If you're gonna hire ballers to be on TV...

Permalink of this article

[From Stephen B. Snyde...]

Last week the SportsBusiness Journal reported a poll by Turnkey Sports and Entertainment, which found that...

58% of respondents preferred the NBA on TNT as compared to 42% on ESPN.

If this were a presidential poll, we'd call it a landslide. The NBA on TNT has more personality, more chemistry. We want to hear Kenny Smith's inside perspectives and whatever smart or dumb thing that comes out of Charles Barkley's mouth, as well as Ernie Johnson's tactful yet modest-sounding, ego-less rebuttals. We want to see the post-game interviews because we believe the players will respond better to the TNT bunch than your average news crew.

Last night Ernie wasn't there, apparently receiving a well-deserved Emmy. Now, if you're gonna go out and hire ballers like Kenny the Jet, Chuckie, and sometimes Magic Johnson and Reggie Miller, why not just run your crew like an NBA team?

Ernie is clearly the point guard, distributing the conversation and making sure everybody's heard. Ironically, Kenny remains like a 2-guard, initiating the conversation and going for the big points, while Chuckie's doing the dirty work, adding a little negative or positive, the emotional spark down low. When he's there, Magic actually is the role player who fills in the blanks.

To the NBA broadcasting world, Ernie's like what Magic was to the Showtime Lakers. He's just so fun to watch. If the old school Lakers didn't have Magic for a game or two, wouldn't Michael Cooper slide in from the bench to play the point? Or heck, if this was rec league, you'd almost rather play with 4 guys against 5, just not to mess with the championship/hall-of-fame/legendary starters' chemistry!

You'd just as soon move Byron Scott to the (gasp) 1 -- i.e., Kenny the Jet assumes Ernie's role and it's just him and Chuckie all night long -- before you give the car keys to some schmuck off the street, right?

Who's the GM of the TNT team?

__________