With Neil Everett and Dewayne Hankins, talking Blazer broadcasting for 2021-22
Neil Everett sports his new retro Trail Blazer gear (courtesy Neil Everett)
Summing up the Blazer broadcasting scene for the upcoming season — and there are plenty of changes …
• Neil Everett sounded like a kid in a candy store when I caught up with him via phone while he was at his vacation cottage in Seaside.
“I just found a vintage Trail Blazers jacket at an antique store in town,” Everett told me. “I don’t know what year it’s from, but it has to be 30 to 40 years old and it looks like it’s never been worn. I’m so fired up.”
Everett paid $300 for the jacket.
“I was walking by the shop and noticed there was some Sonics stuff in the window, and that intrigued me,” he said. “I asked the (employee) if he had anything Blazers. He came back with the jacket. He threw in a Blazers hat that was priced at $50 — good sales job by the dude.”
You might see Everett break out the jacket on October 25 when he works the Blazers’ road opener against the L.A. Clippers at Staples Center. The well-respected SportsCenter anchor will host the Blazers’ pre-game, halftime and post-game shows on Root TV, adding the irreverence, wit and professionalism he has brought to ESPN for more than two decades.
“I’ll be working in the Blazer broadcast studio while (the Blazers) are playing at Staples, across the street from our ESPN studio,” Everett said with a laugh.
Everett recently signed a one-year contract to work 25 road games for the Blazers, the NBA team for which he grew up rooting. The broadcaster extraordinaire lives in Mar Vista (near Venice Beach) these days, but his heart remains in Oregon. He was born in Portland (his family moved to Spokane when he was three), attended Willamette University and graduated from the U of O in 1984 with a degree in journalism.
Neil’s grandfather, Neil Morfitt Sr., was a member of Oregon’s 1920 Rose Bowl team. Both sets of grandparents were from Astoria. His parents met while students at Astoria High. To take the Oregon connection even further, Everett’s wife Stephanie is a graduate of Portland’s Madison High and the U of O.
Neil Everett flanked by (from left) wife Stephanie, father Neil Morfitt Jr. and his wife Marilyn (courtesy Neil Everett)
Everett’s father took him to his first Blazer game 45 years ago. Neil recalls watching Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas, Dave Twardzik and teammates during the 1976-77 championship season. Everett has followed his home-state team ever since.
When he heard the Blazers were looking for a studio host to replace Jordan Kent, Everett inquired. Everett, who began at ESPN in 2000, was going through renegotiation of his contract with the network. He thought it would be cool to trim back on his commitment to the global broadcasting giant to make room for some time working for his favorite NBA club.
The result was his pairing with analyst Orlando Williams for 25 Blazer road games this season while working fewer SportsCenters for ESPN — 80 to 100 over a year’s span. Craig Birnbach (formerly of KATU) and Jamie Hudson (ex-NBC Sports Northwest) will handle duties for the other road contests.
Jamie Hudson
Brooke Olzendam will be the studio host for Blazer home games while serving as sideline reporter for road games. Michael Holton will be her home-game studio analyst as well as Travis Demers’ radio analyst for road games. Play-by-play man Kevin Calabro has returned after an 18-month hiatus to pair with Lamar Hurd as the TV game broadcast duo for all games.
The winner amid all the broadcast changes is the viewer on Blazer telecasts. Regaining Calabro and adding Everett to the broadcast team was a coup.
“The timing was great,” said Dewayne Hankins, the executive vice president who oversees broadcast arrangements for the club. “Everything fell into place. It feels great to get someone of Neil’s caliber.”
Dewayne Hankins (courtesy Trail Blazers)
It’s a strange situation for Everett, who will be working only when the Blazers are away from home. He knows new coach Chauncey Billups from Billups’ time working as a studio analyst for ESPN. As it stands, though, he’ll have no interaction with Billups or the players this season.
“Hadn’t really thought about that,” Everett said after I pointed it out. “I’m just trying to fit in, not coming up with ideas of what I should be doing. I’m delighted to do whatever they need me to do. I love Portland, and it gives me a chance to visit Seaside more often.”
Everett — who turns 60 next May — isn’t sure if this will lead to a greater role with the Blazers in the years ahead.
“I’m not thinking that far ahead,” he told me. “I’m thinking about how extremely blessed I am to have this opportunity. I’ve never been one to look too far down the road. I never saw myself at ESPN for 21 years. I’m trying to square up and make solid contact, knowing how important this team is to the city and state. I want to represent adequately.”
• The other big recent broadcast news was Root Sports’ agreement reached with DirecTV. Besides cable, DirecTV has the most subscribers for television service, giving the Blazers a much more wide-ranging audience for the coming year. Root also carries the Seattle Mariners and the new NHL Seattle Kraken. If the Blazers, M’s and/or Kraken are playing at the same time, Root will provide auxiliary programming to cover all the teams.
In June, the Blazers signed with Root after many years being carried by NBC Sports Northwest (previously Comcast Sports Northwest). During that time, they were never shown on DirecTV or Dish.
“We’re caught in the middle in these situations,” Hankins said. “We wait and see what the news is going to be. We’re excited with this deal getting done. The bet with Root was we’d be stronger with three teams’ distribution than on our own. Our fans have more options than ever now, with two good streaming options in FuboTV and Direct TV Stream (the latter of which was once AT&T TV).”
Root does not have a contract with other streaming platforms such as Hulu, Sling and YouTube. And Blazer fans who are Dish subscribers are still out of luck.
“Reading the tea leaves of what they’re doing in other markets, it seems like (Dish is) going away from regional sports (RSNs),” Hankins said. “That probably will continue.”
The Blazers will more than double their audience with distribution to Alaska, Oregon and Washington. Root also extends to Idaho and Montana, but the deal with the Blazers does not include those states.
It remains to be seen if interest in the Blazers picks up in areas outside of Oregon and southwest Washington with games being shown on Root. A very small percentage of Blazer fans historically have resided in Alaska and in Washington outside of the southwest Washington area.
How many residents in Alaska, the Seattle area and eastern Washington will buy Blazer paraphernalia or even occasionally make the long drive down to attend games? How many of them will pay to add Root so they can watch the Blazers? Not many, I would guess. But the increased distribution probably helps sell advertising, and gives Root something more to sell when it presents its broadcast package for cable arrangements.
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