Lamar Hurd On Trail Blazers Job, Replacing Mike and Mike

Lamar Hurd joined Dusty Harrah and Cam Cleeland for The Dusty and Cam show on 1080 The Fan to discuss his new opportunity as the Portland Trail Blazers color analyst. The three of them talked at length about Hurd’s enthusiasm for broadcast, how the job in Portland came up, and how he intends to earn community trust after the dismissal of his beloved predecessors Mike Barrett and Mike Rice. Videos courtesy of CSNNW:

Highlight:

"I grew up in Houston Texas, so Kenny Smith was a guy that I grew up watching. I watched him win the two championships down there, then I saw his career take off in TNT. One thing I always liked about Kenny, other than being a fan of his as a kid, was that when he would analyze stuff he would always kind of go a little deeper than the obvious. He would answer the ‘why to the why’ and he would really get you to think from a player’s perspective because that’s a thing that a lot of fans don’t understand. You probably see the same thing in football, Cam. There’s certain things and nuances of the game that they see from a fan point of view but maybe not from a player’s point of view, so I like to try to explain things as much as possible from a player’s point of view."

Highlight:

"When the Blazers made the transition and decided they wanted to go a different direction, I was thinking that I was going to return to the Pac-12 and do my college basketball stuff. I had some things lined up with CBS Sports. Also had some things lined up with CNN out in Georgia, so I was kind of going on a different path and I thought maybe they’re bringing in P.J. Carlisimo or Steve Smith or some of these other names that we all saw popping up. In late June, I got an email from the Blazers asking if I had any interest, and so that’s when the process all started and I went through it all and weighed the pros and cons. I think it’s very easy to see when you look at the team, the organization, the NBA, why it was eventually a no-brainer type of decision."

Highlight:

"I’ve been in this community now since 2007. I know a lot of people here, but I’m going to continue to my best to kind of ingratiate myself with the fans. I’m a relationship guy. I’m a guy that doesn’t just want to come in and do a job as an analyst and you never know me, you don’t know anything about me. People are going to have a chance to get to know me and understand very quickly that I care about this job, I care about this community, and I want to see everybody happy if I can. I know that’s not going to happen at the end of the day, but we’re going to try to do our best."

Hurd has extensive broadcast experience with the Pac-12 Network. He and colleague Kevin Calabro will provide a new flavor for Trail Blazers fans in the 2016-17 NBA season.