Silver addressing the lack of x’s & o’s talk in NBA coverage

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Let's be real, how many folks actually tuning in for that? It ain't like Jaworksi diagramming plays on a weekly show and as popular as that was, it even got the axe.

If you're referring to NFL Matchup. The show didn't get the axe. Jaworksi did. You kind of disproved your own point without realizing it.

If the NFL can do it, then there's no reason why the NBA can't either.

 

[Braman]

Or even explain what a zone is.

I remember one year in the playoffs they played a box and 1 on Steph and the announcers were saying how uncommon it is in the NBA but they never actually told or showed you what the fukk box and 1 meant. That’s when you pause the game and break out the telestrator. That stuck out to me because earlier that year in the NCAA tournament they actually explained exactly what that term meant in regard to the defense.

You watch an entire NFL season and you will grasp most of what is happening. NBA, hell naw unless you catch every game Hubie Brown calls.

Ok I wasn’t gonna say anything but this thread reads like Reddit. I honestly suspect the energy of this thread is as such bc the site it’s being overrun by white folk

I used to clown them dudes nonstop bc they always yearning for a breakdown and they fuking LOVE JJ reddikk It’s bc they ain’t never hooped.

What breh that’s ever hooped needs or wants a box and 1 explained to them??!

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

You mean to tell me a multi billion dollar organization can't hire some people who can break down games? Give me a break.

Silver created the product he's criticizing now. All those goofy "both teams played hard" analysts were hired to dumb down basketball for casual audience.


ESPN is the worst product. You might as well ask family cooking shows to talk about basketball.

It's not that easy to find people who can explain X's and O's in a simple and efficiently way. I've seen quite a few athletes in different sports complain about coaches theyve had. Who were more dictating towards the athletes to do something without explaining the reasoning why they should do it. Also that some of the best coaches can get their message and reasoning over to an athlete in less than 60-90 secs. Anything over that and the athlete tunes it out/get bored. Maybe that could be due to the repetitive nature of the messaging. Unless X's and O's are your thing as a fan I can see the casual viewer finding it boring if it's over explained.

 

[Damnshow]

You gotta understand, these shows aren't trying to teach you, they're trying to reach you.
The human mind is built to consume story structures: beginning, middle, and end.
Beginning is the set up, the intro, the hook--they tell you why you should care.
Middle is the conflict, where you're on the edge of your seat.
End is the climax, where you get the conflict resolution, and it leads into a new beginning.
The Harden Saga is a great repeating story line:
Beginning: he wants out of philly
Middle: cold war in philly "ill never speak to morey again"
End: traded to the clippers, leading to a new beginning
beginning: he's in LA, will he continue his same play style
middle: were living this right now, tune in tonight to see how it goes
end: playoffs, how will he do
This happens on a micro level every night, or at least, leagues want it to: every game should have a narrative leading into it, which is what the announcers try to tee up at the beginning, the middle is the game, and the end is the final score--some form of conflict resolution that hopefully leaves questions unanswered to be answered next game.

Analysis, breakdowns, all that shyt--that is a whole different level than how a typical consumer engages with a product, or wants to, from an entertainment perspective, because there's no conflict... unless you have a ridiculously, long, nuanced runway into each topic.
Like, the Pistons coach is running too many of one set of plays or whatnot--ok, that's the set up... thats the beginning... then the middle, you're calling the game.. he runs too many of those plays again... and the resolution is.....? Join us tomorrow night to see if it happens again?
Nah, that's not gonna hook people.

The media exists to make money. And the way to make money is to sell stories. And the way to sell stories is to generate conflict. And the way to generate conflict is through pettiness and interpersonal drama. End of the day, you don't NEED any of these shows, the announcers, the play by play, none of it. If you buy tickets to a game, you go to the arena, none of that is present. That shyt doesn't exist to supplement the product, it exists as it's OWN product.

I understand that.

Simplified things are more attractive to the masses. There's a reason why Apple became a huge success with user friendly UI, there is a reason why simple pop songs are attractive to masses.

Casual NBA fans aren't gonna listen to X and O's, I was commenting on Silver complaining about these things. He could easily hire former players/coaches with high bball iq to break things down. He knows money isn't there.

NBA is a sport where single star can change the outcome of a game quite drastically, much less team dependable than NFL, MLB, etc.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

It's not that easy to find people who can explain X's and O's in a simple and efficiently way. I've seen quite a few athletes in different sports complain about coaches theyve had. Who were more dictating towards the athletes to do something without explaining the reasoning why they should do it. Also that some of the best coaches can get their message and reasoning over to an athlete in less than 60-90 secs. Anything over that and the athlete tunes it out/get bored. Maybe that could be due to the repetitive nature of the messaging. Unless X's and O's are your thing as a fan I can see the casual viewer finding it boring if it's over explained.

Of course you can as there are a bunch of people on social media doing it daily. One of the issues comes in that it’s different doing it on TV than it is via other outlets. Not to mention the look plays a part in it as well.

Look at someone like Bill Barnwell whose of the best right at the ESPN, but he didn’t even get airtime like that until he lost weight and changed up his look.

 

[Damnshow]

It's not that easy to find people who can explain X's and O's in a simple and efficiently way. I've seen quite a few athletes in different sports complain about coaches theyve had. Who were more dictating towards the athletes to do something without explaining the reasoning why they should do it. Also that some of the best coaches can get their message and reasoning over to an athlete in less than 60-90 secs. Anything over that and the athlete tunes it out/get bored. Maybe that could be due to the repetitive nature of the messaging.

Yeah that could be an issue too. How to explain a lot real quick. Another issue might be that regular season teams aren't that complex anyway.
I've seen several Euroleague matches. Their talent is nowhere near NBA's, but the coaching staff does a lot of there. Looking for missmatches, serious effort on defense, can't cruise in the middle of a season, couple Ls in a row and you're already few spots below in the standings. They hire people to explain x and o's cause there's no star power to sell storylines.

 

[The_Sheff]

You gotta understand, these shows aren't trying to teach you, they're trying to reach you.
The human mind is built to consume story structures: beginning, middle, and end.
Beginning is the set up, the intro, the hook--they tell you why you should care.
Middle is the conflict, where you're on the edge of your seat.
End is the climax, where you get the conflict resolution, and it leads into a new beginning.
The Harden Saga is a great repeating story line:
Beginning: he wants out of philly
Middle: cold war in philly "ill never speak to morey again"
End: traded to the clippers, leading to a new beginning
beginning: he's in LA, will he continue his same play style
middle: were living this right now, tune in tonight to see how it goes
end: playoffs, how will he do
This happens on a micro level every night, or at least, leagues want it to: every game should have a narrative leading into it, which is what the announcers try to tee up at the beginning, the middle is the game, and the end is the final score--some form of conflict resolution that hopefully leaves questions unanswered to be answered next game.

Analysis, breakdowns, all that shyt--that is a whole different level than how a typical consumer engages with a product, or wants to, from an entertainment perspective, because there's no conflict... unless you have a ridiculously, long, nuanced runway into each topic.
Like, the Pistons coach is running too many of one set of plays or whatnot--ok, that's the set up... thats the beginning... then the middle, you're calling the game.. he runs too many of those plays again... and the resolution is.....? Join us tomorrow night to see if it happens again?
Nah, that's not gonna hook people.

The media exists to make money. And the way to make money is to sell stories. And the way to sell stories is to generate conflict. And the way to generate conflict is through pettiness and interpersonal drama. End of the day, you don't NEED any of these shows, the announcers, the play by play, none of it. If you buy tickets to a game, you go to the arena, none of that is present. That shyt doesn't exist to supplement the product, it exists as it's OWN product.

None of what you typed prevents NBA coverage from extending beyond “Bang” and “Mama there goes that man”.

Watch a football game and you learn about football. Watch a baseball game and you learn about baseball. Watch a basketball game and “oh it’s too much to talk about how basketball is played”.

Key reason Madden became so popular is because he came at it from the perspective of “ok I know football, you don’t know football, I’m going to entertain you while I teach you football”.

 

[The_Sheff]

Ok I wasn’t gonna say anything but this thread reads like Reddit. I honestly suspect the energy of this thread is as such bc the site it’s being overrun by white folk

I used to clown them dudes nonstop bc they always yearning for a breakdown and they fuking LOVE JJ reddikk It’s bc they ain’t never hooped.

What breh that’s ever hooped needs or wants a box and 1 explained to them??!

One of the key elements of human development is being able to see how situations can affect people other than yourself.

Good news is you still have time to get there.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Of course you can as there are a bunch of people on social media doing it daily. One of the issues comes in that it’s different doing it on TV than it is via other outlets. Not to mention the look plays a part in it as well.

Look at someone like Bill Barnwell whose of the best right at the ESPN, but he didn’t even get airtime like that until he lost weight and changed up his look.

Doing it on social media is far different than doing it on TV especially when it's live. You really think a TV station/network is going to give a no name who has no previous college/professional experience playing/coaching at a high level the platform to do it on their flagship programming?

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Doing it on social media is far different than doing it on TV especially when it's live. You really think a TV station/network is going to give a no name who has no previous college/professional experience playing/coaching at a high level the platform to do it on their flagship programming?

It happens all the time unless you'd like to sit here and say that every TV station out here has a former college player/coach doing that type of content on TV?

Besides people like Mina Kimes and Bill Barnwell were no name's at one point and time and had no prior college or even professional level experience that you're referring to.

 

[Paper Boi]

step 1 get malika andrews off your coverage she's just rachel nichols 2.0



also revoke ramona shelburne's press pass

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

It happens all the time unless you'd like to sit here and say that every TV station out here has a former college player/coach doing that type of content on TV?

Besides people like Mina Kimes and Bill Barnwell were no name's at one point and time and had no prior college or even professional level experience that you're referring to.

You're missing the point. The people you mentioned are professional journalists. Most of the people on social media (which you mentioned and what I'm replying to] doing X's and O's breakdowns aren't ex players or coaches whove played at the highest levels. Its optics for TV. There's a reason why they have an ex player or coach as the color commentary or in the studio instead of Mike from the Rec centre.

 

[Lakerman0834]

Kobe show was top notch. How he broke everything down. Once he passed I guess espn didn’t find a replacement

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

You're missing the point. The people you mentioned are professional journalists. Most of the people on social media (which you mentioned and what I'm replying to] doing X's and O's breakdowns aren't ex players or coaches whove played at the highest levels. Its optics for TV. There's a reason why they have an ex player or coach as the color commentary or in the studio instead of Mike from the Rec centre.

Them being professional journalist mean nothing in the grand scheme of things because the majority of them don't understand the basic X's and O's breakdown themselves. There was a reason why someone posted the thread a few days ago of the Dolphins coach being genuinely surprised that a journalist knew the breakdown of his coaching system.

Every TV station out here can't afford ex players or coaches like television networks can, which is my point and why those social media people who also have their own platforms and podcasts come into play.

 

[Braman]

Nggas want the game explained to them bc they never hooped. Silver’s dream casual carnival

Bball basics explained for a casual’s palette, emulating soccer, gimmicky ideas pulled from bill Simmons notebook…