Weekend of NBA Hoops.

I appreciate 710 ESPN Seattle allowing and encouraging
me to pursue my passion for broadcasting NBA games. I was
in Philly and Salt Lake City this weekend while the
Mariners took 2 of 3 from the Angels, the Sounders soundly
defeated San Jose 2-0,the Hawks picked Aaron Curry then
removed the franchise tag from LeRoy Hill, Washington and
Washington State nixed the Qwest idea and the legislature
neared adjornment with no money for Husky Stadium and no
money from Clay Bennett. I didn’t miss much.

I left Thursday night on a 5 something hour flight to
D.C. then a 23 minute flight to Philly and arrived at 1
a.m. Friday. In the morning I met the ESPNTV producer
Mandy Cohen and Tim Legler my broadcast partner. At these
production meetings we go over story lines, line ups,
gossip, gripe about the boss, the usual stuff. We also,
because we are TV big shots, get to interview Dwight
Howard and coach Stan Van Gundy in a conference room at
their hotel. We talk to Howard first on camera. The first
thing that strikes you about Howard are the massive
shoulders then the big smile. The guy always smiles
especially when he is posterizing somebody. Howard was on
the cover of S.I., yes smiling, two weeks ago. The
inference of the article I take it is that maybe Howard’s
polite, affable demeanor is not condusive to winning a
ring. We ask Howard if he is too nice to win. He laughs
and of course grins. Nothing surprising here. He thinks he
can win the big one and not have to growl at the same
time. Of course we follow up with a question about his
coach Stan Van Gundy. Shaq proclaimed this season that his
old coach panicked on the bench during games when he
coached Miami. Shaq has also snarled that Howard is not
the real Superman. I thought D.C. comics owned Superman.
Anyway, Dwight says Van Gundy does not panic he is just
very emotional. Van Gundy tells us questions about Howards
competitive nature are way off base for two reasons his
age 23 and his defense. He was named the defensive player
of the year while leading the league in blocked shots and
rebounds. We talked to these two taking notes for about an
hour. We have about 15 minutes of video. The video is
edited into 20 to 30 second bites that we can use during
the broadcast. Ordinarily we will use maybe 2 bites.
Friday night because of the tight nature of the game we
don’t use the segments but we do tell the stories.
Remember folks like to hear stories. We hear that
alot.

Tim Legler and I have never worked together. We are
doing game three of the Magic Sixer series tied at a game
a piece. I’ve always thought Legler is one of the top
analyst of NBA games I’ve ever heard. He played 10 years
in the league for 6 teams.led the league in three point
percentage and played in an all star game. My job as a tv
play by play is simple. First listen closely and react to
the analyst, use sparse language to describe the play and
be the on air triffic cop for the producer who is talking
in my ear while I’m doing all of this. Eventually you get
the hang of it. The game is outstanding. Andre Iguodala at
6 6 puts it all out. He weaves and streaks to the cup. He
levitates and hits midrange pullups with a “different”
kind of shooting technique. He is a willing and skilled
passer and a crazy hopper on the glass. He is becoming a
number 1 guy in this league. Philly has been through a
tough season. Elton Brand the big free agent signee during
the summer has been out with a bum shoulder since February
and head coach Mo Cheeks was whacked in the first half of
the season. The Sixers get up to a 17 point lead in this
one only to see Howard claw back. He scores 36 gets no
help from Hedo Turkoglu or Rashard Lewis and his squad
loses game 3. Thadeus Young gets loose under the rim on an
inbound pass and scores the game winner. It’s always nice
to get a revved up crowd, drama and a last second game
winning shot to call the play by play. It was a good game
and a good broadcast. Legler was outstanding and we worked
well together. I got an email from Bill Walton saying
hello from San Diego and praising Legler’s work. BW said
listening to my work was like going to a Dead concert. I
took that as a supreme compliment.

On to Utah for ESPN radio Saturday night in Salt Lake
City. I leave Philly at 7 am and arrive in Utah at 11am.
I’m whipped but interested to see the draft NFL draft..so
I doze off and on through that before heading over to see
the Lakers Jazz game 4. The Lakers rolled into Utah
knowing they would have to stay here for 4 days. Unless
you snow ski or mountain bike, SLC can be insufferable
this time of year. The Lakers came out disinterested and
lost game 3. Kobe was 5 for 24 and the team shot 37 per
cent. But Saturday night he is remarkable hitting his
first 4 shots all jumpers. He at one point has hit 10 of
his first 14 shots with only one inside of 15 feet and one
three pointer. I’ve said for some time that he and Ray
Allen are the two best midrange shooters in the game and
maybe all time. Think about it and get back to me. Anyhow,
I’m working with Will Perdue who knows something about
great players. He has rings from his days with the Chicago
Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs. Will and I have been
doing radio games together for 6 seasons. He notices
Kobe’s roll but he has seen this kind of play before. Many
times, he teamed with that guy that wore the Bulls
23…mmmm? Oh ya Michael Jordan. As usual Will doesn’t
remark on the obvious, he is impressed with 6 4 guard
Shannon Brown. Brown is a throw in from Charlotte in a
trade to get Adam Morrison. The Lakers traded former Sonic
Vlade Radmonovic. Shannon is the new Jordan. Jordan Farmar
that is. Farmar doesn’t play now that Brown is throwing
his body around the court. At one point Brown steals an
inbounds pass after a basket from Deron Williams and get
an easy layin. Will says that will earn Brown time. And
Perdue should know after all he was a role player for Phil
Jackson. We interview Brown as our star of the game and
then race to the airport. We don’t have skis or a bike.
Time to go.

Now I’ll watch the Tivo for the next two days. I’ll
start with the Sounders win, the three game series in
Anaheim, the top five picks in the draft and anything else
I think might be of interest to you on the show. I’ll be
back on Tuesday. Talk to you then.