Ever find announcers annoying? Why does Jeff Van Gundy, a former NBA coach, always insist on talking about everything but basketball? His growing bald spot gets more attention than Kobe Bryant's spot up jumper. All his other talk is just noise. Mark Jackson praises the best players and points out the obvious. As a former great NBA point guard, his analysis of the position is absent. Mike Breen, a 14-year announcing veteran, seems to have gotten the memo to try to get Van Gundy off topic as much as possible, especially during the fourth quarter. The rants that ensue pertain nothing close to basketball, and my time is officially wasted.
Where I am going with this is this: hit the mute button. These announcers don't matter; they don't change the game in any way. This strategy can be for both the experienced basketball fan and even the inexperienced. The experienced can test themselves to see how much about the game they know, while the inexperienced can enhance their knowledge on their own and not learn from someone who you are told knows more about the game than you do. Make your own assumptions about the game and base them about what you know. And talk to your family and friends around you about the game. Call your own fouls and maybe even announce the game yourself if you want, if it's okay with those around you. And let them chime in, unlike Van Gundy. Keep a box score open on the website of your choice, I prefer Yahoo Sports, and check the stats to see who is doing well and who isn't.
After the game, watch Sportscenter or the post game show. Watch the press conferences with the players and listen to what they got from the game, they, of course, know more about what happened in the game than anyone else. And don't believe the talking heads of ESPN who claim to know more about the game than the players themselves. Test your knowledge of the game. See the fouls for what they are, and don't let Mike Breen tell you it wasn't a foul when the referees called one, but watch and make opinions for yourself. You may find out that you know more about the game than you thought, and maybe even something about yourself.
As a matter of fact, do the same with life.
Comment if you decide to try it out for maybe a couple minutes or even the whole game and let me know how it goes.
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I really liked the 'courtside' broadcast by Fox for a game this season. You could hear the whistles, the crowd, the squeaking of the shoes on the court, the grunts and the yelling by the players and there were no commentators. This sort of broadcast would be a welcome addition to the normal broadcast.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a great use of new high-bandwidth broadcast streams. Kind of like the audio commentary on Blu-Ray or DVD movies, you could just turn it on or off as you like.
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