If O’Melveney and Meyers — the law firm hired by the Portland Trail Blazers to investigate Neil Olshey for workplace harassment and bullying — was in charge of Christmas, expect your gifts around Easter.
If they were in charge of the Olympics or World Cup we’d get one every 12-25 years or so. If they ran in the 24 Hours of Le Mans it would take them a week to finish. In a race between a tortoise, a hare, O’Melveney and Meyers, the two law partners would finish fourth and fifth.
What I’m trying to say is these guys work slowly. Too slowly for my liking at least, and for the good of the Blazers.
The Portland Trail Blazers need a general manager, but first, they need a conclusion to the Neil Olshey saga
The Blazers defensive rating and bizarre home/road splits — 10-1 and 116 points per game at home vs. 1-10 and 105 PPG on the road — betray a team in need of a roster shakeup.
It is long past time to declare the Damian Lillard/CJ McCollum pairing as having taken the Blazers as far as they are able to, and their overlapping skill sets have become more a liability than a boon.
But as the December 15 trade floodgate opening fast approaches, the Blazers ownership is plodding along with the investigation that has a predetermined and inevitable conclusion: Olshey’s dismissal.
Olshey deserves credit for drafting Lillard, McCollum, Anfernee Simons, and Nassir Little in a span of seven years, but it appears that the only tool in Olshey’s box is a hammer — and he has wielded it indiscriminately around the team offices.
He also has shown a disturbing willingness to throw his coach under the bus, which would give any potential future hire pause before even showing up for an interview.
The investigation is nearly a month old and there have been no indications it is close to a conclusion. But for the betterment of the team in the short and long term, Olshey has to go.
And he has to go before either his absence or his presence ensure another first-round playoff exit.