Isaac Ropp
Portland sports radio and television host Isaac Ropp announced on his radio show Thursday that he has been fired from his job as a panelist on the Comcast SportsNet Northwest TV show “Talkin’ Ball.” According to Ropp, he was fired because he’s been critical of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Ropp, who hosts the popular sports talk radio show “Primetime with Isaac and Suke” on 1080 The Fan, had been a regular panelist on “Talkin’ Ball” along with Orlando Williams, Jason Quick and Dwight Jaynes.
During his Thursday radio show Ropp included a segment with his side of the story:
I was fired from Talkin’ Ball. If you are a Blazers fan you may want to hear why. Link to segment: https://t.co/lexpkkmlrJ
— Isaac Ropp (@iropp) February 3, 2017
In the segment, Ropp talked about what led up to his firing, and assigns blame to Blazers general manager Neil Olshey.
“It’s Neil Olshey, is who it is,” Ropp says at about the 2:30 mark. “I called him the ‘Sports Trump’ because that guy is the most sensitive guy I’ve ever seen in this business. Ever.”
CSN Northwest vice president and general manager Larry Eldridge, in an email exchange with The Oregonian/OregonLive, said the decision to fire Ropp was his, not Olshey’s.
“It was totally, 100 (percent) my decision to remove Isaac from Talkin’ Ball,” Eldridge wrote. “The team/(Neil) Olshey did not participate at all in that decision.”
Ropp doesn’t deny he’s been hard on the Blazers this season.
“I take responsibility,” he said in the segment. “I don’t sugarcoat. … Particularly on Twitter.”
“I always tell it like it is,” Ropp said. “And I got fired for that.”
In July the Blazers agreed to a four-year contract extension with CSN Northwest to continue its longstanding broadcast partnership. CSN Northwest owns the rights to broadcast Blazers games through the 2020-21 NBA season.
Here are some of Ropp’s most recent tweets:
Enjoy watching how constantly exacerbated Olshey gets watching this mess of a defense (stares hole through Stotts). [?]
— Isaac Ropp (@iropp) January 26, 2017
Wow. Nuts. If Blazers didn’t live in such a bubble they may care. https://t.co/011686NCn2
— Isaac Ropp (@iropp) January 26, 2017
How Olshey (and Stotts) get such a pass is beyond me. Good for them Bert Kolde isn’t playing closer attention. https://t.co/ClCBdMJfUk
— Isaac Ropp (@iropp) January 26, 2017
So uniquely Blazers they somehow manage to honor ’77 team on night with no local broadcast so fans can’t actually see it.
— Isaac Ropp (@iropp) January 26, 2017
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