Paul Allen and the Camby trade

When Kevin Pritchard was fired hours before the NBA Draft last year, it signaled more than just a change at the top of the Trail Blazers' basketball operations staff.

It marked a decisive change in the way owner Paul Allen would run his professional basketball team in the future.

According to Allen's spokesperson, David Postman, the Blazers owner learned a lesson after his messy and public divorce from Pritchard: He waited too long to take decisive action.

At 1 a.m. on a mid-February morning in 2010, Allen was in a long phone conversation with his top two executives – Miller and Pritchard – peppering them with questions regarding a veteran center in Los Angeles named Marcus Camby.

By now, Miller and Pritchard knew the drill with Allen, so they had come to the conference call prepared. Armed with statistics, projections, comparisons and contract details, the two fed Allen's insatiable thirst for knowledge.

People who have worked for Allen say he is one of the more astute and well-schooled owners when it comes to evaluating basketball talent, and he liked Camby. But to get him, the Los Angeles Clippers wanted Allen to part ways with reliable point guard Steve Blake and high-flying Travis Outlaw, two pieces of the Blazers core that helped his franchise get back on track after a dreadful three-year stretch of losing.

So Allen asked more questions. He processed the answers, then asked more.

The Clippers were anxious to lower their upcoming payroll, and had already agreed to the deal. They awaited word from Portland.

"We were talking it through," Miller recalls. "And Paul said, 'You guys think this is the right thing to do?' And Kevin said 'Yes.' And I said 'Yes.' "

All they needed was approval from Allen.

"I still remember it," Miller said. "Paul said, 'Well ... all right. I'm not sure I agree, but if you guys think this is the right thing to do, then go ahead and do it."'

The trade was made, and despite Allen's initial reluctance, it proved to be a masterful move by the Blazers.

Today, a mere 15 months later, the Camby trade paints an image of Allen -- thorough, calculating, and deferring to his front office executives -– that appears to contradict his volatile and unpredictable actions in the past year.