Inside the NBA

[Chris L]

Tom, where would you rank EJ, Kenny and Charles' antics on the Funny Scale?  10 being Jeff Van Gundy and 1 being Reggie Miller (granted, it's a highly imperfect scale...)

The incessant funny photos and such are not my bag, but as far as sports talk banter goes they occasionally crack me up.   Enough so that I spent an alarming chunk of time watching old YouTube clips yesterday. 

[senorcorazon]

Funny Scale?  10 being Jeff Van Gundy and 1 being Reggie Miller (granted, it's a highly imperfect scale...)

This is a flawed scale - reminds of the the sarcasm scale from 7SD last week. Gundy, funny? If you mean for his hilarious looks, then yes. I miss him as the Knicks coach -- all covered in flopsweat, combover waving around, holding on to the leg of a fighting player. The saddest/funniest (uh-oh, not ha-ha) story ever was when they returned from an away game in the finals (after losing) and the plane landed low to the parking lot and flipped his car over. And only his. Poor guy.

[Chris L]

OK, you've convinced me that scale was bogus.  10 is now Bill Walton and 1 is Jon Barry.

[senorcorazon]

My brother can still make me giggle by calling and just saying "THROW IT DOWN, BIG MAN, THROW IT DOWN" in a Bill Walton voice. That was 85% of his commentary when he did play by play. 

[gravy boat]

Sorry I stopped paying attention to the NBA last year after David Stern ruined what had been the best playoff series in years (Suns-Spurs) with those insane suspensions of 2 Suns for stepping a few inches on the floor during a stare-down. I'm convinced the Spurs owner is married to his daugher or something.  Based on my dusty memory, I'd rank Van Gundy a 6 and Barkley an 8.  Barkley gets a least one extra point because there were time I was wondering if he was drunk or had been awake for 3 days playing poker.

David Stern is the commissioner of my personal Hate Pit.

[Chris L]

My brother can still make me giggle by calling and just saying "THROW IT DOWN, BIG MAN, THROW IT DOWN" in a Bill Walton voice. That was 85% of his commentary when he did play by play. 

He does have a more thoughtful side...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSZS6sRVWsk[/youtube]

[senorcorazon]

WOW. That's fantastic. I want to write down the end part of that clip but won't ruin it for the others. 

[Dorvid Barnas]

[youtube]EO3c8EaxsxQ[/youtube]
Kenny Smith's finest moment.

[chrisfoll577]

[youtube]zWGILBNhIng[/youtube]

Barkley gets Burgandy'd

[Tom Scharpling]

Charles, Kenny and Ernie are the best.

THE BEST!

10 of 10!

They make me laugh without qualification, and when they break it down, it's good stuff. None of the sad pandering that goes on with the commentators - apparently Doc Rivers is a top notch coach, according to the dimwits calling Game Seven today. And I say that as someone who used to cheer for Jeff Van Gundy wholeheartedly as the Knicks coach.

Tom.

[thecramedog]

As a Knick fan, I too loved Van Gundy and was sad to see him go at a time when a lot of knick-fans were booing him.  We thought we could do better and we couldn't.  Don Chaney, Herb Williams, Lenny Wilkens, Larry Brown, & Isiah.  JVG might have seemed like a drip, but the guy preached tough D and was a basketball gym rat.  Loyal to Pat at the very end, too.  Of course, I'm loyal to the core, so I'm going to be cheering for D'Antoni.  Tough job ahead.

The Inside The NBA team has been great for years.  Kenny is a better TV guy than he was a player and he won a ring!  Ernie The Elevator Johnson is a perfect sideman/straightman to Charles and Kenny.  And Charles?  The man is reinventing himself.  It's a great example to many networks who feel the need to wheel out four, five and sometimes six people to break down and hype games.  A good tv crew needs time to get to know each other (kind of like a championship NBA team).  And TNT is good about incorporating the Rando Guest Athlete into the crew--they made Chris Webber look good doing TV.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfhO23NIRP0[/youtube]

[jamesp]

OK, you've convinced me that scale was bogus.  10 is now Bill Walton and 1 is Jon Barry.

A much better scale here. I'm not a Van Gundy fan but Bill Walton is classic. He's been MIA doing commentary during the Playoffs though, instead leaving us with Stephen A and Stuart Scott.

Barkley, EJ, and Kenny are also 10+

[Handsome Homeless]

Anyone see that horrific father's day video of Luke and Bill Walton together. It featured the priceless quote "in my life everyday is father's day". There is not enough cheese left in the world to duplicate such a piece. I mean I love the idea, but they should have hired a re-enactment team or something.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6iQCghpODck&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6iQCghpODck&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[jamesp]

I saw it during  the Finals and it was certainly cringe inducing at times. It looked like Luke was embarrassed and did not want to be doing it but Bill always talks in cliches. I love him though and can't complain. He's one of the funniest and happiest TV personalities out there.

[kray]

while reggie isn't funny, he's pretty good at calling the games on tnt or whatever. not to mention being one of the best SG ever in the NBA, the best 3 point shooter ever, and super clutch. i'll always have love for reggie.