I don't live in San Antonio (as you might guess from my screen name), so I watch all of my games on NBA League Pass. Often, whenever they pick up the opposing team's announcers, it's can be somewhat unbearable.
But other times (especially when they're playing a bad team), the opposition's broadcast crew spends all night talking about the Spurs. When that happens, it's always interesting to get an outside perspective on the team. The Clippers commentators complimented the Spurs throughout last night's game.
Among the things they said (paraphrasing)...
- "When Manu is 100%, this Team has as good a chance as any team in the west, or in the NBA for that matter."
- "With Manu, you're talking about a guy that was arguably MVP of the league for 2/3 of the season last year."
- "The Spurs have always had a way of finding great young players with late draft picks... Manu, Tony Parker, and now, George Hill."
- "Someone once said you need 3 stars to be a great NBA team, and the Spurs have them... and they all beat you in different ways. Manu beats you with his flamboyance. Tony beats you with speed. And Tim beats you with his mundaneness."
- "Fifty years from now, some stat geek will crunch numbers from Duncan's era and come to the conclusion that Kevin Garnett was just as good. And he'll be wrong."
- "Besides Kobe, Manu has to be the most feared offensive player in the Western Conference."
Their announcers have a lot of respect for Manu's greatness, and would probably think the "trade Manu" crowd here is nuts. They talked very highly of George Hill. And like everyone else, they can't say enough about Tim.
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Last edited by Kent_in_Atlanta; 01-09-2009 at 02:56 PM.
Yeah, definitely when watching League Pass its almost ubearable to listen to all the homers. The worst I think are Boston and the Lakers' announcers. Some are actually pretty good though like LAC's and Atlanta (I think that's just 'Nique showin love though).
Another quote you missed was:
"Besides Kobe, Manu has to be the most feared offensive player in the Western Conference."
Thanks for posting this. I don't have LP and always wonder what the outsiders say about this team.
I can't really stand Sean Elliott as an announcer.
I DID miss that one. That's a of a compliment.
I noticed also that the Miami Heat announcers for Monday's game were very complimentary to the Spurs organization and called the game pretty fairly. It's always nice to see/hear non-homer announcer teams...
The color guy also referred to Manu as "the one of the most feared players in the west, possibly even more so than Kobe." Now I don't know about that, but it's clearly not the talk of announcers hopelessly lost in homerland. I'd put them up there with Atlanta's and the Knicks crew (Breen and Frazier) for their objectivity with opponents.
Then again I suspect that in an 82 season where you see more losses than wins you either learn to give your opponents props or spend the entire season talking about how the team sucks.
Yeah, as bigfish said... sometimes it's a real pain in the ass to listen to the other team's guys. They'll whine about every play. There's always a foul that should have been called in their teams favor, but wasn't, etc...
But the Clippers crew - and a few others - are very enjoyable because, if you're team is that far out of everything, there really isn't anything to talk about other than the Spurs' greatness.
Yea....I also think that the Miami anouncers are OK. At least they were for me last game we played.
I forgot to mention Houston's announcers too. They think the world of their players and truly believe they are a notch above everyone else. It's always "what a brilliant move by McGrady" or "the dominance of Yao inside"! Who do they think they are foolin?
The same can be said about Portland's. Phoenix announcers just think they're cool because they come up with lame nicknames for their "stars".
Golden State announcers do a good job of giving credit where credit is due.
I mentioned this in another thread, but yes I found the Clipper announcing team as complimentary of the Spurs team and organization as any that I've ever heard. These guys practically gushed about the Spurs so much, you would've thought they worked for the Spurs. At the same time, they were very factual and complimentary to the young Clipper team too.
Thanks for posting the direct quotes.
one that sticks in my mind was about the comparison between duncan's stats and kg's and that how 50 years from now, some statistician will come to a conclusion that they were about equal, "... and they'd be wrong. dead wrong."
Maybe it's just me, but I could care less 'bout when other announcers are giving love to our team.
Bring on all the hate!!!
Is that something the Clipper's announcers said? (I missed the first half of the game)
Sean Elliott is gotta be the best announcer ever. Come on. He actually has fun and throws in some comedy into the game that no one else could pull off. He is a big homer but I would rather have a homer than have an announcer talk about how great the other team is the whole game.
I like Sean Elliott. He IS a big time homer, no doubt. But as a Spurs announcer, so what?
right towards the end of the first half i believe.
there was a play in the second half where td got doubled at the post...
"the clippers collapse on duncan..."
tim still made the basket
"tim says 'collapse on this.'"
I would fear Duncan more than either one. Manu isn't as scary as he used to be. Back in the 2005 playoffs I would cringe whenever he got the ball."Besides Kobe, Manu has to be the most feared offensive player in the Western Conference."
A homer by definition is someone that loves on the home team but gives no credit to the other team AND is blind to the negatives of his team.
Elliott will point out when someone is playing bad, and he will also compliment the other team as well.
So classifying Elliott as a homer is technically wrong.
I find most opposing announcers to be complimentary in their respect for the Spurs. I also find those telecasts typically do not show very many Spurs rewind highlights. The Clippers crew did.
Say what you want, but I find it a real treat to hear the respect the Spurs have earned across the NBA.
As the Clippers guys pointed out... Manu was arguably the league MVP for 2/3 of the season last year. You don't have to go all the way back to 2005 dude.
And Manu is NOT all the way back from the ankle thing yet. It takes months to fully regain strength and flexibility in your ankle after surgery like that. You also have to remember that Manu didn't have a training camp like everyone else.
It will likely be after the all-star break before Manu's all the way back.
Agreed. I enjoy hearing that respect... cuz they're sure as not going to get that kind of respect on Sportscenter.
How many people actually know that the Spurs are the 2nd winningest NBA franchise of all time?
I actually like Milwaukee's team as well. They actually can be objective and complimentary.
Well, I wasn't aware that there is a technical definition of the word "homer". But then... my Merriam-Webster is a bit out of date.
I don't think Sean lacks any objectivity, but he's more likely to notice a non-call that goes against the spurs than he is to notice a non-call (or incorrect call) that favors the Spurs. In that respect, he's the same as most opposing announcers are in regard to their teams.
Again though, I like Sean - both as a person and as a commentator.
They also said this before the game started about Duncan:
"Fifty years from now, some stat geek will crunch numbers from Duncan's era and come to the conclusion that Kevin Garnett was just as good. And he'll be wrong."
It's actually funny they said that because they took that verbatim from Bill Simmon's column. But nonetheless, I do agree with that statement. The announcers obviously don't have too many good things to say about the Clippers haha
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