The list of grievances against new Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon appears to be growing.
Legendary sportscaster Neil Everett lost his job with the Blazers earlier this month. Everett had been working as a television studio host for the Blazers since 2021.
In an interview this week with Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Everett revealed that the Blazers did not even inform him through call or through email that he had been let go. Instead, Everett says that he discovered the news online.
“I read about it in Forbes,” said Everett. “You kind of felt it was coming, like a storm. But I read about it in Forbes.”
Everett is a well-known name in sports media who worked at ESPN from 2000-23, most notably serving as a familiar anchor on “SportsCenter.” His duties for the Blazers over the last five seasons were providing pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage for the team, including during road games.
But Dundon, who took over official ownership of the Blazers earlier this year, also just let go a number of other team broadcasters, including host Jamie Hudson, analyst Michael Holton, and play-by-play commentators Travis Demers (radio) and Kevin Calabro (TV). That continues a troubling trend of Dundon making dramatic and often times callous cuts to the team’s budget over the last several months, including dozens of other layoffs.
