’s current problems, he must take ownership of a good share of them. True, he had no hand in the statewide economic downturn that helped drive the Rose Quarter he built and where the Blazers play into bankruptcy, though his company did sign a contract for it that the company later described as the worst in the league.

He does deserve much of the responsibility for taking what was one of the healthiest franchises in the country and ruining it. Even when they lost, the pre-Allen Blazers were adored by fans. The fans have quit clamoring. A team known now as the Jail Blazers, the members of which do such stupid things as bring guns on planes, raise fighting dogs, get caught at airports with marijuana wrapped in metal-detector-triggering tin foil (duh) and beat their wives is difficult to love. Too, it’s hard to love a bunch of losing athletes whose combined $60 million-plus payroll is the 12th highest in the league, even though they’re playing near the bottom.

The Rose Quarter bankruptcy has left Allen and the Blazers in a tough spot, to be sure. They cannot get from their home court the kinds of things other teams get – luxury suite income, food and drink concessions and the like.

They also cannot get Oregon tax dollars. Oregon doesn’t have them. Portland doesn’t have them. Neither should try to find them. If that means the Blazers must leave, let them go. And by the way, think of this team next time someone whispers the words “major league baseball” in your ear.