costas was not a good basketball announcer, the whole story telling angle does not work in basketball, he would get lost and behind the action. it would get on my nerves
Step it up another notch and pick up Gus Johnson also. TNT has the two best announcers in Kevin Harlan and Marv Albert(hear the McGrady calls). Though Mike Breen and Tirico are adequate enough, they're still a step behind. Only positives for ESPN is Hubie Brown(kicks plenty knowledge) and Bill Walton(xtreme goofiness) And ABC might want to try scheduling a team other than Suns, Lakers, Cavs, Heat, Pistons, and Bulls. All these teams(except Suns) are a complete disaster to watch. I'd be happy to even see some Spurs in there(no chance after finals debacle). I remain hopeful to see some more Rockets games, and some Celtics games to take away from these boring ass teams.
No ABC does have something to do with it. As I said earlier, the storied rivalries, the moments, those are all media generated creations. Right now, ABC could create a Suns-Spurs rivalry tomorrow. Put all their games on, relive all the crap that happened last year and in years past and bam, you've got yourself an old-fashioned rivalry. It's about telling a story, and each rivalry had a story beneath it. ABC instead has chosen to shift focus from the teams to the players (the superstars) and that's pretty dumb when there are good teams without big names and bad teams with superstars. Also, the camera work is less than desirable sometimes. If San Antonio hits a game winner, they're wasting time panning to Eva Longoria and other B-list celebrities instead of panning to an overhead view of the crowd to allow the viewer to take in the full effect of the crowd. It's little things like that that add up to a better presentation. Remember when ABC first started doing the NBA, everyone made fun of them for pointing the camera at women with big boobs. now I have no problem with that, but in terms of projecting the game for the game itself, it's pointless. The NBA was set for a decline after Jordan retired. How in the world could anyone expect them to sustain those kinds of ratings? But, ABC has helped let those ratings continue to drop like a rock of a huge cliff. I realize a lot of our opinions are nostalgic, but objectively speaking, ABC flat out sucks with its presentations. I remember wanting to watch teams other than the Rockets play, but now, who the hell cares about those games anymore. I certainly don't plan on watching just to see the Pussycat Dolls sing their garbage.
I was thinking that its weird that cbs gave up the nba at the time, 88 or 89, and then a few years later gave up the nfl. I wonder if fox and nbc just had enough cash to outbid them because they were really successful at the time, nbc with cosby, cheers, family ties, etc, and fox with the simpsons, married with children, etc. or did cbs just drop the ball.
i read somewhere on wiki that they knew they screwed up with losing the NFC. I'd have to go find it. In that top ten rockets plays in the playoffs, why is Maxwell's shot not in there. That was basically the nail in the coffin. I'm glad they have Hakeem's block on Starks, because the way he was playing, you know that shot was going to go in.
although NBC did benefit from Jordan like everyone else has stated they did a much better job of advertising their product.... one thing that I LOVED was the Sunday triple headers............. over 6 hours of b-ball on a relaxing Sunday....you just can't beat that.............most of the time ABC will only show 1 game per sunday.... 2 at the most ............. you don't get a chance to know the league as well, because of the small amount of teams they actually show.............. and how in the hell can any straight male get hyped off the p***y Cat Dolls theme song?????? ...........
I agree. The montages and opening monologue helped build the hype that was already there. Their broadcasters had enough personality to counter Bill Walton's sarcasm. They knew went to let him go or to call him on the off the wall crap he said. ABC/ESPN commentators are mostly soulless tools who sound afraid of getting fired by the producers. That or they hire morons who think stupidity is personality like Tom Tolbert...
just because nbc clearly had more exciting basketball moments than what abc has had doesnt make abc a bad network for the NBA... NBC just benefited from great basketball and had the chance to make storylines... there hasnt been much storylines going on anymore. the only thing i can even think of that could bring better rating is the spurs and suns due to the series this last playoffs. But that just happened in the last playoffs. Yeah abc could open up the games with better with something else other than the p***y cat dolls, but besides that, they cant control the games themselves.... let it go people, its not that big of a deal
And this is what we have to sit through today... <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tid9xUc5VMU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tid9xUc5VMU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Seriously though, who are The Pussycat Dolls? What a joke...
But you have to hype that stuff up properly. Why hasn't ABC turned Suns-Spurs into a major rivalry already. It has all the elements to be one. But its not treated like that. Same with Detroit-Miami. These things need to be hyped up and developed properly. ABC has chosen a strategy to focus on players instead of teams and matchups and that's the problem. Even if the basketball is worse, ABC hasn't exactly helped it either. They're total focus on star players and not the teams is what makes their programming suck. There are rivalries and good games today but you'd never know that with all of the obsessive attention placed on stars.
Maybe because NONE of these teams come close to measuring up to the powerhouses of the 80's and 90's. The Spurs are boring, Steve Nash would never be an MVP back then, Miami is still a pseudo-expansion team that plays in a lackluster sports market, and Detroit doesn't have one star to speak of (and even then, they're becoming the Atlanta Braves of the East... not too special). How about when NBC had the NBA in their final years.... and how the ratings continued to plummet as a result of the lack of interesting rivalries/stars. There certainly wasn't a problem with their "presentation"... but the ratings continued to slide because of the overall quality of the league. Granted, the league has made a slight comeback, image/quality of play- wise, since then... but it still suffers from the effects of expansion, the fact that the big-time markets are still not quite big-time (NY, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Lakers), and nobody is quite at the Jordan/Magic/Larry level yet.
Of course ratings were plummeting. Michael freaking Jordan retired. There's no way to sustain ratings after the greatest player ever leaves. Rating slides were inevitable and the glory days had to come to an end. But as boring as San Antonio is, there were plenty of teams like that in the NBA during NBCs run. Its all about marketing and ABC sucks at it. It will never be like the 90s again but ABC could do a hell of a lot better is the point.
And how many of those types of teams won 4 championships, and supposed to be THE dominant team in the league? None. The overall quality of the top teams in the sport has decreased... you don't need a network to sell the games, you need the game to sell itself. For instance, the NFL could be on PBS for all I care... I'm definitely going to watch it regardless of the "presentation".
I agree totally. Late 80s style. I am in the minority, but it didn't get any better than hearing Stockton call a playoff game back in the day. Even today, I still think he is top notch. He calls the came with a calmed intensity which I very much appreciate. Keeps all the games he calls exciting.
Did you watch the Oakland-Mavs series? He couldn't have butchered more names, calls, scores, non-calls... sure, it sounded "succint", and in control, but if you were actually listening/following the game, it was a nightmare. Back in the day, he was top notch... but nowadays... its a little painful.
