When the Portland Trail Blazers fired Neil Everett from his job as the team’s broadcast lineup, the longtime ESPN SportsCenter anchor didn’t find out from the team. He found out by reading it in a column on Forbes.com on July 21.
Everett first revealed how he learned of his dismissal in an interview with Front Office Sports, under the headline “Is This The Cruel New Reality of Sports Media Layoffs?”
Everett is still living in the cruel reality. In an interview with Richard Deitsch of the Sports Media Podcast, Everett said he still had not heard from the Blazers more than a week after he was fired.
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“I got a text,” Everett told Deitsch. “I was in Sun River, Oregon chilling and a buddy of mine goes, ‘hey, sorry to hear the Blazers aren’t bringing you back.’ And that didn’t surprise me because I was, pretty confident that I wasn’t going to be brought back. So that’s why it didn’t affect me. I don’t think as tragically as it might have otherwise.”
“And so I said, hey, send me the article. And so then I read it. And then, and then Front Office Sports got a hold of me. And his first question was, so how’d you find out? I said, I read it in Forbes magazine. I wasn’t going about to bash the Blazers. I’m sure it just, you know, fell through the cracks.”
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Everett joined the Blazers’ broadcast team as a pre, half and post-game host in 2021. An Oregon native, Everett joined ESPN in July 2000 as an anchor for ESPNews. He became a household name hosting SportsCenter, where he continued to anchor the late-night edition from Los Angeles.
In August 2025, Everett announced he was launching a since-defunct show with former SportsCenter cohost Stan Verrett.
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“It’s strictly a business decision by the new ownership,” Everett said of his dismissal from the Trail Blazers and owner Thomas Dundon. “I get it. And I was, it was great that I had got the five years I did. Should it have been handled a little cleaner? Yeah, sure. But I’m a big boy. I can deal.”
Don’t expect Everett to pull a page from the book of Seinfeld character George Costanza and show up to work — even though the team still hasn’t told him he’s fired.