[McCarthy] Neil Everett found out he lost his Trail Blazers job by reading about it in Forbes
Former SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett is a TV legend. But when the ex-ESPNer lost his hosting job with the Trail Blazers this week, he didn’t even get an email or phone call. Instead, he learned about his departure in a Maury Brown sports media column.
“I read about it in Forbes,” Everett tells Front Office Sports.
That’s no way to treat a talent like Everett, who gave five seasons to the Trail Blazers broadcasting team. But a cold-blooded approach seems to be the order of the day when it comes to sports media layoffs this week.
At least with the Trail Blazers, Everett suspected something was afoot. After all, the notoriously frugal Tom Dundon bought the NBA franchise in March for $4.25 billion. When Dundon previously took over the NHL’s Hurricanes, he immediately overhauled the broadcast team and installed other belt-tightening measures. After being offered an 80% pay cut, veteran Canes play-by-play announcer Chuck Kaiton left after 39 seasons.
Right on cue, Dundon wasted no time pinching pennies in Portland, earning him the nickname “El Cheapo” from Bill Simmons. Dumping a club’s existing broadcasters to cut costs seems to be the billionaire owner’s “modus operandi,” notes Everett.
On Tuesday, Dundon dropped the axe on the majority of the club’s broadcast crew, including hosts Everett and Jamie Hudson, 20-year analyst Michael Holton and former ESPNer turned analytics expert Tom Haberstroh. This past NBA season, Everett and Holton worked 25 Trail Blazers road games, with their last telecast coming on April 8.
“You kind of felt it was coming–like a storm,” Everett says. “But I read about it in Forbes.”