Some front office executives believe the Blazers are doing due diligence on Donnie Nelson as a candidate for their general manager vacancy.

Nelson is a longtime executive with the Mavericks.

There is no concrete evidence to suggest the Blazers have asked Dallas for permission to interview Nelson.

The Blazers are reportedly interested in interviewing Geoff Petrie and Kevin O'Connor for their general manager vacancy.

But neither the Kings or Jazz have received calls for permission to talk to either executive.

The Blazers and the NBA set conditions for the Oregonian before issuing disputed reports concerning the behavior and mindset of owner Paul Allen, according to Mike Tokito.

If those conditions weren't met, they threatened to take their denials to another publication.

The story was written by Allan Brettman, a business reporter, and not Jason Quick, Joe Freeman Tokito or John Canzano, the four writers who most frequently cover the franchise.

Adam Silver, deputy commissioner of the NBA, asserted that Allen did not deliver a message to the NBPA that led to a breakdown of talks on Thursday.

Paul Allen emerged as a key participant NBA's labor negotiations this week, appearing as a hard-line owner against the players.

Throughout his time as the owner of the Blazers, Allen developed a strong reputation as one of the NBA's biggest spenders. The Blazers have consistently been amongst the teams with the highest payrolls and he also invested in purchasing draft picks from other teams at a price of as much as $3 million apiece.

In the 10-11 NBA season, the Blazers were one of four teams to be over the luxury tax threshold.

Many were surprised to see Allen reverse course on the economics of the NBA, but he made comments in April of this year to the Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley that foreshadowed his current position.

"Sometimes they appreciate in value, but it depends on the market you are operating in," said Allen of professional sports franchises. 

"Everybody wants to compete, so everybody wants to open your wallet, as an owner, to be competitive because nobody wants to sit there (for) 82 games a year and watch your team have a losing record," said Allen. "It is just hard to make the numbers add up if you're in a smaller market."

The owners have been seeking a more punitive luxury tax in their negotiations with players and that was something Allen went on record of being in support of during this April conversation.

"Sometimes if you don't have the right salary cap and things, you can spend so much more than you'll get back in revenue, so you have to have those constraints because every owner wants to compete."

Blazers president Larry Miller denied reports that owner Paul Allen was positioning for a sale of the franchise.

"Absolutely the team is not for sale," Miller said from New York, where he has been attending bargaining sessions as the team's representative on the league's labor relations committee. 

"Paul is just as committed to the team as he was when he purchased the team 23 years ago," Miller said. 

Paul Allen declared himself a hard-liner in the owners' negotiations with the players in a stunning turn of events on Thursday.

“He’s gone the other way, the complete other way,” a high-ranking league official told Yahoo! Sports. “He’s been the most vociferous lately that [the owners] have given up too much to the players, that they should be holding out for a hard cap, for 40 percent to the players [on the revenue split]. No one has gone after the labor committee harder about this than him.”

Some suspect that Allen's motives are in saving as much money as possible with this CBA in order to ready the Blazers for a sale.

“He’s sort of turned into this era’s Howard Hughes,” said one NBA front office executive.

Allen has a history of disengaging people and things once he loses interest, and that appears to be happening now.

“The worst thing for the Blazers are not the injuries, but Paul losing interest,” said a league official connected to the organization. “And once he loses interest in anything, he doesn’t want to deal with it anymore. He can’t win anymore, so he’s going to literally take his ball and go home.”

Union attorney Jeffrey Kessler said Blazers' owner Paul Allen, a newcomer to the talks, came to the mediation session on Thursday to represent the hard-line stance of the board of governors.

“Something happened in that board of governors meeting,” Kessler said. “Yesterday we thought we were moving toward a deal. Suddenly, today, they spend very little time negotiating. As soon as we got in there and presented our offer and without caucusing, they said, ‘We don’t have to do anything else. We can tell you right now we’re at 50 percent, and it has to be our way.’

“We adjourned, we came back with the players. They said, ‘We will not agree to anything else unless you agree to 50 percent. I couldn’t believe it.

“They were carrying out a mandate they were given. This is a sad day for fans, because someone in that board of governors was sent to blow us off, blow the fans off.”

Billy Hunter cited the Lakers, Knicks, Heat and Mavericks as owners who are willing to reach an agreement with the players.

Adam Silver and San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, who heads the league’s labor relations committee, tried to characterize the players as having walked away from the talks because the owners weren’t willing to budget from the 50-50 proposal. Said Fisher: “You guys were lied to.”

The Blazers have decided against hiring any of the candidates already interviewed by the club over the past few weeks, says a team source.

Larry Miller, president of the Blazers, began calling those former candidates on Thursday.

The Blazers will create a new list of candidates, focusing on people with extensive general manager experience.

"I don't want to get into specific details, but what I will say is that we are expanding our search," Miller said. "We're going to expand our candidate pool." 

Jeff Bower and Ed Stefanski will be among the targets.

"We're not the only team that's taking the time to find the right GM candidate," Miller said. "Other teams are going through a similar process; taking just as long as we are. Toronto and New York are going through this, too. It takes time. My hope is that we find the right person and I don't have to go through this again anytime soon." 

The Blazers are finalizing the contract to promote Larry Greer to assistant coach to replace the departed Bill Bayno, says a team source.

The source says the deal is 99 percent complete and is expected to become official within the next few days.

Marijuana possession charges against Marcus Camby have been dropped.

Camby and Kendal Johnson were arrested last month after police discovered a small amount of marijuana in Camby's car during a traffic stop in Texas.

After weighing evidence, and accepting a guilty plea from Johnson, Camby has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

“For the record, Marcus Camby did not get charged with a crime and Marcus Camby did not possess any marijuana,” Randall Novak, Camby’s Houston-based attorney, said.  

Johnson, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a Class B Misdemeanor possession charge and paid a $1,500 fine.