Newlin - The Shark - Played for the Rockets in the 70's. Great player. Good guy. Not good color commentator.
Oh come on! He did a fine job. He may not be the best speaker, but I found is commentary to be insightful and interesting.
Doesn't Matt Bullard do commentary for Comets games? I know he can take a couple nights off from the Hornets to fill in for Calvin... I could have sworn that there was somebody else that subbed for Calvin when he went out... Allen Leavell??
I admit it, I even missed Calvin. The Replacement was not very good, but at least he knew most of what he was talkin about.
I used to love Newlin because he was so much smarter than Bill, when he did color for a year in the 80's. (He was an accademic all american at Utah). In particular, I remember one time when some guy got knocked to the floor, and Bill said something to the effect of, "Oooh... He sure fell hard." Newlin responded, "9.8 meters/second/second" (the acceleration of gravity). Bill had no idea what to say, and kind of mumbled his way to the next break. It was color commentary moments like this that will always leave a soft spot in my heart for Newlin, even if he is a bit inconsistant. He is very knowledgable about basketball, though.
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it was good to hear someone other than Bill and Calvin gush about our players, particularly, Steve and Eddie. I thought Mike bought some valuable insight from the perspective of someone who isn't always with the team. And even though I love Cat to death, Newlin was pointing out how Cat needs to quit shooting those fade-aways and start going towards the basket when he shoots, or at least straight up. Plus, it was nice to hear someone criticize the Rockets when they decided to pound the ball into the court rather than use ball movement.
I liked him, interesting commentary, no incessant laughing, refreshing, insightful, not always clear, but hey, I thought he did well overall.
I believe Reid Gettys did color the last time Calvin was out. Newlin is brilliant, and has a vocabulary/reference base that put Dennis Miller to shame. However, he is much better in the studio setting. I used to love it when he and Rudy T would get together on KPRC a few years back. It would be great if they hired him to do postgame, or if someone got him on their talk show. It'd be nice to hear a different NBA basketball POV than the two or three guys who get passed around these days...
