"LA gets it done on offense," Legler said, in a vintage piece of banal ESPN wisdom.
As the NBA playoffs get underway, ESPN has once again brought out its arsenal of analysts, commentators and sideline reporters. The likes of Magic Johnson and Jeff Van Gundy create a blathering circus of coverage spread across a multitude of programs on ESPN's many channels. Yet despite being the dominant sports empire on television, ESPN does not own complete broadcasting rights to the playoffs, and there is therefore an alternative network in which fans tired of constant hype and empty analysis can find relief.
Entering its 20th season of playoff coverage, TNT splits first, second and third round broadcasting with ESPN (fans will have to watch the finals on ESPN's sister network ABC). TNT provides in-depth coverage without sponsored segments like ESPN's "Coors Light Cold Hard Facts" or "Budweiser Hot Seat," in which analysis is packaged into meaningless sound bites.
What sets TNT apart from ESPN are its studio analysts. TNT's flagship basketball program "Inside the NBA," hosted by Ernie Johnson with retired NBA players Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, has won five Emmys. The trio has been together since 2000 and has won considerable praise for their chemistry.
Barkley fills the role of network knucklehead, while Smith and reporter David Aldridge provide interesting insight into the game, leaving Johnson as the voice of reason.
ESPN, on the other hand, does not seem interested in hiring sharp, intelligent analysts, but rather snapping up every former NBA player they can get their hands on. Their studio personalities include ex-players Jamal Mashburn, Jalen Rose and Avery Johnson, none of whom have any business doing analysis on television.
ESPN's pundits are scattered across an endless range of programs, from "NBA Shootaround" to "NBA Coast to Coast," which makes for poor chemistry between the analysts and unorganized coverage.
TNT also has better play-by-play announcers and in-game analysts. Marv Albert is easily the best play-by-play man on television, while his color commentator, ex-NBA great Reggie Miller, is also excellent.
For ESPN, Mike Tirico does a fine job calling plays, but his partner, ex-coach Hubie Brown, provides some of the most useless insight around. In a recent interview on ESPN radio, he spoke about playoff basketball.
"Can you get your best players high-percentage shots in their best areas, and you'll notice as teams move on from round to round to the finals, the teams that cannot do that go home," he said.
TNT is a cable television network primarily devoted to movies and original drama programming, which may explain why its basketball coverage is so much better than ESPN's. TNT focuses only on the NBA during the time allotted to playoff programming, resulting in more focused and interesting coverage.
Although ESPN does have very good feature pieces on individual players and coaches (last year's piece on the Boston Celtics' Leon Powe and his homeless past comes to mind), its coverage suffers from the network's diversity. As the self-proclaimed "worldwide leader in sports," ESPN must scatter its playoff basketball coverage throughout the day, interspersed with coverage of Major League Baseball, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and every other newsworthy event, leaving no time for in-depth stories and analysis.
For example, the halftime show for basketball games on ESPN breaks down the game at hand for at most five minutes before moving on to SportsCenter-ready breaking news and highlights of other sports.
Finally, ESPN is notorious for its disproportionate coverage of teams with popular superstars. This year, for example, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers' first round sweep of the Detroit Pistons was heavily covered, while the Dallas Mavericks' more exciting, equally impressive series win over the San Antonio Spurs was only mentioned in passing.
After a disastrous 2007 finals broadcast, when ESPN on ABC experienced the lowest rating in NBA finals history, the network has seen an increase over the past two seasons.
Part of this can be attributed to higher level of play and excitement surrounding the games. But ESPN also contributed to the hype, by marketing the reemergence of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry. Last year's finals, which featured both teams, drew a 9.3 rating, the highest since 2004. With the Lakers and the Celtics in the mix again this year, along with a popular Cavaliers team, the network looks poised to get even better results.
Nonetheless, ESPN's coverage still makes one shudder at times. In a preview of the Western Conference semi-finals between the Houston Rockets and the Lakers, Jalen Rose said, "It's going to come down to who can rebound and score."
Captain Obvious once again reminds everyone to watch TNT for meaningful playoff coverage.
