A disturbing trend even at the highest level....

[ssteve]

I have experienced this myself calling D1 basketball and it is VERY annoying.

http://awfulannouncing.com/nba/nba-team ... sters.html

[markinconcord]

Good article! Treating the announcers this way is treating their fans poorly. I hear more games on radio than I see on TV. I might be the exception but I'm sure there are lots of folks who also tune in on radio, especially in their cars.

[Kelly44]

This is an interesting article on several levels.

For me personally I'd say that basketball is the game I least listen to on the radio, especially the NBA. Now I'll preface this by saying that basketball is my third sport after baseball and football. As I write this I'm sitting on my couch listening to an MLB game on the At-Bat app.

I think what hurts basketball as far as location is it's the one sport that has never had a traditional press box. That trickles down to the high school level where schools can put you almost anywhere they want.

I think the another thing that hurts basketball is just what they talked about in that article. Most of the iconic NBA radio announcer with the exception of say an Al McCoy are gone.

There are just not many NBA radio guys right now who I want to sit down and listen to. I think a lot of fans feel that way and thus there has been a de-emphasis on radio. I think I'm familiar with more local NBA TV broadcasters than I am radio broadcasters.

I'm from Cleveland where Joe Tait was revered. I don't know the current announcer John Michael, and I certainly have nothing against him but the times I've listened to him on XM, he does nothing for me.

And that's not to say he's not good but for he's just not Joe Tait. So I'd be just as more apt to watch the game on TV with generic announcers.

I also think the issue is and I have been saying this for years is there's no originality anymore on radio. All these guys sound the same too me. And it's not just basketball, it's happening with a lot of the young announcers coming into baseball.

Back in the day you could turn an NBA game on the radio and listen and say, that's Chick Hearn, or that's Bill King or Marty Glickman or Johnny Most based on the phrasing which they pointed out in the article.

I think alot of team's have been conservative in their hiring, going with more cookie-cutter and less originality. Think about it this way. Imagine if Bill King, in all his flip flop flamboyance, walked into an NBA front office for a job interview today. Some Marketing VP would ask two questions and escort him to the door.

I don't know that I could name ten NBA local radio play-by-play guys right now.

[Marky]

Kelly I agree with you, and one of the reasons I have gone to sports talk (one of the reasons) is it still allows one to be a personality.