About a month ago, all hell broke loose when Chauncey Billups was endorsed for the Portland Trail Blazers vacant head coaching position by Damian Lillard, and then hired by Neil Olshey.
Has Neil Olshey set the franchise on a course where they will have to fire him?
It started with Jason Kidd being endorsed by Lillard and interviewed by Olshey, and then Kidd pulling out of the coaching amid massive public objection to him being on the list of candidates. His record of domestic abuse and a chequered off-court history had Blazer fans uncomfortable about him being a candidate.
Kidd removed himself from the running, citing that he didn’t want to put Lillard in an awkward position, then the Blazers continued in their coaching search.
In the meantime, Lillard found himself on the hot seat after fans questioned his backing of Billups, because of Billups own assault allegations from 1997.
A small piece of news from NBA Insider Yahoo Sports Chris Haynes was then released, stating the below.
"The enormous backlash from the Portland Trail Blazers’ process to hire a new coach and his concerns on whether a championship contender can be built have become factors that may push the franchise player — Damian Lillard — out the door, league sources told Yahoo Sports."
Lillard’s closest ally in the media is Haynes, and Haynes has broken news before on Dame. But Dame denied giving Haynes this info, even though it was probably how Dame felt anyway.
Dame was understandably unhappy about getting grilled over his endorsement of Billups, as he did not know Billups history when he gave the endorsement of Billups. He responded to a few tweets on social media, showing his unhappiness with the situation.
Billups was then selected as the new coach of the team after he and San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon got to the final two.
Billups hiring itself, sparked a massive outpouring of disappointment towards the franchise. The Blazers support of humanitarian efforts and Black Lives Matter were questioned, and reports and emails of season tickets being canceled surfaced in the media. There was apparently, a full investigation into Billups past though.
Regardless, a large portion of Blazers fans was really annoyed that Billups had been hired.
The introductory press conference for Billups was a disaster. Olshey cut one question off about the investigation into Billups past and the assault allegations, and then had a cringe-worthy signal for the Blazers PR manager when a similar question was asked of Olshey. The PR person cut the question off and it wasn’t answered.
Then recently, an article was published that delved deep into the supposed investigation that the Blazers did into Billups. It seems that the investigation wasn’t as comprehensive as the Blazers made everyone think.
Regardless of whether you agree with the Billups hiring or not, Olshey has made a mess of this hiring, and now this tweet from Sean Highkin showed that maybe all isn’t well within the organization.
My current read on the situation based on conversations I've had: it's more possible Neil Olshey doesn't survive this than it was 48 hours ago before the OPB report came out. The organization thought this story would go away. It has not.
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) July 15, 2021
Maybe it all blows over for the Blazers and they can get on with their off-season, but I think Neil’s job could be on the line. This hiring and then the ensuing investigation have been a mess.
Olshey has made a mess of this process, and maybe ownership decides that enough is enough.