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When new Blazers owner Tom Dundon introduced himself to Portland at a press conference held inside Moda Center on April 2, he addressed a crowd of a couple hundred people, many of whom worked for the Trail Blazers.
Three months later, at least 75 of them are no longer employed by the team. Their ranks now include the team’s television play-by-play announcer Kevin Calabro, who declined what he described as a lowball offer to remain in the broadcast booth.
Calabro, who has called Blazer games since 2016, has been widely regarded as one of the NBA’s best going back to his days calling games for the Seattle SuperSonics during the team’s playoff runs throughout the 1990s. Calabro doesn’t plan to retire, as first reported by Joe Freeman of The Oregonian, and took a parting shot at Dundon’s organization by calling the contract offer extended to him by the team “subprime.” (Dundon was the focus of a past lawsuit filed by Oregon and multiple states alleging predatory subprime auto lending at the Texas business that made him a billionaire.)
Calabro spoke with Willamette Week at length Wednesday afternoon. He seemed somewhat relieved to be pursuing new opportunities. When asked to reflect on the day, he said, “It’s been great.”
“I tell you what, it was an incredibly long year,” said Calabro when discussing the past season, which began with Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups being arrested by federal agents the day after the team’s first game.
Calabro said that the team’s offer “just wasn’t going to be worth my time or effort or lending my name to what they were offering, in terms of the number of games and the compensation per game. And then there were no benefits attached to it at all.
“It was a really disappointing offer that was not hard at all to turn thumbs down on and realize that there was not much seriousness on the other end to get a deal done,” Calabro said, “which is fine if you want to end the relationship. Well, that’s one way to do it, I suppose.”
Calabro, who still lives in Seattle, came to the decision to step away from the Blazers while in town for a charity golf tournament held today in honor of the late Maurice Lucas, the team’s legendary power forward and member of its 1977 title team.
“I called my agent,” Calabro recalled, “and said, just inform the Blazers that I’m going to step aside and move on…My wife and I have been discussing it for quite a while.
“My agent was terrific. She doggedly pursued an extension with the Blazers, and while they listened, there really was no response from them—ever—right up until the time the contract ended on June 30th, and yet we continued to knock on the door. And then finally they did make an offer on Monday, and it just wasn’t at all what we had talked about or explored, and nothing that we had proposed.”
Blazers director of public affairs Charles Boyle released the following statement to WW and other outlets on Wednesday. “We are deeply grateful to all the hardworking individuals who have contributed to our award-winning broadcasts over the years. I can’t comment on individual personnel decisions, but I can confirm that we are making changes for the upcoming season as we continue to evolve with the changes in the broadcast industry and look to become more efficient in our business operations. While plans are still being finalized, play-by-play radio broadcasts will continue in the 2026-27 season, and will not be television simulcasts.”
The organization and its media component now find itself headed into next season with few names and faces recognizable to fans. Calabro joins photographer Bruce Ely, digital reporter Casey Holdahl, on-air statistician Tom Haberstroh, plus television hosts Jamie Hudson, Neil Everett and Michael Holton as former employees of the team. (Radio play-by-play announcer Travis Demers did not have his contract renewed, but several reports say he could return in another capacity.)
Employees across the team’s business operations were affected when the team conducted its initial 70-plus person layoff in May. Shortly thereafter, Dundon had told The Oregonian’s Bill Oram, “People are happier when they’re busy and productive. That is the way I think things should be done. And more people just creates more problems, usually. I think Portland just had too many people.”
The team’s general manager, Joe Cronin, spoke with WWin February before Dundon had assumed control of the franchise, and was asked whether he had pitched Dundon on keeping his job. “No, I haven’t. Not that it doesn’t cross your mind, but it’s something I don’t particularly worry about. I’m so focused on just doing a great job, for as long as I have it, that that’s all I really lock in on.”Cronin has thus far held onto his job, recently finalizing a high-profile deal for embattled Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant.Dundon found himself further embroiled in controversy-–you gotta hand it to the guy on some level, he can really embroil himself in controversy like nobody’s business—late last season over his open courtship of head coaching candidates while Tiago Splitter was attempting to navigate the team during its postseason run. Splitter, forced to address the situation, told reporters during the team’s series against San Antonio that he was “just trying to be a pro.”
After the season, The Athletic reported, Splitter “was never formally offered the job” but rather “was told he was welcome to return at a certain price point, which wasn’t agreeable to Splitter and his agent.”
Splitter was hired as head coach of the Chicago Bulls on June 15. Dundon turned to Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, whose contract was so far below market rate that it elicited a strong rebuke from the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, the Detroit Pistons’ JB Bickerstaff, who called the Nori deal “a slap in the face to our value.”
Dundon’s reputation as a spendthrift has extended outside personnel, and earned him the nickname “El Cheapo” towards the end of last season, when he declined to let the team’s two-way players travel to two road games in San Antonio.
Dundon, whose ownership group paid $4.25 billion for the team last August, is currently seeking to renovate the Moda Center via a package from the state, county and city for a combined $600 million. Dundon has remained adamant that his group will not provide private capital in any deal.
(In 2024, Dundon received $300 million in public money for a nearly identical arena renovation deal in Raleigh, the home of his NHL team, where he also provided no private capital but did commit $800 million to develop the area around the arena.)
Lamar Hurd, the team’s color commentator and Calabro’s long-time partner, emceed Dundon’s introductory press conference in April. He remains employed by the team. Hurd faced the unenviable task of trying to stay upbeat in a room filled with people whose jobs were either a) directly threatened by Dundon or b) devoted to asking him questions about whether or not he was going to move the team out of Portland.
The strangest part of the event, however, came when one of Dundon’s alternate governors (a minority-stake owner) gave an answer to such a question. Sheel Tyle, a venture capitalist and 2024 Portland transplant, seemed to unnecessarily diminish Dundon’s leverage.
Tyle, via comments made in an interview a few days earlier with The Athletic’s Jason Quick, had said, “I don’t want people to be concerned or scared,” said. “We are committed to Portland, 100%. Full stop.”
At the press conference, when Dundon was done answering a question about relocation, Tyle, who could have let the moment pass, instead said, “And I’ll just add: Tom would not have asked me to join this group had [relocation] been on the table.”
Tyle has made few public comments in Portland since. It is perhaps worth noting that he is one of the only people on the Blazers’ org chart that Dundon technically can’t fire.
