Homer Announcers

[Erick Blasco]

Maybe the only bad thing about the free league pass previews is hearing just how bad the announcers are for other teams. Just about everybody's a homer. Cleveland's team is probably the worst, and Clyde Drexler on Houston is almost as bad. Phoenix is another homer contest, and Denver was nothing special either.

 

Portland, San Antonio (Sean Elliott), and Toronto's teams are less horrible.

 

Only really Matt Guokas knows his stuff in Orlando.

 

I'm spoiled that the Nets (when Jim Spanarkle calls a game) and Knicks have very objective analysts.

 

Anyway, I guess this is a thread about the best and worst announcers. Are your local team's broadcasting crews any good? Who are your faves and least faves?

[Universe]

I enjoy watching Nets games because of this. Clyde Drexler is the absolute WORST. Boring and a homer.

[Sun Tzu]

The Suns commentators can become homers some, or maybe even most of the time. I don't really mind them too much though.

[Doc]

That one announcer for Boston is such a homer,I cannot stand him. The Lakers one is pretty good too.

[Jenneral]

I get really annoyed by the Bucks announcers. One of them is always complaining about something and yelling out random things and the other one is just there... probably thinking, FML.

[BasX]

Jack Armstrong is awesome, Leo... not so much.

[Sky]

Worst homers (color)

Boston - Heinsohn - unbelievably bad

Portland - Rice - absolutely insufferable

Milwaukee - McGlockton(?) - yelling "miss it!!!" as Kobe hits a game winner

 

Tough to listen to: Miami (that accent and tude ugh), Toronto (hey Chuck, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck Chuck?), Drexler, Cleveland

 

Worst homers (play by play)

Sacramento - Napear - sophomoric whiner

 

Best color

Golden State - Barnett

New York - Clyde

 

Best play by play

Marv

Breen

Colabro

Edited January 26, 2010 by Sky

[Warren2ThaG]

You should see Mike Rice's face when he talks lmao, so funny with his smile.

[Celtics3420]

Never really listened to anyone elses team's commentary.

 

Tommy is a Homer, so i guess only Celtic fans would enjoy listening to him lol, call him what you will, he does know the game of basketball.

 

 

As for Gorman, i think he's a very good play by play guy, one of the best IMO.

[Erick Blasco]

I remember Golden State's team from earlier in the year. They do good work---shame their team is so bad.

 

Toronto's broadcast team is that bad? They seemed alright in the five minutes or so I heard them. I remember that their color guy has an accent like a Boston accent and I wondered if all (Torontonians?) have an accent like that.

 

Drexler is so, so bad.

[Erick Blasco]

Worst homers (color)

Boston - Heinsohn - unbelievably bad

Portland - Rice - absolutely insufferable

Milwaukee - McGlockton(?) - yelling "miss it!!!" as Kobe hits a game winner

 

Tough to listen to: Miami (that accent and tude ugh), Toronto (hey Chuck, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck Chuck?), Drexler, Cleveland

 

Worst homers (play by play)

Sacramento - Napear - sophomoric whiner

 

Best color

Golden State - Barnett

New York - Clyde

 

Best play by play

Marv

Breen

Colabro

 

Extremely professional.

[BasX]

Toronto Doesn't have Chuck anymore. Matt Devlin is brutal but so laughable. Jack is very good, and Leo is pretty bad. Overall when Jack and Matt are together they aren't bad. Leo and Matt together is terrible.

[Dash]

I hate Clyde Drexler (as a commentator) with a passion. I miss Calvin Murphy.

[Cleveland's Finest]

I saw a Celtics game, and the announcers said there was a no call every play......

[Sky]

Celtics - Agreed on Gorman, of the local only guys imo he's the best play by play man, superb knowledge, concise description and sharp commentary. Tommy really knows the game but his homerism is just so over the top. I watched a game once where he whined for five minutes non-stop about an offensive interference call against the C's. Replay finally comes up that shows definitively that the right call was made and Tommy was wrong. Dead air, total silence. Gorman then ribbed Tommy about it and they moved on. Tommy does that sort of thing a lot. Non-stop bellyaching about a call against Boston that was actually the right call. He's the gold standard in homerism. Mike Rice is close though, nauseating.

[JWaLL]

I can't stand the Cavs announcers. Whoever does the color commentary doesn't know [expletive]. I remember watching them play the Rockets and Ariza got injured and was holding his face, and the color commentator was like "Ohhh boo hoo are you hurt? HEH HEH HEH!!"

 

The Celtics announcers are also very annoying in my opinion, and overly favorable to their team.

 

All bias aside, I love the Wizards commentators, and they are always fairly neutral when it comes to questionable calls and will openly admit when a Wizard gets away with a foul or travel. They also do a great job of analyzing the skills of the individual players on the opposing teams. Just great analysts. Steve Buckhantz has had his funny moments when teams shoot game winners against us however haha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5d097fAWeI

[Flash]

LOL The Heat guys are awesome but I can see where people get mad with Tony Fiorentino. Its like Tony Soprano calling a Heat game. Eric Reid goes crazy though which is cool.

[Poe]

I love the Heat announcers. Very unbiased, they usually give good interesting facts, speak positively about every player, and never fail to be enthusiastic.

[Check my Stats]

Toronto Doesn't have Chuck anymore. Matt Devlin is brutal but so laughable. Jack is very good, and Leo is pretty bad. Overall when Jack and Matt are together they aren't bad. Leo and Matt together is terrible.

 

Jack is awesome, he and Leo both know the game obviously, but Jack is much more humble and funny at times, whereas Leo is just a douche who tries to teach us basketball, as if the fans watching haven't figured out how to shoot a jump shot yet (I love when he talks about the rotation the ball needs to get the friendly bounce ).

 

Chuck was awesome but he was so bias it wasn't funny, he had good catch phrases and you would love how emotionally attached he felt to the team, he was a true Raptors fan calling the games. Devlin is somewhat more professional, his nicknames and catchphrases are extremely annoying at times, but I don't mind him when he is with Jack.

 

Overall Leo is pretty intolerable, the rest is whatever.

 

EDIT: Devlin messes up names quite a bit too which is very annoying.

Edited January 26, 2010 by travesy3

[Built Ford Tough]

Toronto's broadcast team is that bad? They seemed alright in the five minutes or so I heard them. I remember that their color guy has an accent like a Boston accent and I wondered if all (Torontonians?) have an accent like that.

 

It was actually a New York accent that you would've heard, as Jack Armstrong is originally from Brooklyn but moved to Canada after he stopped coaching college ball in New York. At least I think that he moved to Canada after he stopped coaching, not 100% sure on that one. Matt Devlin, the play-by-play guy, is also from New York (Syracuse).

 

Toronto's team really isn't that bad though. Matt Devlin, they main guy, doesn't really know all that much about the game but he is hardly a homer. I think it is because he spent so much time broadcasting other teams before coming to Toronto. He was the Bobcats play-by-play guy for 3 years and the Grizzlies PBP guy for 3 years. He really hasn't been around the Raptors enough to develop that true homerism.

 

Jack Armstrong is a great color guy. He is not a homer by any means and he is probably the most respected commentator in Canada as he has great knowledge of the game. He works well with Devlin as he compensates for the lack of knowledge that Devlin has. They have great chemistry together, as well, partially because it seems like Devlin has a man crush on Jack.

 

Leo Rautins is awful though. He gushes over star players, especially Steve Nash, and I just can't stand him and tries to make the most basic things sound so complex. He knows the game well at least though. He isn't as bad as when Swirsky was still doing games, but he is still bad.

 

Tough to listen to: Toronto (hey Chuck, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck Chuck?)

 

So I'm guessing it has been about a year and a half since you watched a Raptors broadcast then? Swirsky has been doing the Chicago Bulls radio broadcasts since the beginning of last season. Had to leave Toronto for "personal reasons".

 

The Raptors were terrible for homerism when Swirsky was around, but other than Leo, I wouldn't even say that they are homers at all. Really though, home team broadcasts are supposed to favour the home team and show some homerism. They really aren't supposed to be impartial like the broadcast crews on TNT or ABC.

 

The ones that I can't stand though are the Cavs, Celtics and Knicks teams. The Lakers colour guy gets on my nerves after a while too.

 

PS: Sorry for the rant, didin't realize how much I had typed.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[Real Deal]

Clyde Drexler, and it's a blowout, in my opinion. Awesome player, terrible commentator.

[Sky]

Ford - Yeah I haven't seen a Raptors game this year, 18 months sounds about right. When Leo went on his Chuck riffs yikes. He'd say Chuck twice every other play. Really grates after a quarter of that, much less a game. With the Chuck parade and the talking down on the obvious it was pretty brutal.

 

The Laker color guy is Stu Lantz, not one of my favorites even though he's my team. Makes up imaginary conversations, "clear runway 24 for Kobe!" homer rooting. Not good. But since he called the games with Chick he gets icon status. Wouldn't surprise me if Derek Fisher stepped in after he retires. Fish has good knowledge but doesn't shut up.

[Built Ford Tough]

Ford - Yeah I haven't seen a Raptors game this year, 18 months sounds about right. When Leo went on his Chuck riffs yikes. He'd say Chuck twice every other play. Really grates after a quarter of that, much less a game. With the Chuck parade and the talking down on the obvious it was pretty brutal.

 

The Laker color guy is Stu Lantz, not one of my favorites even though he's my team. Makes up imaginary conversations, "clear runway 24 for Kobe!" homer rooting. Not good. But since he called the games with Chick he gets icon status. Wouldn't surprise me if Derek Fisher stepped in after he retires. Fish has good knowledge but doesn't shut up.

 

I agree with you on both parts. You can't really blame Swirky, or Heinsohn, or any other commentator, for being passionate about the team that they are calling, which ultimately leads to terrible homerism. At least they show emotion, which is a hell of a lot better than some of the robotic commentators that we have out there. I'd take a homer over a guy who is clearly there just to collect a paycheck anyday of the week.

 

Swirsky was definitely a homer and Rautins just atagonized him. He wasn't as bad with Armstrong because Jack would basically tell Swirky to shut the [expletive] up and call the game after a certain point, lol.

 

Yeah I really enjoy listening to Chick as well. One of my favourite PBP guys out there. The Lakers are on TV here in Canada probably more than any other team, and since I haven't had League Pass up until this season, they were really the only home town broadcast that I heard more than once or twice (Phoenix being the other). I really enjoyed listening to Chick as he had really nice insight.

[Erick Blasco]

It was actually a New York accent that you would've heard, as Jack Armstrong is originally from Brooklyn but moved to Canada after he stopped coaching college ball in New York. At least I think that he moved to Canada after he stopped coaching, not 100% sure on that one. Matt Devlin, the play-by-play guy, is also from New York (Syracuse).

 

Toronto's team really isn't that bad though. Matt Devlin, they main guy, doesn't really know all that much about the game but he is hardly a homer. I think it is because he spent so much time broadcasting other teams before coming to Toronto. He was the Bobcats play-by-play guy for 3 years and the Grizzlies PBP guy for 3 years. He really hasn't been around the Raptors enough to develop that true homerism.

 

Jack Armstrong is a great color guy. He is not a homer by any means and he is probably the most respected commentator in Canada as he has great knowledge of the game. He works well with Devlin as he compensates for the lack of knowledge that Devlin has. They have great chemistry together, as well, partially because it seems like Devlin has a man crush on Jack.

 

Leo Rautins is awful though. He gushes over star players, especially Steve Nash, and I just can't stand him and tries to make the most basic things sound so complex. He knows the game well at least though. He isn't as bad as when Swirsky was still doing games, but he is still bad.

 

 

 

So I'm guessing it has been about a year and a half since you watched a Raptors broadcast then? Swirsky has been doing the Chicago Bulls radio broadcasts since the beginning of last season. Had to leave Toronto for "personal reasons".

 

The Raptors were terrible for homerism when Swirsky was around, but other than Leo, I wouldn't even say that they are homers at all. Really though, home team broadcasts are supposed to favour the home team and show some homerism. They really aren't supposed to be impartial like the broadcast crews on TNT or ABC.

 

The ones that I can't stand though are the Cavs, Celtics and Knicks teams. The Lakers colour guy gets on my nerves after a while too.

 

PS: Sorry for the rant, didin't realize how much I had typed.

 

lol, if he's the guy I heard, he doesn't have a New York accent at all. If I know anything, I know that I've lived in Brooklyn for 17 years and I've never heard any native New Yorker talk like that. The way his vowels are pronounced (Raptahs) made me think he was from New England.

 

And why are the Knicks guys bad? The main color guy is Clyde Frazier. He's pretty simple and doesn't go completely in depth, but he's fair to both teams and doesn't root, at least not often. Sometimes he gets carried away with his vocabulary (confounding and astounding with their rebounding, swishing and dishing, driving and thriving, attacking the hoop with gusto), but I think it makes him fun.

 

I have no problems with announcers pulling for their teams, I just don't appreciate crews that don't call what's happening on the floor because they have team-colored glasses on, and crews that automatically assume that every close call is clearly the refs fault or the other team's fault when it isn't, or at least is questionable.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Erick Blasco

[Erick Blasco]

Clyde Drexler, and it's a blowout, in my opinion. Awesome player, terrible commentator.

 

I don't disagree with you at all, but you should try listening to a Cavs game for a few minutes. The color guy is mind numbingly awful and makes Drexler sound like Jeff Van Gundy---and Drexler's terrible.