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Nike co-founder Phil Knight says he’s no longer interested in buying the Portland Trail Blazers

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Nike co-founder Phil Knight said Wednesday he is not interested in buying the Portland Trail Blazers, which is up for sale.

Paul Allen’s estate said Tuesday it has begun the process of finding a new owner for the team. Allen, the billionaire cofounder of Microsoft who died in 2018, stipulated the eventual sale of his sports properties in his will.

There was speculation Knight, the chairman emeritus of Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc., might step in to buy the Blazers because he had expressed interest a few years back.

“Five years ago, when I was a younger man, I had a great interest in being a part of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise. However, at my current age, I can confirm that I no longer have interest in acquiring the team,” Knight said in a statement via Nike.

Allen owned the Trail Blazers, the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and a stake in Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders before his death at age 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since then, his sister, Jody Allen, has served as chair of the Blazers and the Seahawks and trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust.

Allen’s estate said in its announcement that the sale of the Blazers is consistent with Allen’s “directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all estate proceeds to philanthropy.” Neither the Seahawks nor the Sounders are currently for sale.

Jody Allen reportedly rebuffed Knight’s offer to buy the Blazers for more than $2 billion in 2022. At that time, there were no ongoing discussions about the sale of the teams, she said in a rare statement.

“A time will come when that changes given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down,” she said. “There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.”

The estate has hired the New York investment firm Allen & Company and the law firm Hogan Lovells to lead the sales process, which is expected to continue into the next NBA season.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday wrote NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, urging the NBA to make sure the Blazers stay in Portland, where the team has been since 1970.

He noted the team’s NBA championship in 1977, and the “Blazermania” that captured the city and made heroes out of players including Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas.

CNBC earlier this year valued the Trail Blazers at $3.65 billion. In March, the Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion.

The Trail Blazers finished 36-46 this season and missed out on the playoffs for the fourth straight year. They have the 11th pick in the next month’s NBA draft.

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FIFA Club World Cup: Bayern Munich edges Boca Juniors, advances to knockouts

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Michael Olise’s 84th-minute goal was enough to give Bayern Munich a 2-1 win over Boca Juniors on Friday in Miami Gardens as the reigning German champion clinched a spot in the knockout phase of the Club World Cup.

After a scramble in the penalty area, Harry Kane sent the ball back to Olise, who blasted a shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

Boca had leveled the match in the 66th minute on a goal from Miguel Merentiel after Kane gave Bayern a first-half lead.

Bayern (2-0-0, 6 points) faced a much stiffer test than in its Group C opener, a 10-0 rout of semi-pro Auckland City (0-2-0, 0 points).

READ: FIFA Club World Cup: Benfica cruises past Auckland in weather-delayed encounter

Boca Juniors (0-1-1, 1 point) still have a chance to advance, but it would need to rout Auckland City on Tuesday in Nashville and have Benfica (1-0-1, 4 points) lose to Bayern the same day in Charlotte.

For Boca’s tying goal, Alan Velasco delivered a pass from midfield into space for Merentiel to chase. Merentiel beat Bayern defender Jonathan Tah to the ball, then rounded defender Josip Stanisic before firing a 12-yard, right-footed shot over the head of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and into the net.

Bayern also produced an impressive goal. Konrad Laimer fired an entry pass to the center of the Boca penalty area. Kingsley Coman knocked the ball back to Kane, who took a heavy touch but still reached the ball in time to fire in a 12-yard shot with his left foot.

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Neeraj Chopra beats Julian Weber with 88.16m throw, wins Paris Diamond League for first major title of 2025 – Watch

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Jun 21, 2025 06:51 AM IST

Neeraj Chopra defeated Julian Weber to clinch the Paris Diamond League title, on Friday.

Neeraj Chopra was in fine form in Paris on Friday, as he bagged his first Diamond League title in two years, upstaging Germany’s Julian Weber. The Indian javelin superstar’s first throw of 88.16m saw him win the title. Meanwhile, his second throw saw him reach 85.10m and then he fouled in his next three tries. Then in his sixth and final throw, he registered 82.89m.

Neeraj Chopra bagged first position in Paris.(Twitter)
Neeraj Chopra bagged first position in Paris.(Twitter)

Weber came second with his opening throw of 87.88m, followed by Brazil’s Luiz Mauricio Da Silva, who got 86.62m in his second attempt.

Here is the full video of Chopra’s first throw in Paris:

Chopra had breached the 90m mark in the Doha Diamond League recently, with a throw of 90.23m, but had to settle for second place. In Doha, Weber won gold, with his last round throw of 91.06m.

Weber also beat Chopra at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Poland, where overcast and windy conditions saw the German get 86.12m. Meanwhile, Chopra came second with a 84.14m throw.

Chopra won his last Diamond League titlei n Lausanne in June 2023, with a throw of 87.66m. Since then, he has bagged second position in six Diamond League meetings.

The Paris Diamond League event saw Arshad Nadeem once again missing from action, as he didn’t participate in the meet.

Here’s how the final standings looked like in Paris-

  1. Neeraj Chopra: 88.16m
  2. Julian Weber: 87.88m
  3. Luiz Mauricio da Silva: 86.62m
  4. Keshorn Walcott: 81.66m
  5. Anderson Peters: 80.29m
  6. Julius Yego: 80.26m
  7. Andrian Mardare:76.66m
  8. Remi Rougetet: 70.37m

Neeraj was also competing at the Paris Diamond League after eight long years, having come eighth in 2017 with a best throw of 84.67m. The Paris leg was the eighth of the 15 meetings that make up the Diamond League 2025 season, with a two-day final in Zurich in August.

Stay updated with the latest sports news, including latest headlines and updates from the Olympics 2024, where Indian athletes will compete for glory in Paris. Catch all the action from tennis Grand Slam tournaments, follow your favourite football teams and players with the latest match results, and get the latest on international hockey tournaments and series.

Stay updated with the latest sports news, including latest headlines and updates from the Olympics 2024, where Indian athletes will compete for glory in Paris. Catch all the action from tennis Grand Slam tournaments, follow your favourite football teams and players with the latest match results, and get the latest on international hockey tournaments and series.

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FIFA Club World Cup: Benfica cruises past Auckland in weather-delayed encounter

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Leandro Barreiro scored in the 76th and 78th minutes as Benfica pulled away to a 6-0 victory over semi-pro side Auckland City in a Group C encounter Friday, one plagued by a lengthy halftime weather delay.

Angel Di María converted twice from the penalty spot for his second and third goals of the tournament, once in stoppage time of each half. Vangelis Pavlidis and Renato Sanches added goals early in the second half after play finally restarted.

The Portuguese victors pressured until the end, knowing goal differential could determine who advances to the FIFA Club World Cup knockout phase, and Di María earned a second penalty shot with one final slaloming run into the box.

Benfica will close Group C against Bayern Munich, which defeated Auckland 10-0 in their opener. Officially eliminated, Auckland will play Boca Juniors on Matchday 3 on Tuesday.

Boca and Benfica drew 2-2 on Monday.

After Auckland’s Nathan Garrow made seven first-half stops, Di Maria finally put Benfica in front in the eighth minute of first-half stoppage time.

Gianluca Prestianni won the opportunity, slicing into the right corner of the box and weathering Haris Zeb’s late sliding challenge.

ALSO READ: Flamengo fights back to stun Chelsea 3-1 and stay top of Group D

Di Maria calmly converted, allowing Garrow to guess in the wrong direction before dispatching his side-footed effort.

That eased some growing frustration from the Portuguese favourites after a succession of missed chances and 18 total first-half shot attempts.

Amid that stretch, Alvaro Carreras picked up his second caution of the tournament, meaning he’ll be suspended for Benfica’s third match against River Plate on Tuesday.

Auckland began the second half energetically after the match was delayed approximately two hours and nine minutes due to inclement weather.

But Benfica doubled its advantage in the 53rd minute through Pavlidis, who received Orkun Kokcu’s pass inside the penalty area with his back to the goal, turned, neatly evaded a lunging challenge and finished low to the left post.

In the 63rd minute, substitute Sanches made it 3-0 only moments after his second-half introduction. His shot from beyond the area took a heavy deflection off Auckland’s Matthew Ellis on its way into the bottom right corner.

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