This weekend, you’ll get two Trail Blazers’ broadcasts every game for the price of one.
In Friday night’s game versus the Celtics at Moda Center, the Trail Blazers will be debuting a secondary broadcast, known as the “Legendscast,” featuring pre/half/post game host Neil Everett along with former Trail Blazers Terry Porter and Antonio Harvey and a rotating cast of alums.
“The goals of this ‘Legendscast’ broadcast is to really give the fans an opportunity to engage with the team in a different way,” said Jeff Curtain, the team’s Director of Broadcasting. “We’ve always done a great traditional broadcast, now let’s see if we can engage with our fans in a different way. Other networks are doing it, so it’s not a new idea but we’re trying to do it in a local way with our alumni. We’ve historically had great alumni here in Portland, so we’re excited to do that this weekend.”
Games on Friday and Sunday versus the Celtics and Clippers, respectively, will still air on ROOT SPORTS with Kevin Calabro, Lamar Hurd and Brooke Olzendam calling the action. But over on ROOT SPORTS PLUS, Everett, Porter and Harvey and a rotating cast of Trail Blazers alumni will have a slightly different take on the game. The majority of the screen will be devoted to game action, though unlike in a traditional game broadcast, Everett, Porter, Harvey and the rotation guests will be on screen while calling the game from a studio in Moda Center.
“I think we’re going to focus the video feed, let’s say 80 percent of the time, on the basketball game, but really wrap around the stories of the alumni,” said Curtain. “So don’t miss the stories of them talking about stories from road or interactions with teammates or fans in the city in order to talk about the game. We’ll also have highlights, special graphics, career statistics, really kind of adding to the whole broadcast.”
The “Legendscast” serves to not only give fans another viewing option, but also allows the team to bring more former players back into the fold. First up, Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who will join the secondary broadcast in the fourth quarter of both games on Friday and Sunday.
“There’s a bigger picture of trying to include alumni more,” said Curtain. “So we’re taking that as an opportunity to add alumni to our broadcasts, if it’s on the pregame with Brooke (Olzendam) and Michael (Holton) or if it’s actually something bigger like a ‘Legendscast.’”
The team embarking on a second screen experience is also just the latest step in the team making changes to their broadcast. First it was changing up broadcast graphics, then there was the addition of “analytics insider” Cory Jez to the main broadcast. And now it’s an entirely different broadcast on a different channel all together.
“Fans are engage in everyone’s content in different ways, be it digitally, socially, so we’re just trying to give that an opportunity and see if it works with our fans,” said Curtain. “We have the luxury of having an RSN partner having two channels -- a main channel and a plus channel -- so we were able to partner with them and have this secondary broadcast on an entirely different channel.”