Announcing Teams
The lead announcing team for the NBA on TNT is Marv Albert and Steve Kerr. They have been paired together on most nights since the 2003–04 NBA season, except during Kerr's tenure as Phoenix Suns general manager from 2006 to 2010. The second announcing team will be Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller. Dick Stockton, who has been with TNT since 1995, is currently the third play-by-play man, calling select regular season and playoff games. Stockton usually teams up with Mike Fratello but has often teamed up with Kerr in select games. In the regular season, TNT's announce teams are not usually permanent; Fratello has occasionally teamed up with Harlan while Miller also teamed up along with Albert and Kerr as a three-piece (this is currently used during Conference Finals coverage since 2011) and vice versa. At times Fratello would also be absent because of his commitment with the Brooklyn Nets on the YES Network. Another occasional announcer is Matt Devlin. When not calling Toronto Raptors games, Devlin is usually filled in as play-by-play man on select games, particularly in the playoffs. Most recently Nets play-by-play man Ian Eagle has also filled in during the playoffs, primarily working with his YES colleague Fratello. When Shaquille O'Neal joined TNT as a studio analyst, Chris Webber was moved to the role of color analyst for the 2011–12 season. Webber is usually paired with either Harlan or Stockton.
Albert, Harlan and Eagle are all also play-by-play announcers for the NFL on CBS, and also work on the said network during expanded coverage of the NCAA Tournament produced jointly by CBS and Turner Sports. However Stockton, who used to be the lead play-by-play broadcaster for the NBA on CBS and other CBS Sports events in the 1980s, is currently employed part-time by Fox Sports as play-by-play for regional Major League Baseball and NFL coverage, though during the MLB playoffs, he calls one Division Series for TBS.
Doug Collins used to be the secondary analyst on TNT; he was also the lead analyst in his first stint with the network from 1989 to 1995, pairing with the likes of Bob Neal, Ron Thulin and Pete Van Wieren. In his second stint from 2003 to 2010, he was usually paired with Harlan during the regular season, but was also paired with Albert during the NBA All-Star Game and the Conference Finals. The original voice of the NBA on TNT was Bob Neal, who worked with the network from 1989 to 1995; he was also the original voice of the NBA on TBS. Other announcers who worked for TNT include Hubie Brown, Verne Lundquist, Danny Ainge, Rex Chapman, John Thompson, Jeff Van Gundy, P.J. Carlesimo and Gary Bender. Several prominent NBA analysts have chosen TNT over ABC or ESPN, such as Doug Collins and Charles Barkley (Barkley was not only approached by ABC about an NBA studio job in 2002, but as also rumored to have been approached for a job on Monday Night Football). Reggie Miller was also sought out by ABC and ESPN, only to go to TNT. Craig Sager and Cheryl Miller currently serve as the primary sideline reporters, with David Aldridge filling in on select games. In the playoffs fill-in sideline reporters, some coming from NBA TV, are used, with Tracy Wolfson, Marty Snider, Jamie Maggio and Lewis Johnson currently hold the capacity.
The biggest TNT acquisition once sought out by ABC and ESPN was Marv Albert. After the 2002 NBA Finals, Albert, essentially a free agent, was a candidate for the lead spot on The NBA on ABC (which ultimately went to Brad Nessler). Albert, hired by TNT in 1999, decided to stay with the network. Some attributed this to the fact that TNT gave Albert his first chance to be on national television after the embarrassing sex scandal that forced his firing at NBC. Albert and Mike Fratello—both of whom worked as a team in the NBA on NBC's early years—would ultimately reunite on TNT.
Hubie Brown and Jeff Van Gundy are currently the only former TNT announcers working for ABC. Brown, whose role on TNT was going to be significantly reduced starting with the 2002–03 season, left in 2002 to coach the Memphis Grizzlies. After two seasons of coaching, he left Memphis in early 2004 (leading to the departure from TNT of lead analyst Mike Fratello, who replaced him in Memphis) and was quickly picked up by ABC. Jeff Van Gundy, who was fired by the Houston Rockets after they lost in the first round, joined ABC at the beginning of the Western Conference Finals. Part-time TNT broadcaster Mike Breen is now the lead broadcaster for ABC and one-time TNT analyst Doc Rivers worked for ABC in 2004. Meanwhile, Pam Oliver, the lead sideline reporter for NFL games on FOX Sports joined Turner Sports in 2004 as she would only be on during the NBA Playoffs as she still continues that role today.
Read more about this topic: NBA On TNT
Famous quotes containing the words announcing and/or teams:
“At night thousands of names and slogans are outlined in neon, and searchlight beams often pierce the sky, perhaps announcing a motion picture premiere, perhaps the opening of a new hamburger stand.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not “studying a profession,” for he does not postpone his life, but lives already.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)