Calabro: It was about spending time with family…
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
He took the decision down to the final day before his contract expired.
Then Kevin Calabro pulled the plug on his career as the Trail Blazers’ television play-by-play voice.
“I feel like I still have a fastball, but I’m going to hang with my family for awhile,” says Calabro, 64, who has called Blazer games for the past four seasons.
Calabro, who worked Seattle SuperSonics games for 22 years, has maintained a home in Seattle while renting an apartment in Portland since taking the Blazers job in 2016. He has four grown children living in the Seattle area.
“Our first grandchild is due in February,” Calabro says. “I want to be around for my son and daughter-in-law when that happens.”
Calabro says the coronavirus pandemic played a part in the decision, even though Blazer broadcasters will call the games in Orlando — which begin July 31 — from the studio in Portland.
“They’re going to do everything that they can to have a limited number of people in the studio, but I didn’t want to be the one to unwittingly expose my wife (Sue) or any family members to the virus,” he says. “Covid played a part in this. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”
The Calabros lived at the Ardea Apartments in the South Waterfront section of Portland during the NBA seasons. His contract expired on July 1, but in May, Chris McGowan, the Blazers’ CEO and president of business operations, had picked up the option for another season, “and promised we’d talk about something further as we progressed,” Calabro says.
Calabro says it was a difficult decision that he took to the final day before making. There were a number of factors, family being the biggest.
“The Blazers treated me great,” he says. “I didn’t want the impression to be that I was abandoning the league or the team in time of trial. But I’ve done this for 35 years. I’ve missed holidays, birthdays, funerals to do games. I just decided I’ve paid the basketball gods. I feel like I gave (the Blazers) four pretty good years.
“I waited to the last day of my old contract and set that as my deadline. I didn’t want to get into a new deal and then have misgivings about it. I don’t feel guilty about stepping away. I’m 64; Sue is 67. We just decided, ‘Let’s be available to the family.’ ”
Calabro believes the Blazer TV broadcasting team is in good hands, with Lamar Hurd as analyst, Brooke Olzendam as sideline reporter and Jordan Kent filling in doing play-by-play.
“They have great talent,” Calabro says. “Lamar is first class. Brooke is as good as there is on the sidelines, and I think Jordan is going to be a star.
“It’s a good time for me to hit the pause button, go to the sidelines and see what happens.”
I’m almost sure we haven’t seen the last of Calabro as a sportscaster. He has hosted radio shows in the Seattle area in the past. His first pro play-by-play job, at age 23, was with the Indianapolis Checkers of the Central Hockey League.
“I knew nothing about hockey,” he says, “and it was a blast.”
Seattle’s expansion team in the NHL begins play in the 2021-22 season. Perhaps Calabro will be involved there. Maybe he’ll go back to calling Pac-12 football and basketball games. For the short term, he’ll have the burner down low.
“I’m going to smell the roses for a year,” he says. “If the sports landscape settles, if it’s safe to go on the road, I would entertain getting back into the game. I don’t know if it would be full-time or part-time. You never say never. For now, I’m just going to watch and reevaluate what we want to do as a family.”
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