Quotes Pile Up in Neil Olshey Investigation

As the investigation into Portland Trail Blazers President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey continues, material seems to roll out daily, if not hourly, bolstering the claim that Olshey created a less-than-healthy working environment within the organization.

One of the latest articles on the subject comes from Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian, who aggregates quotes from several sources—former employees—commenting on Olshey’s management issues.

Some employees, according to one source, actively tried to avoid Olshey while at the team’s practice facility in Tualatin.

“You tried to not be around him,” the source said.

Another of Fentress’ sources gave more specifics:

...one former employee said that when Olshey became angry with an employee, he often used extreme profanity, at times called people “stupid” and on occasion let them know that he could replace them with anyone and they were lucky to have a job.

Fentress also referenced a source he termed a “high-level ex-Blazers employee” who relayed that they never saw Olshey engage in such behavior and that Olshey treated them “wonderfully”.

Though most quotes in the article are from anonymous sources, Fentress did include material from former Blazers player and broadcaster Antonio Harvey.

I never saw it happen. I can’t say I saw him do this to this person. What I can tell you is, I heard a lot of rumblings about how he wanted to control and manipulate. If you didn’t do what he said, he would just completely fly off the handle. He hated to be questioned. He hated to be second-guessed. These are all the things that I consistently heard coming from people who dealt with him on a day-to-day basis.

The article also included quotes from former player and assistant coach Dan Dickau along with other anonymous anecdotes.

Olshey is under investigation by the Trail Blazers for allegedly creating a “toxic, hostile” working environment.