The Portland Trail Blazers have found their television play-by-play voice for the start of the 2026-27 season (for now, anyway).
According to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Travis Demers will be on the call on a game-by-game basis alongside color analyst Lamar Hurd and courtside reporter Brooke Olzendam. Demers has served as the Blazers’ radio play-by-play voice for the past seven seasons and has occasionally filled in on television.
Demers shouldn’t start clearing out the radio booth just yet, though. A league source told The Oregonian that Demers could keep the job for the entire season, but the Blazers are reserving the right to keep shopping. Portland could bring in a temporary play-by-play voice for four or five games at a time during the season, according to the report, allowing the Blazers to audition other broadcasters while giving Demers time off, but Demers could still call every game.
The Blazers are going this route after their previous TV play-by-play hire fell apart in under 24 hours earlier this month. On Oct. 1, Joe Freeman of The Oregonian reported that the team was set to name Braiden Bell its new television play-by-play voice. Bell, a 29-year-old Arizona State graduate, had previously called college basketball on ESPN+ before moving on to the Phoenix Suns’ G League affiliate and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. That night, after KGW reporter Devon Haskins surfaced misogynistic and racist posts Bell had written on Twitter in 2012 and 2013, when he was a teenager, the Blazers announced they would not move forward with him.
“The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments,” the team said in a statement. “Social media posts made by our recently announced play-by-play broadcaster are in clear violation of team and league policies, as well as our values and expectations. Therefore, we will not be moving forward with this broadcaster.”
Bell subsequently issued an apology, saying the posts were written 14 years earlier, when he was 15, and did not reflect who he is today. On Oct. 5, Bell’s attorney, Arnie Herz, released a statement formally asking the Blazers to reconsider, arguing that Bell had taken ownership of the posts and should not be defined by words he wrote as a teenager. The team told The Athletic that it stood by its original statement and had no further comment.
The position came open when longtime play-by-play voice Kevin Calabro departed after nine seasons on the Blazers’ television broadcast. Calabro left after receiving a low contract offer, Jason Quick of The Athletic reported in July, amid a series of cost-cutting moves under new owner Tom Dundon that hit the franchise’s television and radio broadcast teams. Calabro, who previously spent 22 years calling Seattle SuperSonics games, has since joined the Minnesota Timberwolves’ broadcast team for select games this season.
Portland opens its regular season against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 21, with Demers expected to be on the call.
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