Jun

11

Three-man game in NBA Finals

June 11, 2009 | by Ray Frager | Categories The Rest | 2 Comments

Come a-knock at our door ...As we prepare to hear ABC/ESPN’s announcing team call Game 4 of the NBA Finals, I would suggest a change for next season that would help immeasurably. Regardless of whether the network wants to bring back Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy as analysts, someone needs to be cut. I’m not sure it matters which one.

This is nothing against the performance of either analyst. I could quibble with Jackson and Van Gundy here and there, but overall they are capable commentators. And Van Gundy has turned out to be much funnier than anyone would have guessed when he left coaching for broadcasting.

No, my point is that there are two of them, and thus when you add play-by-play man Mike Breen, you have three voices calling the game. That’s one two many.

Two-man teams develop a rhythm, a give-and-take, that helps the game flow. Three in a booth — no matter the sport — is never better than two. Earlier in the playoffs, as games shifted between ESPN and TNT, the different feel was evident when telecasts went from the ESPN’s threesome to the TNT’s pair. With three voices, particularly in a fast-paced game such as basketball, it often sounds as if the analyst doesn’t get to finish his thought.

So, you folks in Bristol will take care of that for me, right?


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Jack Finarelli on June 11, 2009 10:25 pm

    Ray:

    You said:

    “Three in a booth — no matter the sport — is never better than two.”

    In the vast majority of cases you are right, but please tip your hat to the “Three in a booth” tandem of Gifford/Cosell/Meredith. That trio worked – - and I submit that it worked better than any two of the three would have worked as a pair.

    Also, the three man “booth” of Dick Enberg/Billy Packer/Al McGuire doing NCAA basketball in the early 1980s was also excellent.

    If you say these are the exceptions that prove your rule, so be it. But those “Three man booths” need to be recognized for their excellence.

  2. NMS on June 12, 2009 3:57 pm

    You can also see this with ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Jon Miller + Joe Morgan + Steve Phillips = awkward disaster. I’m okay with Miller, but the other two are poor excuses for color commentators. If you only have one of them, it’s at least tolerable. With both of them it’s atrocious.

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