Tag: Neil Olshey

Olshey, 56, was hired by the franchise …

Olshey, 56, was hired by the franchise in 2012. Over his decade as the top basketball decision-maker, multiple employees assert to have had multiple grievances with his treatment of staff in the workplace, sources said. Furthermore, several staff members raised concerns with the organization’s “mishandling” after the death of former video coordinator Zach Cooper in April 2020, sources said.

Neil Olshey unwilling to trade Damian Lillard to Lakers

While Lillard waited for his Uber, James showed him the rest of the house and around the backyard. The Uber showed up after 20 or so minutes and whisked Lillard away. This much was clear: There was no way Trail Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey would ever trade Lillard to the Lakers. Though joining the Lakers wasn’t at the top of his list, that Lillard took the meeting with James showed how much he respected the four-time NBA champion and how much he was receptive to the idea of trying something new.

Neil Olshey: Blazers will never be receptive to trading Damian Lillard

Casey Holdahl: “We will never be receptive to moving Damian Lillard.” – Neil Olshey Source: Twitter @CHold What’s the buzz on Twitter? Jay Allen @ PDXjay Billups says Lillard is “two feet in” with the Blazers. “Dame wants exactly what we all want…to …

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Jay Allen @PDXjay
Billups says Lillard is “two feet in” with the Blazers. “Dame wants exactly what we all want…to be successful and have a chance to win.” – 2:37 PM
Sean Highkin @highkin
Chauncey Billups: “Dame and I, our relationship started far before I became a head coach. I will never share anything I talked about with a player, but I will say this: Dame is either two feet in or two feet out. And he’s two feet in.” – 2:37 PM
Jason Quick @jwquick
Neil Olshey says Damian Lillard “is fired up to be here” and that the Blazers “will never be receptive of moving Dame.” – 2:35 PM
Jason Quick @jwquick
Neil Olshey says this is the deepest Trail Blazers roster since he began building around Damian Lillard in 2015. – 2:34 PM
Sean Highkin @highkin
Chauncey Billups calls Damian Lillard “the best point guard in the league.” – 2:30 PM
Jay Allen @PDXjay
Olshey on fielding calls from teams about Lillard: “We’re never going to be receptive to moving Dame.” – 2:10 PM
Sean Highkin @highkin
Neil Olshey: “Clearly, we were never going to be receptive to moving Dame. We’re never going to be receptive to moving Dame. He’s the bedrock of this organization and he’s going to be here as long as he’s happy.” – 2:10 PM
Casey Holdahl @CHold
“We will never be receptive to moving Dame.” — Neil Olshey – 2:09 PM
Jay Allen @PDXjay
Olshey on Lillard’s commitment to the @Portland Trail Blazers: “He wants to know that winning is as important to everybody as it is to him. As he grows in his career, that urgency accelerates. When Dame is in, he’s in…when he buys in, he’s all in.” #RipCity – 2:07 PM
Jay Allen @PDXjay
Olshey says he and Lillard communicate all the time: “Dame and I get along great.” #Blazers – 2:05 PM
Sean Highkin @highkin
Neil Olshey on Damian Lillard’s offseason: “Not to be a little glib, but he got married and won a gold medal. … Dame and I get along great.” – 2:05 PM
Sean Highkin @highkin
Neil Olshey: “This is probably the best depth we’ve had since we’ve built around Dame, in terms of guys you know.” – 2:02 PM
The Jump @_Talkin_NBA
Damian Lillard on what it will take for the Trail Blazers to have a successful season
(via @Dennis Scott of NBA TV)
#NBATwitter #NBAMediaDay pic.twitter.com/qppMwYzs1D – 1:09 PM
Michael Scotto @MikeAScotto
Ja Morant told me he’s a top 5 NBA point guard with Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook.
“The point guard position is so loaded. Some guys have to get left out,” @Ja Morant said.
More from our @Jorge Sierra chat. hoopshype.com/lists/ja-moran… – 9:07 AM
Damian Lillard @Dame_Lillard
S/o @aespinal21 for letting me use his NFL Sunday ticket log in to watch my @raiders !! 3-0 #justwinbaby – 8:02 PM
Damian Lillard @Dame_Lillard
Who got Sunday ticket log in I can use ? Lol – 4:11 PM

More on this storyline

In the two months that followed their first-round playoff flop against Phoenix, when Davis’ groin injury left them pulling up lame, the Lakers explored the prospect of trading for such stars as Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook. The process unfolded well beyond the team’s front office’s search, with James setting up a war room of his own at his Brentwood estate for some in-person player meetings while leading remote communications in other conversations. -via The Athletic / September 27, 2021
The group focused first on Lillard and Beal, but with no viable path to trading for either of them, turned their attention to more realistic targets: Westbrook, DeRozan, Hield and Kyle Lowry, who would eventually pursue a deal with the Miami Heat instead. -via The Athletic / September 27, 2021
There are many who believed then and continue to insist now that Damian Lillard was about ready to ask out; a source with knowledge of the situation believes Lillard is held back by both his loyalty to Portland and an unwillingness to go back on things he’s already said about sticking things out. He ultimately decided to give this another go, and Lillard has been provided roster upgrades and had a big voice in the coaching search. He may still ask out down the road, but only time will tell how long this honeymoon lasts. -via Philly Voice / September 22, 2021

Inept press conference shows Trail Blazers didn’t care what fans think about Chauncy Billups’ controversial hiring

This was not a good look for Billups or the Trail Blazers.

The Portland Trail Blazers held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to announce the hiring of new head coach Chauncey Billups. But instead, by failing to address even the most basic of questions, they showed no desire to take responsibility or be held accountable for making a decision that has alienated members of the fanbase and threatens to tear the team apart.

Hiring Billups was always going to be controversial, due to his past. But Trail Blazers leadership couldn’t even be bothered to come up with a real plan to address serious issues, opting instead to condescendingly demand trust from the media (and public) before literally refusing to take pertinent questions. It was a fiasco.

During the introductory press conference, both Billups and Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey were asked to speak about an incident in which a woman alleged that she was raped by Billups and one of his former teammates in 1997. Billups denied the accusations at the time and criminal charges were never filed. The civil lawsuit was settled out of court in 2000. But police reports stated that a rape kit examination of the victim indicated injuries consistent with sexual assault.

The resurfaced details are deeply troubling and have been met with serious criticism from fans. As such, the organization had a responsibility to explain the decision to hire someone with an accusation of such heinous gendered violence in their past to such a high-profile position as an ambassador and leader for the Trail Blazers.

Portland superstar guard Damian Lillard has also drawn his own share of disapproval for telling The Athletic that the two coaches he liked as potential replacements for Terry Stotts were Jason Kidd and Billups.

Kidd, officially hired as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, has his own checkered past as he pled guilty to spousal abuse following an arrest in 2001. Lillard, who was born in 1990, has since tweeted that he “wasn’t aware” of the history as he was very young when it happened.

The consequences of Portland’s decision could be especially dire as, according to a recent report from USA TODAY’s Jeff Zillgitt, the hire has left Lillard feeling frustrated and defensive and the Trail Blazers “could lose” Lillard amidst the backlash caused by the decision. Lillard reportedly feels he is taking the brunt of a decision “he played no part in consummating” for the organization, per Yahoo’s Chris Haynes.

The frustration is amplified when many fans consider that Becky Hammon, who became the first woman to be considered a finalist for an NBA head coaching position and who also has several years more experience as an assistant than Billups, was passed over for the position.

With all of this in mind, even before the presser began, tensions surrounding the state of the organization were high. The Trail Blazers were afforded a chance to clear the air a bit during Billups’ introductory press conference. They needed to speak about accountability, necessary on behalf of Billups’ personal development as well as their decision to bring him in the fold.

As expected, less than one minute into the introductory press conference on Tuesday, Olshey spoke about why the team made the controversial hire. He told reporters that the organization had conducted a thorough background check on Billups as well as an independent investigation into the 1997 incident, adding that the findings corroborated Billups’ recollection of the events.

Bleacher Report’s Sean Highkin later asked Olshey for more details on the investigation that concluded the incident was consensual. The question from Highkin was fair, simply seeking more clarity on the hiring process.

Olshey, however, said the information was “proprietary” and that everyone would just have to “take our word” that the organization worked with an experienced firm to reach the results.

The answer from Olshey was discouraging for many reasons. First and foremost, sexual assault allegations are incredibly severe. Despite how horrifically prevalent this type of violence is in our society, among athletes, it is all too often either underreported or ignored entirely.

The Trail Blazers had a chance to show that they did their due diligence in taking the matters seriously by simply providing as much information as possible on why they felt Billups was deserving of the job could have calmed some nerves. Instead, they asked reporters to just blindly trust without evidence.

Perhaps fans would be more willing to believe the Trail Blazers if they had learned the team commissioned “a former FBI investigator” and re-interviewed witnesses, as The Athletic has reported. Olshey’s decision to omit such key details, however, does nothing to alleviate any such concern and only raises more questions.

Billups, meanwhile, said in his introductory statement that what happened in 1997 has impacted “every decision” that he has made since and has also shaped him in “unbelievable ways.”

He spoke only in vague terms about decision-making and his own reputation without talking about the woman and how the incident may have impacted her.

Later in Tuesday’s presser, The Athletic’s Jason Quick asked Billups to elaborate more on how he was shaped by what happened. This should have been an even easier question to answer than the one Highkin asked.

Billups appeared ready to extrapolate, but before he even had a chance, a representative from the public relations department cut him off. Quick, who is a well-respected media member and has covered the team for more than two decades, was denied the follow-up.

In the words of Mike Richman, who hosts the podcast Locked on Blazers: “From my view on the video stream Billups was prepared to answer this question. Blazers PR cut it off and moved to the next question. Both the reporter and the subject were willing to have an exchange from my view. The team wasn’t.”

This left an uneasy feeling. If the Blazers organization was willing to hire him, why were they not willing to let him answer any and all questions about this troubling situation?

Billups, who won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award as well as the NBA Sportsmanship Award and the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award during his tenure in the league, could have spoken about his own personal growth and redemption.

As noted by Eric Brandt, co-host of the YouTube channel Blazers Uprise, perhaps Billups could have spoken up and offered to answer the initial question that he was asked.

This decision, like the short answer about the investigation from Olshey, was telling. It was a clear lack of trust and transparency in a moment when the front office needed it most. How are fans of the team, some of whom are survivors of sexual violence, expected to feel other than unheard?

Billups and the Trail Blazers missed out on a chance to accept responsibility and accountability. When it comes to first impressions, this one was handled about as poorly by both Portland and Billups as it can get.

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