Things I Hate the Most About ABC's NBA Coverage

[TMC]

I'm going to be brutally honest with you in that I'm so sick of ABC holding the over-the-air NBA TV package. David Stern and company made a big mistake leaving NBC after 12 years of excellent coverage. Somehow, ABC/ESPN has made watching the NBA boring instead of an event.

But from a business perspective, Stern couldn't look past ABC/ESPN's money and the rest is history. It's just like when Peter Ueberroth helped take Major League Baseball away from NBC after some 40 something years on the air in favor of CBS' lukewarm coverage beginning in 1990. TNT's NBA coverage, is miles away, superior than ABC/ESPN's NBA coverage. As for my list of my biggest gripes with "The NBA on ABC":
*Their screen clarity, which seems have washed out, not so vibrant colors.

*Dulling out the crowd noise during intense moments.

*Camera angles that seem too far away at times.

*Relying more on cut-aways instead of replays (which in themselves appear rather gritty).

*Poor choice of commentators. ABC's first big mistake was making Brad Nessler their lead play-by-play man. Nessler is a fine college commentator but he had little if any experience at commentating NBA games. ABC should've made Brent Musburger the lead play-by-play man. When ABC's 2003 NBA Finals were poor, they panicked and got Al Michaels to be the new lead play-by-play man. While Al Michaels had more name recognition than Brad Nessler, he to was a horrible choice. Michaels clearly didn't have the passion to cover the NBA. Plus, he really had no clue how to actually commentate basketball when compared to the NFL or Major League Baseball (sports we more commonly associate with).

Mike Breen was a major improvement over Al Michaels as ABC's number one play-by-play man. For one, Breen actually followed the NBA regularly than Michaels (thus, lends more credibility), who didn't want to travel too much during the regular season. Next, Breen has a more linear, explosive commentating style than Michaels. Al Michaels seemed to have a habit of missing at least two straight possessions since he was too busy babbling (and insisting that he finish what he's talking about uninterrupted) about whatever hanging subplot behind the game at hand.

*ABC's coverage overall has been really uneven. The best example of this is their studio show. It seems like for every year that "The NBA on ABC" has been on the air since taking over for NBC, they've had a new name for their pregame/studio show for each year. Also, the personalities (the worst of the bunch probably had to be Scottie "Monotone Voice" Pippin) and setting have changed frequently also.

*The large influence of ESPN. The first real sign of Disney turning ABC Sports into little more than a by-product of the ESPN Family was in 1998 when ESPN's "Sunday Night Football" used the same music and graphics as "Monday Night Football." This was also when they brought in Chris Berman on "Monday Night Football" and had Frank Gifford in the ESPN Zone in Baltimore. "The NBA on ABC" feels like a weird hybrid of "SportsCenter", "ESPN College Gameday", "NBA 2 Night", and "The NBA on NBC" (since they brought in Bill Walton, Mike Breen, Steve "Snapper" Jones, Jim Gray, Tom Tolbert, and Ahmad Rashad).

*Replacing Hubie Brown with Mark Jackson as the lead color commentator. ABC gained a large amount of credibility when they hired Hubie Brown. Unfortunately, ABC seems to prefer having people who they feel will be all willing to criticize and be opinionated than somebody who will educated you about the game.

*The lack of a catchy, distinctive and memorable theme like NBC's "Roundball Rock" or CBS' 1983-1990 (albeit it was altered from the 1989 Finals on through the end of CBS' NBA coverage) theme. Instead, ABC would before to peddle crass hip-hop music, Justin Timberlake, the Blackeyed Peas, Tom Petty, Rob Thomas, and the Pussycat Dolls. Instead of being the leader and setting things in proper motion, ABC would rather jump on current pop culture (a la MTV of the past five or ten years). Only FOX and their baseball coverage seems to be more shameless with cross-promotional tactics.

I also just created this Yahoo! club to support my particular point-of-view:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/The...A_on_ABC_Page/

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by TMC

I'm going to be brutally honest with you in that I'm so sick of ABC holding the over-the-air NBA TV package. David Stern and company made a big mistake leaving NBC after 12 years of excellent coverage. Somehow, ABC/ESPN has made watching the NBA boring instead of an event.

But from a business perspective, Stern couldn't look past ABC/ESPN's money and the rest is history. It's just like when Peter Ueberroth helped take Major League Baseball away from NBC after some 40 something years on the air in favor of CBS' lukewarm coverage beginning in 1990. TNT's NBA coverage, is miles away, superior than ABC/ESPN's NBA coverage. As for my list of my biggest gripes with "The NBA on ABC":
*Their screen clarity, which seems have washed out, not so vibrant colors.

*Dulling out the crowd noise during intense moments.

*Camera angles that seem too far away at times.

*Relying more on cut-aways instead of replays (which in themselves appear rather gritty).

*Poor choice of commentators. ABC's first big mistake was making Brad Nessler their lead play-by-play man. Nessler is a fine college commentator but he had little if any experience at commentating NBA games. ABC should've made Brent Musburger the lead play-by-play man. When ABC's 2003 NBA Finals were poor, they panicked and got Al Michaels to be the new lead play-by-play man. While Al Michaels had more name recognition than Brad Nessler, he to was a horrible choice. Michaels clearly didn't have the passion to cover the NBA. Plus, he really had no clue how to actually commentate basketball when compared to the NFL or Major League Baseball (sports we more commonly associate with).

Mike Breen was a major improvement over Al Michaels as ABC's number one play-by-play man. For one, Breen actually followed the NBA regularly than Michaels (thus, lends more credibility), who didn't want to travel too much during the regular season. Next, Breen has a more linear, explosive commentating style than Michaels. Al Michaels seemed to have a habit of missing at least two straight possessions since he was too busy babbling (and insisting that he finish what he's talking about uninterrupted) about whatever hanging subplot behind the game at hand.

*ABC's coverage overall has been really uneven. The best example of this is their studio show. It seems like for every year that "The NBA on ABC" has been on the air since taking over for NBC, they've had a new name for their pregame/studio show for each year. Also, the personalities (the worst of the bunch probably had to be Scottie "Monotone Voice" Pippin) and setting have changed frequently also.

*The large influence of ESPN. The first real sign of Disney turning ABC Sports into little more than a by-product of the ESPN Family was in 1998 when ESPN's "Sunday Night Football" used the same music and graphics as "Monday Night Football." This was also when they brought in Chris Berman on "Monday Night Football" and had Frank Gifford in the ESPN Zone in Baltimore. "The NBA on ABC" feels like a weird hybrid of "SportsCenter", "ESPN College Gameday", "NBA 2 Night", and "The NBA on NBC" (since they brought in Bill Walton, Mike Breen, Steve "Snapper" Jones, Jim Gray, Tom Tolbert, and Ahmad Rashad).

*Replacing Hubie Brown with Mark Jackson as the lead color commentator. ABC gained a large amount of credibility when they hired Hubie Brown. Unfortunately, ABC seems to prefer having people who they feel will be all willing to criticize and be opinionated than somebody who will educated you about the game.

*The lack of a catchy, distinctive and memorable theme like NBC's "Roundball Rock" or CBS' 1983-1990 (albeit it was altered from the 1989 Finals on through the end of CBS' NBA coverage) theme. Instead, ABC would before to peddle crass hip-hop music, Justin Timberlake, the Blackeyed Peas, Tom Petty, Rob Thomas, and the Pussycat Dolls. Instead of being the leader and setting things in proper motion, ABC would rather jump on current pop culture (a la MTV of the past five or ten years). Only FOX and their baseball coverage seems to be more shameless with cross-promotional tactics.

I also just created this Yahoo! club to support my particular point-of-view:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/The...A_on_ABC_Page/

Hubie is about the only good thing about watching the NBA on ABC

[isiahthomas]

The NBA commentators on ABC are very boring. Mark Jackson was a good point guard when he played in the NBA but he sucks as a commentator.