Steve Kerr had a great line while appearing on Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman’s show on WMVP-AM 1000 yesterday.
When asked about tonight’s Oklahoma City-Golden State game on TNT (10:30 ET), which won’t feature a traditional play-by-play man calling the action, Kerr said: “We told them it was time to get rid of Marv Albert.”
Kerr, of course, was joking. After tonight, he likely will have greater appreciation for Albert, Jim Nantz, Kevin Harlan and other play-by-play voices.
In an interesting experiment, TNT is using Kerr, Reggie Miller, and Chris Webber for tonight’s game. Kerr said he will serve as the traffic conductor, but he won’t be doing play-by-play.
USA Today’s Reid Cherner reports:
The idea for the new booth came from a conversation between Turner Sports COO Lenny Daniels and Senior VP Craig Barry.
“Lenny and I are always talking that television has always been done the same way for the last 40 or 50 years,” Barry told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “Why not just have a team captain and have three guys who know the game inside and out?
“They are all charismatic, they are all capable of carrying a show, so why not just have them talk basketball?”
I applaud innovation, and it’s good way to spice up a late-season NBA game. However, I don’t think play-by-play men should get too nervous that the concept will put them out of jobs.
Love the idea and can’t wait to hear it. Ironically, the best scenario is if it turns into these guys stepping all over each other. And I mean that in a good way, just like three buddies in a basement watching a game. Three great candidates for this, from their knowledge and humor. Plus, I wouldn’t say PxP guys should be scared for their jobs…just a different way to announce a game. I think a PxP guy could become less scripted in their approach, too.
Most may be too young to remember, but the NFL broadcast a game (Jets were playing) with no announcing crew at all, just the in-stadium public address system, and it was long ago but I remember enjoying the game immensely. With networks showing the down, distance and time between every play nowadays, it would be even easier to do that now,…