Things have not been easy for the Portland
Trail Blazers to start 2021-22 on the court and things got even more hectic with
a serious shakeup in their front office at the start of this weekend.
On Friday, the Trail Blazers fired General
Manager and President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey following findings
of an independent investigation that determined that he was in violation of the
team’s code of workplace conduct.
Taking over for Mr. Olshey on an interim
basis as the search for a permanent replacement according to the Trail Blazers
will be Jon Cronin, who is in his 15th season with the organization.
“Out of respect for those who candidly
participated in that privileged investigation, we will not release our discuss
it,” the Trail Blazers said in a statement. “We are confident that these
changes will help build a more positive and respectful working environment.”
The Trail Blazers, according to multiple
reports, including from “The Athletic” and “Yahoo! Sports,” last month, Trail
Blazers have begun and independent investigation through the law firm O’Melveny
& Myers into Olshey about “concerns around workplace environment by
non-player personnel at the practice facility.”
The investigation found that Olshey, 56, created
a hostile work environment, which consisted of instances of bullying and
intimidation, according to a report at that time from “Yahoo! Sports.”
Olshey, who had been in the Trail Blazers
front office since 2012 after nine seasons as the GM for the Los Angeles
Clippers added the title of President of Basketball Operations for the Trail
Blazers in 2015.
In a statement released by the Trail
Blazers when the investigation began last month, “The Portland Trail Blazers
organization was recently notified of concerns around workplace environment by
non-player personnel at the practice facility. In response, we immediately
engaged O’Melveny & Myers, an outside firm with significant expertise in
this area, to conduct a full, fair, and independent review into these concerns
and w2ill take appropriate action based on its outcome. While we cannot comment
on this pending matter, we are committed to continuing to build an organization
that positively imparts our colleagues, communities, and the world in which we
live and play.”
This move by the Trail Blazers comes on
the heels of another major turnover within their front office last month.
In the middle of November month, Trail
Blazers President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chris McGowan stepped down
after being in that position for nine years. His resignation was effective on
Nov. 26.
Taking McGowan place was the team’s Chief
Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President was Dewayne Hankins.
“It has been a pleasure serving our
passionate fans and team partners, and I wish nothing but the continued success to everyone in ‘Rip
City,’” McGowan said in a statement last month.
In the summer of 2021, the Trail Blazers
fired head coach Terry Stotts in June after the team lost in six games to the
Nuggets in the First-Round of 2021 NBA Playoffs after nine seasons, hiring 2004
Finals MVP with the Detroit Pistons Chauncey Billups, who played 17 years with
the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Pistons,
New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Clippers.
The hiring of five-time All-Star came with
questions of his experience as a coach, which consisted of just one season as
an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers a season ago over more qualified
candidates as well as concerns of sexual assault allegations against Billups 25
years ago.
Charges related to those allegations
against Billups in 1997 when he was with the Celtics never came to bear and the
case settled out of court with the woman who accused Billups in 2000.
Billups said last month that he had not
spoken to his boss about the allegations of workplace misconduct. The only
conversations that they have had are strictly related to the game.
“I mean obviously it’s unfortunate,”
Billups said about the alleged allegations made about Olshey. “An unfortunate
time. Obviously, all I know is what everybody read, what everybody else knows
from what they read about the report and the investigation. That’s all I know.
There’s nothing else that I can really say more about that.”
The Trail Blazers have gone 11-13 so far
this seasons dropping their last two games, including a 145-117 loss versus the
Celtics (13-11) on Saturday night, their second straight defeat.
While they have gone 10-3 at Moda Center
so far this season, which includes a two-game skid currently, they have gone
just 1-10 on the road.
Under Olshey, the Trail Blazers reached the NBA Playoffs for eight straight seasons, the longest active streak in “The Association.” They reached the Western Conference Finals three seasons back but suffered a four-game sweep by the Golden State Warriors in four games in their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 2000. Since then, the Trail Blazers have not advanced past the West Quarterfinals (First-Round) in four out of the last five seasons.
Less than a month following the hiring of
Olshey, the Trail Blazers drafted Damian Lillard No. 6 overall in 2012. Lillard
earned Kia Rookie of the Year for the 2012-13 seasons and has earned six
All-Star selections and six All-NBA selections in the years that have followed
behind a career average of 24.6 points per game.
Unfortunately, Lillard is on the shelf at
the moment missing the last two games because of abdominal tendinopathy, which he
sustained over the off-season helping Team USA capture Gold at the 2020 Olympics
in Tokyo.
Trail Blazers six-time All-Star Damian
Lillard, who has had a rough start to this season scoring and shooting wise and
has had to navigate speculation about his desire to remain with the team as
well as the pushback of the hiring of Billups last month when the news of the
investigation into Olshey was “news to him.”
“I came across it just like everybody else
did. But that’s all I know of it, that it’s an investigation,” Lillard added.
Trail Blazers starting center Jusuf Nurkic
echoed those same sentiments, “All I know is what everybody knows from the
statement from the team. And I have [nothing] specific to add.”
Nurkic, who the Trail Blazers acquired in
a deal with the Denver Nuggets in February 2017 and has seen his career blossom
under Olshey said when asked on characterize his relationship with Olshey, he
said that they “don’t” have a relationship.
Current Lakers’ perennial All-Star forward
and future Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony, who revived his career with the Trail
Blazers the last two seasons said back in November he had not heard about the
investigation into Olshey until he was asked about it during his postgame
presser after the loss at the Trail Blazers.
“You just broke that news to me,” Anthony,
who had 12 points in the loss at the Trail Blazers said. “I have no idea what’s
even going on with that.”
The news of the distraction did not knock
the Trail Blazers off stride in their 105-90 win versus the Los Angeles Lakers
(12-12) on Nov. 6. Lillard, who is averaging 21.5 points and 7.8 assists on the
season so far and Billups said after the game that their focus will be on
helping the team win games on the floor and let the investigation play itself
out.
“The game continues. Our jobs continue.
And that’s all we can do,” Lillard, who had 25 points and six assists on 6/14
from three-point range in the win versus the Lakers said. “That’s what we can
control is doing our job and being prepared, and me being here for 10 years now
and being a big part of this organization and this team, it’s my job to
continue to do that the way that I have. And that’s what I can control and
that’s what I’ll do.”
Billups added postgame, “You know, it’s a
distraction because there’s so much talk about it, obviously.”
“But I can honestly say when I’m in that
office and with the guys, I don’t think about that at all. Nov even for a
little bit. I’m focused on the game.”
With everything that has transpired with
the Trail Blazers these past few weeks is heading towards a significant moment
of truth with them in the summer of 2022 of whether they decide to give Lillard,
who turns 32 next July 15 a two-year, $107 million super max extension. Lillard
at ages 35 and 36 would be paid $55 million.
This puts more on an emphasis on filling
the position of GM even more important and that person deciding that if it is
the right move to continue to build around Lillard? Is the organization going
to empower the next GM to decide to keep Lillard in the fold or trade him and
receive major compensation for him.
According to ESPN’s senior NBA Insider
Adrian Wojnarowski, Lillard has wanted that super max deal. But the question is
how much of an influence will Lillard have in the search for the team’s next
leader in their front office? Will that individual oblige and sign Lillard to
that aforementioned two-year super max extension, and is that in the best interest
for the future of the Trail Blazers?
Lillard, who signed a four-year $176
million super max extension in June 2019 has said repeatedly over the summer and
at the start of this season that he does want to remain with the Trail Blazers
and end his career with the team that he began his now nine-year NBA career
with.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on Friday
night’s addition of NBA Countdown on the only thing that would “really tickle” Lillard
into leaving “Rip City” is going to the “Big Apple” to play for the New York
Knicks.
“There are people in his camp that would
like to convince him to give Philadelphia [76ers] a stronger consideration,”
Smith said. “But when he thinks about the New York Knicks, he thinks about
going to the top market in the country. Thinks about obviously marketability.
He might not be thinking about that, but his team might be thinking about that.
But Damian Lillard knows that if he were in ‘The Mecca,’ it would be far easier
for him to recruit teammates to come and want to play with him as opposed to him
being in the Pacific Northwest.”
“The New York Knicks would be his No. 1
preference. Not the Lakers. Not the Brooklyn Nets. Not the Philadelphia 76ers.”
The problem is the Knicks (11-12) do not have the kind of assets from young players and draft picks that the Trail Blazers would entertain. Also, they are one-game under .500 currently and their once starting point guard in All-Star Kemba Walker, considered a major offseason acquisition not only got replaced in the starting lineup by Alec Burks but he is not even in the head coach Tom Thibodeau’s playing rotation.
The 76ers for sure have a 25-year-old
disgruntled three-time All-Star in Ben Simmons, who is holding out right now
because he does want to play in the “City of Brotherly Love” anymore because of
how he feels he was disrespected by the front office, head coach Doc Rivers and
his teammates, specifically Joel Embiid after the loss in Game 7 of the 2021
East Semifinals versus the Eastern Conference runner-up Atlanta Hawks.
Lillard’s loyalty to the franchise that
drafted him is something to admire and respect, especially in recent years
where we have seen unhappy A-list players want out or have changed teams
because they are in pursuit of winning a title, get paid more money or just
want to be in a better situation.
Jalen Rose mentioned on “NBA Countdown” Friday
night that the Trail Blazers current situation is something that he “hates” for
Billups because he feels he has the potential to be the kind of head coach
Tyronn Lue has been for the Clippers and Monty Williams is for the defending
Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns.
“But when you lose your GM, to me, it’s time
to blow it up,” Rose said. “And it’s not because of Dame or CJ [McCollum]. It’s
because of Nurkic and the lack of help that they get. And the lack of balance
that they have as a basketball team.”
To bring home Rose’s point, the Trail Blazers
this off-season re-signed swingman Norman Powell, and signed center Cody Zeller;
acquired forward/center Larry Nance, Jr, and signed forward/guard Tony Snell
and guard Ben McLemore this summer.
Smith said that the reality is for the
Trail Blazers that they will never win a Larry O’Brien trophy with tandem of Lillard
and McCollum, which he has said to them over the years “directly, personally” to
them. That it is the time to trade one of them to bring back in a trade a bunch
of assets to play with the other that remains and you move forward from there.
“I don’t care what I think about Chauncey
Billups as a coach, and I think he’s got a lot of promise,” Smith said.
“Let me be very, very clear on national
television. The Portland Trail Blazers ain’t winning a damn thing as presently
constructed. And no one is clamoring to come to the Pacific Northwest to play
with them [Lillard and McCollum]. Which means, they ain’t winning anything
period!”
Rose added that also means, that the Trail
Blazers eventually will have to trade both Lillard and McCollum have to be dealt
in order for their high salaries off the books.
That comes back to the question, which
Michael Wilbon asked about who can and will the Trail Blazers bring in to lead
their front office to make these difficult but necessary decisions? Also, will
that next GM have that kind of authority to make those tough calls?
“That is the whole show in town,” Wilbon
said about the Trail Blazers being the only major pro sports team in Portland,
OR.
For eight straight seasons, the Portland
Trail Blazers have made the NBA Playoffs, the longest streak currently in the
NBA. In four out the past five seasons though, they have had an early exit from
the postseason going out in the opening-round.
They have been the perfect example of
being a good team that is in playoff contention every year but have not risen
to the moment except for three years ago when they reached the Western
Conference Finals for the first time since 2000, when this blogger was in his
senior year at Uniondale High School in Uniondale, NY.
With the ouster of their General Manager
and President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey and Chief Executive Officer
Chris McGowan, the Trail Blazers’ future is uncertain and how they put things
back together in their front office will determine if that future has perennial
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in the fold.
Information and statistics are courtesy of
11/6/2021 www.espn.com
story, “Source: Portland Trail Blazers President Of Basketball Operations Neil
Olshey Facing Misconduct Investigation; 11/7/2021 www.espn.com
story, “Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard ‘Focused On Leading’ Amid Neil
Olshey Investigation,” By Dave McMenamin; 11/7/2021 2 a.m. NBATV’s “Gametime,”
presented by Kia With Ro Parrish, Jim Jackson, and Channing Frye;” www.espn.com/nba/standings;
11/12/2021 www.espn.com story, “Portland
Trail Blazers President Chris McGowan Steps Down After 9 Years,” by “The Associated
Press;” 12/3/2021 www.espn.com story, “Portland Trail Blazers Fire
GM President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey,” and www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameid/401359962.
No comments:
Post a Comment