Neil Olshey conducts a press conference not so much to inform the media as to educate them.

When the Trail Blazers’ president of basketball operations (general manager) believes the narrative about his team and the job he is doing is off-kilter, he’ll gather the scribes and set them straight.

Olshey has long been president of the Neil Olshey Fan Club, and when membership gets low, he does what he can to drum up the numbers.

That’s what he did during a Monday Zoom conference with local reporters, whose collective wisdom, he is quite sure, fits neatly on the head of a pin. Not only does Olshey not suffer fools gladly, he enjoys delivering a proverbial kick in the tush when he deems it necessary.