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Since Tom Dundon took over the Portland Trail Blazers in April, his parsimony has cost the team a head coach, one mascot and one of the most respected broadcasters in the NBA.
Kevin Calabro, a 31-year broadcasting veteran, announced Wednesday that he was stepping away after nine seasons with the team after receiving a low contract offer. It's another departure from an organization that new ownership is cutting to the bone.
Portland Trail Blazers specializing in low-ball offers
Offering a below-market contract to team personnel has been a recurring theme in Dundon's three-month tenure as head of the Trail Blazers. Head coach Tiago Splitter led the team to its first playoff berth in five seasons, but Dundon reportedly didn't want to pay a head coach more than $1.5M. Portland ended up hiring Micah Nori to a deal with just one guaranteed season at a below-average salary, while Splitter agreed with the Chicago Bulls on a three-year deal for over $20M.
That appears to be the case with Calabro, who has been with the Blazers since 2016 after spending 22 seasons as the Seattle Supersonics' play-by-play man. Calabro isn't retiring, simply moving on, thanks to the team's unwillingness to pay him.
Calabro took a dig at Dundon on the way out by calling his offers "subprime." That's because Dundon made his fortune in offering subprime loans, which are marketed to consumers with higher credit risk, and have significantly higher interest rates. In 2020, Dundon's former company agreed to pay $550M to settle a lawsuit for predatory lending, brought by multiple states' attorneys general, including Oregon's.
Portland Trail Blazers let go most of broadcasting team
Calabro isn't the only Blazers broadcaster who will be working elsewhere in 2026-27. The team jettisoned its radio play-by-play man, Travis Detmers, who has been calling games for the last seven seasons. Analyst Michael Holten was fired after calling games for the last nine seasons and working for the Blazers for the last 19 years. Dundon and company also fired studio hosts Neil Everett and Jamie Hudon, along with statistical analyst Tom Haberstroh.
Fans may not notice the departure of the 70 team employees Dundon already laid off, primarily from the business side of the Blazers operations. But there's a real relationship with broadcasters, who fans listen to for hundreds of hours each season. Dundon clearly doesn't care about that.
As the organizational cost-cutting continues, it raises questions once again about whether the Blazers' new ownership group is committed to Portland at all. This week, a team official threatened that the Blazers could move out of Portland if they didn't get $600M in arena renovations on favorable terms, saying, "It might be OK to spend a billion dollars on a relocation fee if the valuation of the team doubles."
Dundon cares deeply about saving money on his NBA team. He doesn't seem to care about his team's fans or employees.
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