Tampa Bay Times columnist Tom Jones looks back at the best and worst from the weekend in televised sports.
6 Days Ago
3 Days Ago
2 Weeks Ago
Best coverage
Saturday night’s Golden State-Oklahoma City game on ABC was the most entertaining sporting event in quite some time.
Strange to say that when it was just one of 1,230 regular-season NBA games and it wasn’t even close in the second half.
Two things made it special: the intriguing storyline and ABC’s near-perfect coverage of it. The story, of course, was Kevin Durant returning to OKC for the first time after spending eight seasons there, then leaving in free agency for Golden State.
ABC/ESPN was all over it. Intuitive direction made sure viewers didn’t miss the reaction of everyone — from Durant to his former best buddy (OKC’s Russell Westbrook) to, especially, the fans who booed and antagonized Durant incessantly all night. The entire broadcast was build around this one thing and that’s exactly how it should have been. Nothing else mattered, not even the outcome.
During the third quarter, when Westbrook started jawing with Durant, exquisite camera work captured both men. The whole night — from shots of the crowd to the announcing of Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy — was must-see television.
Now, to the story. After months of supporting Durant and his decision, I now think what he did was weak. Durant certainly earned the right to leave via free agency, but it was kind of a punk move to go to OKC’s chief rival, especially after you failed to deliver an NBA title. You can understand why OKC fans felt betrayed. You also can understand Westbrook’s hurt feelings, especially because Durant, to this day, hasn’t reached out to Westbrook.
"It is a big deal,” Jackson said during the broadcast. "He owes Russell Westbrook a phone call. If you’re brothers and you love him and you left it on the floor … it’s a tough phone call to make, but it’s a call you have to make.”
All of Saturday was delicious and ABC/ESPN made the most of it all weekend. The audience agreed: it was the highest-rated non-Christmas Day regular-season NBA game since 2013.
Biggest move
Last week, Bob Costas (top left) stepped down as primetime host of the Olympics and turned the torch over to Mike Tirico (bottom left).
Admirable of Costas to step aside even though he still is the gold standard of hosts. He has hosted 11 Olympics and, at the age of 64, certainly could have kept going.
Then again, it’s not the job it used to be. The role of the primetime host as diminished significantly over the years. These days, the hosts do little more than play traffic cop, setting up the next event.
The good news for us is Costas is going to spend more time on his first love — baseball. Look for increased presence and, frankly, better work from him at MLB Network as he can get more into the rhythm that baseball requires.
As far as Tirico, he’s terrific and will do fine, but shouldn’t Dan Patrick have been in line for this? Maybe Patrick didn’t want the gig, although I can’t imagine that he didn’t.
Best criticism
Announcers are too hesitant to rip officials because they understand better than most how difficult the job is. But it was refreshing and appropriate when ESPN College GameDay’s Rece Davis and analyst Jay Bilas blasted officials for two horrible calls that helped VCU win two games last week. The best was Bilas pointing out how ridiculous it is to get away with drawing fouls by sneaking a player behind a defender guarding an inbound pass so the defender runs into him.
Best debut
Solid start for Jemele Hill and Michael Smith on ESPN’s new weeknight SportsCenter nicknamed "The Six.” The revamped SportsCenter is high on analysis and interviews and low on highlights. That’s fine, especially because Hill and Smith bring an interesting perspective.
This new show isn’t everyone’s cup of tea because it is different and geared toward a younger demographic. If you like Hill and Smith, you’ll like the show. If you don’t, you won’t.
I like both, especially Hill, who has become one of ESPN’s most thoughtful commentators. Smith has a tendency to get too amped and the louder he gets, the less thoughtful his remarks are. But when he’s measured, this show is outstanding.
What’s impressive is the show is this good only a week into it. As they get more reps and add more elements, the show will get even better.
Worst criticism
Want to know why FS1’s Undisputed is a joke? Last week, co-host Shannon Sharpe (above) said the Falcons should have fired coach Dan Quinn after Atlanta made the wrong kind of history by blowing a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl. Even Skip Bayless, the one who usually says the stupid stuff on that show, was incredulous. When you say completely asinine things like that, it’s hard to take the show seriously.
Best media transactions
Deadspin is reporting that the best NBA reporter alive, Adrian Wojnarowski, is working on a deal where he would leave Yahoo Sports to join ESPN.
Speaking of ESPN, it has hired recently-retired Yankees star Mark Teixeira as a studio analyst.
And speaking of that: whatever happened to former ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk? He’s headed back to his old team, the Phillies. He will call 80 or so games for CSN Philadelphia.
About his time at ESPN, Kruk told CSN Philly: "I’m not big on meetings. We had a lot of them up there. A whole bunch. Incessant phone calls. I didn’t answer most.”
That explains why he wasn’t the best analyst ESPN ever had.
Three things that popped into my head
1 This week, ESPN will do its annual switch of having NBA analysts do college games and college analysts do NBA games. Hey, ESPN, this is among the crummiest ideas you’ve ever had and the broadcasts are terrible.
2 Ugliest moment of the weekend: the disgusting slash to the face by the Red Wings’ Gustav Nyquist on the Wild’s Jared Spurgeon. Good for NBC analyst Mike Milbury to call for a lengthy suspension.
3 This will make you feel old. Duke’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski turns 70 today.
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