Who's the sucker who wants this job?
Kari Chisholm
Seriously, who could possibly want this job?
JOB: PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
The positions' primary function is to strategically develop and execute public relations efforts for Trail Blazers corporate and community affairs, targeting local and national media relations. Position also contributes to the goals and efforts of Trail Blazers Marketing and Communications department to include internal communications, publications management, and sports media services efforts. Candidates must have established national and local media contacts, successful PR outcomes on a variety of corporate communications efforts, and experience in organizing, facilitating and representing an organization at media events.
Three challenges:
1) A basketball operation that can't develop burgeoning new talent or keep it around. See O'Neal, Jermaine; Wallace, Rasheed; and Grant, Brian.
2) A front-office that has managed to create one of the unfriendly fan experiences in all of sports. See the ESPN study, as reported here at BlueOregon in February.
3) JailBlazers. 'Nuff said.
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Jun 16, '05
I am humored that you use JailBlazers as one of your points (very five years ago) then talk about not keeping onto talent, and list Rasheed Wallace, who was at the head of the JailBlazer image.
Perhaps you would have preferred we kept Brian Grant, who now has perhaps the second worst knees in basketball, with a mega-contract.
Jun 16, '05
Is Lee Atwater still unavailable???
9:26 a.m.
Jun 16, '05
I believe Lee Atwater is currently indisposed, but I think Ari Fleischer could be up for it...
Jun 16, '05
Proof you cannot chrome a turd.
No amount of PR can save this train wreck.
10:35 a.m.
Jun 16, '05
I would love this job. They should contact me. albertkaufman @ yahoo.com
10:52 a.m.
Jun 16, '05
I'm trying to figure out whether I'd prefer this job to "executive coach" for the PDC.
11:12 a.m.
Jun 16, '05
and speaking of jobs
from the sidebar :)
http://www.thinkbluedems.com/deepthroat.php
Jun 16, '05
Hey Kari, you gonna eat that dead horse when you're done beating it?
4:45 p.m.
Jun 16, '05
Now see, I never saw Rasheed as a "Jailblazer."
He rarely got into trouble off the court. The one that sticks in my mine was the incident with Damon. He got his hand slapped pretty big on that one and stayed out of legal trouble after that. He was a family man, and he knew that if he got into legal trouble it could take him away from his wife and children.
Unlike other players who were accused of rape, drunk driving, assaults, dog fighting, caught multiple times doing drugs, etc.
Rasheed had a season where he got a lot of Ts. After that, he was treated differently be the refs-- he would get in trouble for things that would be ignored if other players did it. The NBA admitted they were doing this-- players with a history would be treated more harshly than those who didn't.
And yes he told a ref he was gonna kick his ass-- but that's not out of the ordinary when there is a comment made about his mom right before that. It was nothing compared to Sprewell choking a ref on the court.
Rasheed's been a good guy since going to Detroit-- he even does interviews with more than "we played hard."
Rasheed was chased off by management and Paul Allen. They treated him like crap, didn't support him, etc. That attitude then started coming from the fans as well-- how did you think he was going to react to that?
Now that he's in Detroit, the fans love him. They treat him well. As a result, he plays harder, stays out of trouble, does interviews, signs autographs, etc.
You can't expect someone to respect you if you don't give respect back.
Actually, it's a job I wouldn't mind having. I've applied for positions within their PR/Communications Department before. I'm a fairly big fan of basketball, although my team is the Houston Rockets. Not to mention that I care more about the fans and the community than I do management and the business-- which is exactly what they need right now. They need people working for them that actually give a damn about the fans and are going to give them a reason to start watching again.
Jun 16, '05
Basketball is a BUSINESS not a community building endeavor although it often occurs as a result. To approach it any differently is both naive and counter productive if change is the outcome you seek. The team belongs to (insert owner here) and is his/hers to do with as he/she pleases regardless of the opinion of the community or its leaders. You can bet that Donald Sterling not only never cared but laughed all the way to the bank.
The only way to ensure real change is to (or visibly encourage others to) withold financial support in a meaningful way (choosing not to buy the occasional ticket versus not renewing your luxury box or season tickets). The kind of economic intimidation that has somehow become the property of the religious right. Maybe we should redefine Blazermania as that type of behavior? Sound like a job for a Corporate Communications Manager.
9:08 p.m.
Jun 16, '05
Yea, the team does belong to Paul Allen and he can do as he wants with the team.
However, as long as they continue to alienate the community and the fans, they're not going to sell out games (something they used to consistently do).
Other businesses are not going to want to sponsor them. I don't know if you've noticed, but almost all of the Blazer's corporate sponsors are gone. The ad thet used to roll through various advertisers in front of the announcer's table now just has a blurb about the NBA.
My husband's employer used to be a big corporate sponsor. They had numerous season tickets in addition to one of the luxury boxes. Their name used to be on that rolling ad. They did not renew their contract because of the way they run the team and the way they treat the community.
And the fact is that sports teams are a part of the community-- much more than a regular business would be. They're in sort of a strange area where they're not quite a business, yet not quite a community organization.
Jun 16, '05
When I first read the title of this thread I thought it was more on the PDC. Peace
Jun 17, '05
"Dogfighting?"
I don't think I'm ever forget the day I saw that story break. I just started repeating the word "Dogfighting?" back at the TV screen over and over again.
"Dogfighting?"
I can see how team can miss a player having substance abuse problems, or having problems controling a players temper, but how does the staff miss bloody, gnarled dog carcasses laying all over his home?
"Dogfighting?"
5:31 a.m.
Jun 17, '05