Lamar Hurd will sit beside Kevin Calabro as Television Analyst, the Portland Trail Blazers announced today. Jordan Kent and Brooke Olzendam will join Michael Holton as other new additions to the broadcasts on KGW and Comcast SportsNet Northwest.
“We are thrilled to have our entire broadcast team in place,” said Trail Blazers President & CEO Chris McGowan. “Lamar, Jordan and Brooke bring a wealth of diverse experience to their positions, and we are looking forward to watching them in action next season.”
An eight-year broadcasting veteran, Hurd will provide basketball analysis and insight on all Trail Blazers telecasts. Hurd most recently worked for the Pac-12 Network, where he was a college basketball analyst for four years. He has also served as an analyst for ESPN, Fox Sports Northwest, Root Sports and Oregon State men’s basketball games. Hurd played point guard for Oregon State from 2002-06, receiving All Pac-10 honors, and ending his career fifth on the school’s all-time list in games started (94) and eighth in assists (374).
Kent joins the Trail Blazers as host for the Toyota Pregame Show, McDonald’s Halftime Show and the Postgame Show alongside Holton. He will also become the permanent host of Trail Blazers Courtside. Kent brings more than five years of experience to the team as he continues to serve as host for Talkin’ Ducks, #Ducks Football and Ducks Postgame Live on CSN Northwest. A three-sport athlete at the University of Oregon – basketball, track and field, and football – Kent was a sixth round NFL Draft pick and played for the Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams.
Olzendam will serve as Courtside Reporter for all home and road Trail Blazers game telecasts. She will also be the host for digital, web and social content, as well as player feature stories throughout the season. Olzendam comes to the Trail Blazers from CSN Northwest, where she served as the All-Purpose Host for the network from 2014-16. She has performed sideline and reporting duties for CSN Northwest, covering a broad spectrum of sports. Previously, Olzendam served as TV Host/Sideline Reporter for Pacers TV Broadcasts.
All 82 regular season games in 2016-17 will be available on broadcast, including 75 games on local television. The Trail Blazers will air 15 contests on KGW and 60 games on CSN Northwest. Six games this season will air exclusively on TNT, while one game, Jan. 25 vs. L.A. Lakers, can be seen only on ESPN.
CSN Northwest has seen meaningful increases in distribution over the last few years, thanks to new carriage agreements with Charter Communications, CenturyLink Prism® TV and SONY Vue, which is accessible on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast and Roku. These distributors expanded CSN Northwest’s longstanding carriage on XFINITY, Frontier and Wave. To learn more about Trail Blazers carriage options, please visit trailblazers.com/watch.
Radio broadcasts featuring the voice of the Trail Blazers Brian Wheeler can still be found on flagship Rip City Radio AM-620 and on 20 additional stations regionally on the Trail Blazers Radio Network.
To receive information about the single-game ticket on-sale, please visit trailblazers.com/tickets. For season tickets and other ticketing inquiries, please call 844-RIP-CITY.