Yesterday the news broke that the Portland Trail Blazers and play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Calabro were parting ways. With the exception of one COVID season in 2020, Calabro has been the voice of the Blazers since 2016. His departure marks a significant shift in the broadcasting crew.
Today Robert Ohman of Willamette Week [shared excerpts from an interview with Calabro](https://www.wweek.com/sports/2026/07/22/kevin-calabro-says-hes-leaving-blazers-after-lowball-offer/) following the separation. According to Calabro, Portland’s offer was far below expectations and was easy to reject.
> Calabro said the team’s offer “just wasn’t going to be worth my time or effort or lending my name to what they were offering, in terms of the number of games and the compensation per game. And then there were no benefits attached to it at all.
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> “It was a really disappointing offer that was not hard at all to turn thumbs down on and realize that there was not much seriousness on the other end to get a deal done,” Calabro said, “which is fine if you want to end the relationship. Well, that’s one way to do it, I suppose.”
The negotiations between Calabro and the team came about because the broadcaster’s current contract ended in June. He indicates that discussions between the parties were one-sided:
> “My agent was terrific. She doggedly pursued an extension with the Blazers, and while they listened, there really was no response from them—ever—right up until the time the contract ended on June 30, and yet we continued to knock on the door. And then finally they did make an offer on Monday, and it just wasn’t at all what we had talked about or explored, and nothing that we had proposed.”
Ohman’s article also includes other comments from Calabro and a pacifying, though boilerplate, statement from the Trail Blazers’ public relations department.