The Portland Trail Blazers announced Saturday that longtime GM Neil Olshey is the subject of an independent investigation into alleged mistreatment of non-player staff.
Olshey has been with Portland since the summer of 2012.
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 6, 2021
Details are scarce at the moment, but Yahoo’s Chris Haynes reports that staff in Portland have been frustrated with Olshey’s “bullying” for a long time now.
The Portland Trail Blazers opened an investigation into Neil Olshey — the president of basketball operations — with employees alleging a toxic, hostile work environment where staff members have been subjected to intimidation and profanity-laced tirades, among other bullying tactics, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The organization enlisted the services of O’Melveny & Myers to run the independent investigation, and the firm began interviewing employees at the team’s front office off-site this week, with several staffers expressing relief because of the investigation after 10 years of mistreatment leading to mental and physical stress, sources said.
Maybe most concerning, Haynes notes that a lot of Blazers employees didn’t approve of how Olshey’s organization handled the unexpected death of video coordinator Zach Cooper in 2020.
Olshey, 56, was hired by the franchise in 2012. Over his decade as the top basketball decision-maker, multiple employees assert they have had multiple grievances with his treatment of staff in the workplace, sources said.
Furthermore, several staff members raised concerns with the organization’s alleged “mishandling” of the situation when video coordinator Zach Cooper died in April 2020, sources said.
This is the second story in days involving an NBA franchise accused of mistreatment of employees at an organizational level, following the Robert Sarver story in Phoenix. Olshey has already been somewhat embattled over his handling of the Chauncey Billups coaching hire this offseason, and it’s very possible change could be coming in Portland.
[Yahoo]
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.