Details are still slim regarding the Trail Blazers’ investigation into general manager Neil Olshey. The Friday night news dump didn’t provide specifics into who made allegations of workplace misconduct against the GM, or the accuser(s). What is clear among fans and media is Olshey’s volatile nature that has been displayed across his ten year tenure.
Jason Quick of The Athletic has experienced this volatility while reporting through all of Olshey’s tenure.
“Neil has been abrasive and tough to deal with since day one,” Quick told Suke during his weekly hit on Primetime. “You learn just to go, ‘That’s just Neil.’” The reporter says Olshey’s old school mentality has failed to evolve as the sports management landscape has diversified. “The landscape has changed since Neil has been working with the Blazers. There are more women and they’ve increased the diversity of their staff,” he said.
“ I think in this new landscape, people are more offended.”
Quick also believes Olshey may have a sense of invincibility among at the facility, considering he runs almost all day-to-day operations. “Every single thing that is going on at the practice facility, Neil Olshey has a say in it. He has his fingerprints all over that organization.”
“He felt probably that he was untouchable, and didn’t have anyone supervising him.”
He goes on to say: “But there are a ton of people who would run through a wall for him. He can be incredibly abrasive, but he’s also incredibly smart. This is not a case where every single person in that organization despises him. There are a lot of people in that building who feel like they’re a team.”