i don't see how you're relating the suns style to declining nba popularity. people seem to yearn for the no defense, big offense 80's. as i said, teams like the mavs and kings have been on tv as often as possible recently b/c of the popularity of their offenses. the suns are liked and popular for their offense. the suns are a team that increases nba popularity with their passing and dunking and fastbreaking (and i don't see how a team with nash at pg and guys who shoot 40% on 3's isn't fundamental). the spurs have been the best defensive team over the last 5 or 6 years and they aren't that popular. people certainly don't turn off their sets at the thought of a fancy steve nash pass to amare for a dunk.
and yes, the commentating was definitely suns-oriented. i kept trying to convince myself they were being equal but after a while it became obvious they weren't. tolbert was on tmac pretty good, but overall it was suns dominated (either praising them for being good or wondering if they could come back when they weren't).
I've always hated Brent Musberger. He really does not know how to call the game - he just rambles on and on and occaisionally mentions what's going on down on the court. Look, I'm not saying a TV broadcast should be called like a Radio broadcast, but there are times when Brent doesn't even mention when one of the teams scores! The man should really just retire. That's one of the reasons why (even though I hate the Jazz) I really like Hot Rod Hundley.
Never liked Musberger- Om the '86 finals against Boston- the Celtics had a veteran - talented team with Bird, McHale and Parrish. the Rox had the twin towers. The refs did not call the game in Houston's favor at all - swallowed the whistles - McHale got away with anything he wanted....Extremely rough physical game with Rockets getting few calls in their favor-playoff basketball with a bias toward Bird.... Musberger made a comment before a home game -something like"Boston is experiencing an economic boom, and Houston is the most economically depressed areas in the nation". He was right - the economy at the time was terrrible in Houston- never had been bad like that before. Why rub it in???? Musberger- If you cannot say something nice- do not say anything at all... Thankgoodness someone on the chat mentioned the game was on Fox - I switched immediately to get away from Musberger and Tolbert.... Did Tolbert play in the NBA ? What a Know it all jerk to pair with Brent Musberger..
Yeah, I was cringing every time he'd do that. For the Suns, every thing was "amazing" and "astounding" and "brilliant." Especially when it comes to Amare. My favorite moronic quote: "He's so good, he changed the pronunciation of his name from Amar-ee to Amar-ay." WTF? Or maybe you've just been mispronouncing it all along, you dumbas$. He got really quiet when the Rox had a 16-point lead and dominated the entire third quarter. Then when the Suns cut the lead to under 10, he enthusiastically yelled, "Here they come! You KNEW it couldn't last!" I hope he's got plenty of Chapstick, because he's gonna need it after spending so much time with this lips pressed against Amare's backside.
You mean like when Burnt Cheeseburger kept referring to Weatherspoon as Witherspoon again and again and again, and nobody bothered to correct him? Nice pre-game preparation Brent. And wasn't it nice how when they finally put up the stat we're all aware of, the one where Amare only shoots about 37% against Yao, they kind of just glossed over it as though it were insignificant?
Is that a joke? Amare has a hard time against Yao. Yao gets tired and gets bs fouls called on him. If I go to games I'm going to make posters that say STOP BEING BIASED ESPN and REFS SUCK PS Stop This Amare Infatuation!
the briefly mentioned in passing in the first qtr that amare has had a hard time against yao but then quickly moved onto the fast breaking and all. i have no problem with home-biased pbp guys (see memphis grizzlies) but it really annoys me when national broadcasts are clearly biased even if its for the rockets. i caught the last quarter of this game and was watching the replay of the game at 1130pm pst again and could not believe these two. tolbert doesnt like teams that play defense he likes to see games well into the triple digits so he will always be biased against the rockets,spurs,pistons etc. musberger is just plain annoying.
Who can forget when completely out of the blue he mentioned he knew who was going to win the Kentucky Derby.
cheering for the home team doesn't annoy me that much. But some commentators annoy me to death with their biased opinion on fouls. They only see things they choose to see and then for the rest they will just say "I don't see a foul, that is a terrible call." Suns' and Grizz's TV guys are particularly annoying with this kind of things.
The Suns are winning. And they're winning in an exciting fashion. It's the nature of commentators to jock such things. I actually thought Tolbert was reasonably fair. He obviously preferred the Suns...but who doesn't outside of Houston (besides a couple of sourpusses moaning about the death of defense)?
"Every single member of this starting lineup averages over 15 points a game, yes that's right folks, 15 points a game!" "Amare can't do jack sh*t when Yao is actually guarding him but man when you leave this guy wide freaking open with 2 or 3 feet, look out folks!! What great upside!!
ESPN did the same thing for the lakers game. Lakers this Lakers that....... Even when the lakers are loosing. Its soo annoying
I have never heard more annoy commentator than Musberger, Tolbert becomes better, but still pretty annoy from time to time. On that Amare dunk, they kept going on and on, "What a great dunk, right over Yao, in his face. It's a play of the day hilight. Yao got to remember that one for a long time, baby!", while Yao was a few feet from Amare after helping defense. Musberger asked Tolbert who would he pick to start a team, Amare, or Yao. Old Tolbert would have said Amare immediately, but he said that it depends on the style of the team, and the Suns definitely wants Amare, but Yao would fit better for a traditional team. But that Musberger jerk just wouldn't give up, "Com'on, who do you really want to pick?", and Tolbert finally gave in, and picked Amare. I guess that's why those two are in the entertainment business, not working for any NBA teams.
I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who noticed that. Me and my wife were screaming at the TV for the entire first quarter because it was so Suns focused. I live it Dallas so I couldn't watch it on my league pass plan or else I would have flipped it ASAP. Just glad we won.
I don't know how old you guys are...but Musberger used to work for CBS and he did every single sporting event for them - football, basketball, olympics, college sports, horse racing, boxing, tennis and even used to banter with Jimmy the Greek. Man I was so sick of him 20 years ago. Then he got fired by asking too much money, well he sure deserved it with all the events he did, but they told him to screw. Thankfully we hardly hear from him anymore. He's one of the worst broadcasters ever. It's not just the Suns or Rockets...it's everything.
Remember when Mustardberger asked Tolbert who he would take, Amare, or Yao? I was surprised that Tolbert actually hesitated before saying Amare. In the past Tolbert's always been in the Yao hating club, along with fellow members Kerr and Tim Legler (Legler is the worst by the way).
