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The Portland Trail Blazers (+56) crew of Kevin Calabro and Lamar Hurd came in third among all broadcast teams. Back in 2016, the Blazers had some controversy firing the locally beloved crew of Mike Barrett and Mike Rice. They were homers and their broadcasts were a bit zanier than you might hope for if you were an outsider looking in. But the Blazers fans seemed to love them. That made the entrance of Calabro and Hurd pretty rocky and not totally welcome. But Calabro has been one of the best in the business for a long time, going from Seattle SuperSonics broadcasts with Steve “Snapper” Jones to national games with ESPN. Hurd joined the team after years of PAC-12 broadcasts. You also can’t forget sideline reporter Brooke Olzendam, who brings a lot of information, energy, and fun into the mix.
The Portland Trail Blazers have completed the offseason overhaul of their television and radio broadcast teams. The Blazers hired veteran play-by-play announcer Kevin Calabro to become the new face of Blazers television broadcasts in June, shortly after parting ways with the longtime broadcast duo of Mike Barrett and Mike Rice. Now the team is set to hire Lamar Hurd as the analyst alongside Calabro, The Oregonian/OregonLive has confirmed.
Radio play-by-play announcer Brian Wheeler has negotiated a two-year contract extension with the Blazers, meaning the club's entire broadcast crew will be back for at least another season. Television play-by-play voice Mike Barrett and analysts Mike Rice (TV) and Antonio Harvey (radio) are contracted through 2015-16, with a club option for the following season.
Mike Rice is taking the first step toward rehabilitation by spending a month with basketball wellness guru John Lucas in Houston. Lucas told ESPN.com Monday that the former Rutgers coach is receiving anger management counseling and working with former college players who are going through Lucas’ pre-NBA draft camp. “He’s doing great,” Lucas told ESPN.com. “His attitude has been phenomenal and our kids live his intensity and his passion for the game. He’s happy to be having this chance to give back a little bit.”
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Put your hands on Kobe Bryant ... he's gonna put a beatdown on you -- even if you're his coach. During an interview with Jim Rome ... Kobe reacted to the infamous video of now-fired Rutgers coach Mike Rice getting physical with his players, saying if he was on that team ... "I woulda smacked the hell out of him. No question about it."
The FBI has launched an investigation into possible extortion surrounding the Rutgers basketball video scandal that has cost head coach Mike Rice and athletic director Tim Pernetti their jobs. At the centre of the FBI investigation is the former director of player development under Rice, Eric Murdock. It was Murdock who provided the video showing Rice kicking and shoving players, throwing basketballs at players and taunting them with homophobic language. According to the New York Times, Murdock approached the university in December asking for $950,000. The university declined to pay Murdock who subsequently released the video, setting off a firestorm at Rutgers.
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An attorney for Eric Murdock, Rutgers' former director of player development for men's basketball, sought $950,000 from the university as settlement for Murdock's wrongful termination claims, ESPN has learned.
On Dec. 27, Barry A. Kozyra, Murdock's attorney, sent a two-page letter, obtained by ESPN, to John K. Bennett, who is representing Rutgers University, seeking $950,000. Murdock's annual salary at Rutgers was $70,000. The letter was dated two weeks after Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice was suspended three games without pay and fined $50,000 for a violation of athletic department policy, which Rutgers announced on Dec. 13.
Mike Mazzeo: Mike Rice officially fired #Rutgers announced
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