Buck doesn’t stop at Olshey —At least, he says it doesn’t
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.
Blazers-Lakers should be an intriguing matchup. And my pick for the series winner is …
A few observations as the eighth-seeded Trail Blazers take on the challenge of facing the top-seeded L.A. Lakers in a seven-game first-round playoff series to which everyone across NBA circles will be paying attention …
• In a word, watching the Blazers’ nine-game run-up to the NBA playoffs has been fun.
Not because they made it — after 45 years in the sportswriting business, I’ll probably never think like a fan — but because Portland’s seeding games have been so watchable.
On the NBA, Major League Baseball, NILs in college athletics, and Oregon State’s layoffs…
Thoughts on some sports issues of the day…
THE NBA SEASON RESUMES:
Most of the specifics have been released through various media outlets. Walt Disney World Resort, 22 teams, no fans, eight regular-season games, then playoffs, the whole shebang beginning July 31 and ending as late as October 12.
On Dwane Casey’s message, the NBA’s re-opening
Weighing in on two issues of the day:
I’ve known and had a good relationship with Dwane Casey for almost 30 years, since he was a member of the coaching staff (along with Terry Stotts) of George Karl with the Seattle SuperSonics. I have a great deal of respect for Casey, now head coach of the Detroit Pistons, and the type of man he is.
With Dame, CJ and good health, Blazers’ outlook bright in ’20-21
Last week, toward the end of a Chicago-based podcast in which I was the guest, I was asked if the Trail Blazers might break up their backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
My answer was that I didn’t see Lillard — an institution in the Northwest, one of the franchise’s greatest-ever player — going anywhere, but that the Blazers might choose to trade McCollum “at some point” to bolster their talent at the forward spot.
In retrospect, I wish I’d thought the question through a little more.