Help me out...... Someone calmly and completely explain to me what Chris McGowen did? I seriously don't know.
Uhm, just as a general idea, as an alternative to having it leaked to the local press without any explanation: At the very minimum issuing a press release thanking the current broadcasters for their years of service, acknowledging their importance to the fan base, and providing a general statement about the new direction that they want to take the broadcast team.
Step 1 - don't let the Oregonian break the news before you put out a press release. - this made the team look unprepared and reactionary. Step 2 - Move Barrett to the halftime show. I'd rather see him than old frosted tips. At least this would keep him in the organization, and I think he's still a valuable broadcaster. Step 3 - Give Rice the sendoff he deserves. The guy has been with the team for 25 years.
I read an official announcement from the teams website within an hour of this news breaking. Including all of your requests.
Here's the first news report I read on OLive: http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2016/06/trail_blazers_27.html#incart_river_index Absolutely nothing there in the way of a quote from a press release. Either totally incompetent writing, or the Blazers got it entirely bass-ackwards and put something on the website after the news broke. I don't know which is the case, but if I were in charge of the marketing side of the Blazers, I would have realized the connection between the community and the broadcast crew and would have been more in command of getting the message out in as positive of a way as possible.
Just to play devils advocate here, how do we know Step 2 wasn't discussed? Pretty big step down for Barrett that he could have easily turned down. He is going to be a sought after commodity next off-season and he knows that. Agree on the others...
He's under contract. Pretty sure the Blazers could have made him do it, but we don't really know what happened behind the scenes. What we DO know is that Calabro has been the choice, so that cancels out the theory that Barrett was collateral damage. This wasn't just a move to get rid of Rice. This wasn't Barrett falling on the sword in some kind of "if he goes, I go" scenario. The team has been courting Calabro and Barrett was out. Seems more likely that Rice was the collateral damage.
I saw a push notice on my phone from Oregonlive at least 20 minutes before anything was released by the team.
Calabro is literally the only person I was going to be happy with over Barrett so I get the decision and even applaud it on some level. Of course I think things should have been handled differently but Barrett isn't going to be out of a job long. Rice needs to retire but also agreed that he should have had a sending off party or something. No disagreement that they botched this. In the end though I think they will have gotten it right (not that you can't do both things).
Yeah, I'm fine with who they got, and I understand the motivation, but I just feel like there could have been some way of breaking the news without feeling completely blindsided.
Sounds like to me that Freeman got the scoop before press release was posted. Good reporting? Better sources!! I just don't see what all the dust-up is about. It happened. It got announced. All parties did their bit. Words of praise were offered. Future plans vaguely laid out for fans. I do understand the point that the Oregonian should not have been the first to get the news out. But it was all done within an hour. I went to lunch with no news and when I returned the news was there on both the O and the team website.
So people constantly complain when our local guys don't break stories, but when they do, it's a problem as well. If woj broke the news, I imagine we'd have at least three "where are our local guys" posts.
Sure, about trades or signings. This is something that probably should have been tight lipped and released by the team.
How do you know MB, Tone or Rice didn't leak it? Their family members? The guy at the bar Rice told when he was getting sloshed? The fact it was within 20 minutes shows they planned on getting it out there fast and in a discrete manner. Very small percentage of the fan base follow the news close enough to even catch a 20 minute difference, I follow things very closely and didn't even notice. I saw it on twitter the same time I got a notification on my phone from the Blazers team app. In the end, it is the vocal minority that are truly upset, and I'm pretty sure there is no way it could have been handled to make you guys happy.
One of your steps was the team breaking it. Until you know the O's source, how can you blame the team? Should the team have put a release out before telling MB, Rice and Tone just incase they leaked it? So you would rather move MB to halftime show, then they get rid of him with his contract is up, and instead of a year paid to find a new job, he is just unemployed. I can perhaps agree with you on a sendoff, but again, what if Rice didn't want one? Who wants some pitty sendoff when you just got freaking fired? See I can find all sorts of things to complain about in your 3 steps, then we would just have a new group pissed off.
He can still apply for jobs while working for the team. Calabro is working for ESPN, currently covering the Finals, and yet he was able to secure a new job. I would have liked to see the team transition Barrett and Rice to different roles. Rice even mentioned that he would love to do some type of show with MB. I think they could have found another use for them and transitioned them out less abruptly. But maybe they wouldn't go for that. I'm just saying how I personally would have liked to have seen it go down. Whether Rice wants the sendoff or not, the guy has been a part of the team for 25 years. He's a major part of our team history. He deserves a proper sendoff.
He fired two of the best commentators in the league, who have been the voices of the Blazers for years, for no good reason. Fuck him.
Here is where you are faulty. NO good reason YOU can think of. But you don't know everything going on. First, trying to go more national appeal is a good thing for the future of the franchise. If they thought this helps that, then there definitely WAS a good reason. Your just not getting it. That's on you, not them.
How is this going to help national appeal? Fans of other teams already liked Mike and Mike. They aren't going to start following the Blazers because of one new commentator. That makes no sense. If they had a good reason for the firing, it should be shared. Until it is, it's fair to assume there isn't a good reason other than the bullshit one they gave which was essentially just that they wanted to make a change.
