I have to agree. The Breen-Van Gundy-Jackson announcing team is the best one going, by far. You get professionalism, experience, knowledge, and humor all at once. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080305 Q: Wait, you're criticizing me? We're giving you the best three-man booth for a basketball game in three decades and you're taking shots at me? You're an ungrateful ^#%@%!%. --J. Van Gundy, Houston SG: You're right, that was a bad job by me. And you're right, Mike Breen-Mark Jackson-Van Gundy is the greatest three-man basketball booth since Dick Enberg, Al McGuire and a pre-curmudgeon Billy Packer. Their performance during the Mavs-Lakers game was simply remarkable, highlighted by Van Gundy mentioning before Odom's second key free throw in the Mavs game that Kobe Bryant was one of the best free-throw rebounders in the league and he wouldn't have an inexperienced guy like Brandon Bass boxing him out …and even as the words were hanging in the air, Kobe put 17 different fakes on Bass and grabbed the rebound. Even better, Van Gundy didn't ram the moment in our faces, and within a few seconds, Jackson was making "even a broken clock is right twice a day" jokes while Breen played the straight man. This was the defining sequence for a team that's every bit as good as TNT's "Inside the NBA" studio team. Three notable things here. First, I never imagined (and neither did you) that Van Gundy would be this good and this funny as a lead network TV analyst; I remember enjoying him on TNT during his earlier stint, never thinking he would become the best in the business. Now you could argue that he's the single best guy for any sport, college or pro (in fact, I just did), and his give-and-take with Jackson and Breen proves once again that sports announcing is about chemistry and not just throwing two or three big names together and hoping they click. Second, I can't believe that the greatest NBA three-man booth ever doesn't have Marv Albert on it; for whatever reason, he's never had the best possible partners at the same time. On the other hand, even Marv would admit that Breen is the best possible fit for this particular crew, as well as the most underrated play-by-play guy in any sport. (I've written this before, but his performance during Game 4 of the Nets-Celtics series, when Boston came back from 27, remains one of the all-time classic play-by-play jobs.) And third… ... Actually, this deserves its own paragraph: After watching the Breen-Jax-JVG team a few times, I'm more convinced than ever that every No. 1 announcing team should have at least one analyst who recently coached or played. (We'll define "recently" as "within the last 4-5 years.") Some of Van Gundy's points and predictions -- like what happened with the aforementioned Kobe play, for example -- are things that someone couldn't know unless he recently played or coached. You're just not going to learn things like "Kobe is the best rebounder in the league off missed free throws" from someone who's been out of the league for 20 years, shows up 24 hours before the game and gets his tidbits from talking to the coaches on both teams. You're not. Ideally, the perfect three-man team would have a quality announcer, a personality who's been out of the game for a few years but still does homework and watches tapes (like Jackson, Ron Jaworski or Kenny Smith), and then, a former player or coach who left the league within the last four years … and then, after you have all of those things, you still have to cross your fingers and hope they click and have the right blend of humor, intelligence and chemistry. And you wondered why it's only happened twice in basketball.
jvg really is AWESOME! on tv and as a coach. i'd like to substitute jon barry for mark jackson, though.
i love jvg as an announcer but if anything i cant stand mark jackson and it seems that jackson does most of the color while JVG will get his jabs in here and there and i dont really care for any of jackson's stuff he isnt very "insightful" imo. that rebound remark was amazing seriously that sort of minute detail on it shows why the rockets did so as well as they did last year even with yao out, preparation
I'm going to take a guess and say TheKurmudgeon doesn't have a favorite announcer. The Kobe remark reminds me of a time with Harry Carry was out for a month after surgery. The Cubs decided instead of replacing him with a single fill-in, they would have celebrity guests sit in with Steve Stone. Now Steve Stone (normally the color guy with Carry) was good enough to do the play-by-play and analysis, so this was a doable idea for the Cubs to try. One game Bill Murray (a longtime Cubs fan) came to the booth. The Cubs were playing the Dodgers and Sutcliffe was pitching early in his career for the Dodgers. Murray, knowing his stats, even that early in Sutcliffe's career, said "Watch out, Sutcliffe is a pretty good hitter, he could hit a homerun here." next pitch...home run. But even better than that was the double play he called. Steve Stone had to remind him that there was no force out available...there was only a man on second. Sure enough...line drive up the middle for a catch and tag of second before the runner could get back. That was sooo funny. Of course, Bill Murray goes into his Caddyshack voice saying..."This crowd has gone deadly silent."
i dont kno why people have to be negative like this. if someone likes him its there business. u dont have to make ur highschool comments about others opinions. just dont say anything. nobody cares what u think is overrated anyway.
JVG's comments on Kobe's free throw rebounding starts at 4:33 mark. Classic. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gpbT2Hcljtw"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gpbT2Hcljtw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
I think Jeff is fantastic but exaggerate much with 'greatest trio ever'? Breen is palatable I guess but doesn't have that marquee trademark voice that distinguishes the greats. Mark Jackson is average to below average. Any discussion involving greatest broadcasting teams begins and ends with Marv Albert. I can't imagine a single classic play from the 90's without hearing "YES!...AND IT COUNTS!" along with it. A great play by play guy can make a playoff game legendary. Michael Jordan's hand-switch in '91 wasn't anything special. It probably doesn't make every highlight collection without the "A spectacular move by Michael Jordan!" Marvism. Same goes with "he just sucked the gravity right out of the building." Great dunk by T-Mac, but Harlan's call took it to another level. I agree with Simmons' point about having a former coach on the team. I love the insight that Collins, Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello in the 90's, and now Jeff are able to bring to the games. As long as we all pretend that ESPN's PJ Carlesimo experiment never happened... We need to get away from this obsession with having former players in the booth. For the most part, it has been a disaster. Bill Walton is horrendous. Magic Johnson was beyond terrible. Tom Tolbert (if you even want to call him a former player) was atrocious. Reggie Miller is annoying. Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr are simply palatable. I can't think of a single former player who have brought anything positive to the booth.
I'm a big fan of Collins too, but he's no JVG. They are comparable in breaking down the game and giving insight, but Collins can't hold Van Gundy's luggage when it comes to personality and wit.
