Pleased to announced that I am joining the crew at Awful Announcing as a contributing writer. If you follow sports media, you already know about the interesting and entertaining content produced by Matt Yoder and his crew. Many thanks to Bloguin CEO Ben Koo for making this happen. I am looking forward to drafting behind them, so to speak.

From time to time, I will be doing original content for Awful Announcing. My first piece is a  a behind-the-scenes look at ABC’s production of the Chicago-Miami game Sunday.

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I enjoyed spending time with Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, Lisa Salters, producer Tim Corrigan, director Jimmy Moore and the rest of the crew. A highlight was watching how Salters’ memorable interview with Joakim Noah’s father, Yannick, unfolded in the truck.

From the story:

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Word, though, filters in to the truck that Joakim Noah’s father, tennis great Yannick Noah, is at the game. Corrigan asks Salters, “Lisa, would he be a good interview?”

“Let me find out,” Salters said.

Little did they know how good it would be.

As the first quarter closes out, Van Gundy notes about Augustin, “That’s a season saving signing for Chicago.”

Breen, without missing a beat, says, “Oh, nice alliteration there.”

Second quarter: “We might do Augustin coming out of the break,” Corrigan said. “Nobody knows who he is.”

It doesn’t happen. Instead, Salters finds Yannick Noah in the stands. Using a double screen, Moore is able to show Yannick watching his son. Yannick then cuts off Salters in mid sentence and jumps out of his chair while watching his son make a terrific defensive stop followed by a hustle play resulting in a foul on the offensive end. Yannick’s animated reaction makes for great television, a sure SportsCenter moment.

“I think that’s the best 2-box we’ve ever done,” Moore said.

During a break, Breen tells Salters, “To back off and let him go was a great decision.”

Corrigan says, “You’ve got to get a little lucky now and then.”