m33p0
12-06-2007, 11:32 AM
http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/10514500
The Juice: NBA implementing in-game wireless microphones not popular
Dec. 5, 2007
By Tony Mejia
CBSSports.com Staff Writer
Tell Tony your opinion!
Effective immediately, the NBA is coming into your living rooms in a manner in which it never has before. In an effort to be further proactive about being interactive, the league is making all its coaches wear wireless microphones for nationally televised games and asking certain players to do the same.
Any type of 'Brokeback Mountain' references like Phil Jackson made recently will not reach the air. (Getty Images)
"I'm against it," Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich told the Chicago Tribune. "I wouldn't want everybody to know everything that's coming out of my mouth or going through my head during games. You'd have to be careful about what you say."
Hinrich will have the option of refusing to wear one, as will all players. Coaches won't, though their mikes can be turned on and off at their discretion.
Cameras will be placed in locker room areas to reveal some pregame and halftime banter, but are going to be positioned so they don't reveal any strategy-related information that can be intercepted and compromise the game.
The third change, one that will be humorous to watch since all coaches hate to be bothered during a game, will be in-game interviews at the end of the first and third quarters with both coaches. The visiting head coach will be grilled by television commentators following the opening quarter, while the home team's head coach will draw the honors heading into the fourth.
Intrusive? Sure. Interesting? Definitely. Ultimately, it promises to be good for the game. The NBA has always been in your face since it's the only professional sports league where players don't wear hats or helmets. It's now just taking it a step further.
Those of you expecting any more Brokeback Mountain references out of Phil Jackson or waiting on George Karl and Pat Riley questioning their team's manhood can go ahead and conserve the space on your DVRs for something else. You can count on increased access, but anything potentially compromising won't see the light of day. The league will have representatives on site to ensure that what gets out there is family-friendly.
The first guinea pigs, Denver's Karl, Dallas' Avery Johnson, Portland's Nate McMillan and Miami's Riley will provide a wonderful sample group on Thursday's TNT telecasts. It's a nice mix of lifers and young coaches, guys who had ties to one another back in 2000, when the league first tried to launch this experiment and was turned back by resentment. Riley refused to wear one. So did Paul Westphal, now an assistant on Johnson's staff, who went on Seattle's KJR and called it "an unfair restriction on my ability to compete." McMillan was one of his assistants and ironically, replaced him that summer.
Nobody should expect that any of these guys have drastically changed their opinions on the matter seven years later, but the fact of the matter is that there is now a greater understanding that coaches must compromise with the league's broadcast partners to ensure a better product.
It's similar to miked up segments on Monday Night Football, designed to bring you a unique point of view of the action, one previously only available to those sitting courtside. The NFL has had success miking up players for years, showing off the tenacity of a Ray Lewis without making him look like too much of a brute through careful editing. Baseball telecasts often feature interviews with managers in between innings, doing so in the pressure-packed postseason. If Joe Torre can handle it with class, so can Riley.
"I'm not a fan of it," Chicago head coach Scott Skiles told the Chicago Tribune. "It's not going to hinder me from doing anything. But I look at it from a player's perspective. You try to get guys to communicate with the coach, but now the coach is miked. I don't know that I'd be that comfortable being frank with the coach if I knew he was miked and it could be on TV. Quotes get taken out of context. And people make judgments on those quotes."
Trust will be a big part of this initiative and unlike the last major NBA innovation, that wonderful new synthetic leather basketball, it sounds like this has been thoroughly thought out.
Nothing will go out there live. They're not relying on a seven-second delay. You'll see these additions sprinkled in coming in and out of breaks, prepared and approved by the league's on-site representatives, who you can assume will err on the side of caution.
----------------------
i personally prefer to have a referee to be a guest analyst during games.
The Juice: NBA implementing in-game wireless microphones not popular
Dec. 5, 2007
By Tony Mejia
CBSSports.com Staff Writer
Tell Tony your opinion!
Effective immediately, the NBA is coming into your living rooms in a manner in which it never has before. In an effort to be further proactive about being interactive, the league is making all its coaches wear wireless microphones for nationally televised games and asking certain players to do the same.
Any type of 'Brokeback Mountain' references like Phil Jackson made recently will not reach the air. (Getty Images)
"I'm against it," Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich told the Chicago Tribune. "I wouldn't want everybody to know everything that's coming out of my mouth or going through my head during games. You'd have to be careful about what you say."
Hinrich will have the option of refusing to wear one, as will all players. Coaches won't, though their mikes can be turned on and off at their discretion.
Cameras will be placed in locker room areas to reveal some pregame and halftime banter, but are going to be positioned so they don't reveal any strategy-related information that can be intercepted and compromise the game.
The third change, one that will be humorous to watch since all coaches hate to be bothered during a game, will be in-game interviews at the end of the first and third quarters with both coaches. The visiting head coach will be grilled by television commentators following the opening quarter, while the home team's head coach will draw the honors heading into the fourth.
Intrusive? Sure. Interesting? Definitely. Ultimately, it promises to be good for the game. The NBA has always been in your face since it's the only professional sports league where players don't wear hats or helmets. It's now just taking it a step further.
Those of you expecting any more Brokeback Mountain references out of Phil Jackson or waiting on George Karl and Pat Riley questioning their team's manhood can go ahead and conserve the space on your DVRs for something else. You can count on increased access, but anything potentially compromising won't see the light of day. The league will have representatives on site to ensure that what gets out there is family-friendly.
The first guinea pigs, Denver's Karl, Dallas' Avery Johnson, Portland's Nate McMillan and Miami's Riley will provide a wonderful sample group on Thursday's TNT telecasts. It's a nice mix of lifers and young coaches, guys who had ties to one another back in 2000, when the league first tried to launch this experiment and was turned back by resentment. Riley refused to wear one. So did Paul Westphal, now an assistant on Johnson's staff, who went on Seattle's KJR and called it "an unfair restriction on my ability to compete." McMillan was one of his assistants and ironically, replaced him that summer.
Nobody should expect that any of these guys have drastically changed their opinions on the matter seven years later, but the fact of the matter is that there is now a greater understanding that coaches must compromise with the league's broadcast partners to ensure a better product.
It's similar to miked up segments on Monday Night Football, designed to bring you a unique point of view of the action, one previously only available to those sitting courtside. The NFL has had success miking up players for years, showing off the tenacity of a Ray Lewis without making him look like too much of a brute through careful editing. Baseball telecasts often feature interviews with managers in between innings, doing so in the pressure-packed postseason. If Joe Torre can handle it with class, so can Riley.
"I'm not a fan of it," Chicago head coach Scott Skiles told the Chicago Tribune. "It's not going to hinder me from doing anything. But I look at it from a player's perspective. You try to get guys to communicate with the coach, but now the coach is miked. I don't know that I'd be that comfortable being frank with the coach if I knew he was miked and it could be on TV. Quotes get taken out of context. And people make judgments on those quotes."
Trust will be a big part of this initiative and unlike the last major NBA innovation, that wonderful new synthetic leather basketball, it sounds like this has been thoroughly thought out.
Nothing will go out there live. They're not relying on a seven-second delay. You'll see these additions sprinkled in coming in and out of breaks, prepared and approved by the league's on-site representatives, who you can assume will err on the side of caution.
----------------------
i personally prefer to have a referee to be a guest analyst during games.