I recently watched a few minutes of the NBA Finals. With six minutes left in this particular game, the Phoenix Suns were winning by about 10 points. From what I could tell, they had been dominating the whole game so there wasn’t much drama happening.
Maybe it was because my heart wasn’t in it (I haven’t cared about the NBA since the Sacramento Kings of ’99), but it was clear the announcers were trying to create tension and excitement where there wasn’t any (unless you are a Suns fan, I guess?).
To set up the situation… and using sports comparisons… think of a football game when there are just seconds left and the quarter back heaves a game winning touchdown. The crowd goes wild! The announcers shriek with disbelief. Or in a baseball game, the batter hits a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th. It can be mayhem when something like this happens.
This NBA game? Not anywhere close to that. The Suns were up by 10 points, remember that… they dribble down and take a shot. They miss. Offensive rebound and they take another shot and miss. Talk about disappointing, right? But they’re up by 10 with minutes to go, so there isn’t really any drama. After that last missed shot, they get the rebound AGAIN (does anybody in the NBA play defense anymore??) and take a 3-point shot. Finally, it goes in. The announcer, Mike Breen, exclaims, “Bang!” like the Suns had just made a game-winning shot. Umm, they JUST missed 2 shots before that so calm down there mister. It felt weird in that moment to have such excitement for a made shot by a team that just missed a couple, and they’re already winning by a lot. I laughed and was very annoyed.
I’m not trying to poo-poo the league or Mike Breen, but call a spade a spade. The game was already over. His “bang” was so out of place.
Here’s Mike delivering his signature line in games where it actually makes sense…
How’s THAT for an nit-picky examination of the NBA Finals? If everything goes well for me this week, I won’t have to suffer by watching the rest of the series… because, let’s face it, no team could pass and shoot like the ’99 Kings.
Vlade Divac sets a pick and dramatically flops to the ground, Jason Williams behind the back pass to Chris Webber, slam dunk… BANG!
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 