Cuban had gripes and, in e-mails to Mavs director of broadcasting Dave Evans, called the telecast "stale" and "unimaginative." He was also critical of Ortegel, who in his 21st season calling Mavs games is adhering to a new edict: "Less is more."
"What it is," Evans said, "it’s a wake-up call, not only to Bob, but to all of us that ratings are down.""
As a fan who watches many local NBA broadcasts (either via NBATV or NBA League Pass)...the Mavs could do a lot worse than Followill and Ortegel. Remember Matt Pinto? That guy was awful with his "Dunking Deutschman" and "Cha Ching the Mavericks Money Ball" shtick. It felt like every night he was trying to work in a "I Love This Game" line just so he could get on an NBA promo.
I like Followill. He doesn't take anything away from the broadcast (which is the best thing a play by play can do). He lets the game come to him and doesn't try to shoehorn in points or shtick.
The broadcast is not the reason the ratings are down. The reason is that the casual Dallas basketball fan has lost interest in the team. Adding Skin is not going to change the ratings one single point.
As a general plea to Mark Cuban, please keep the Followill and Big Bob team together and please get rid of Skin. Things were fine the way they were. Field a better product and the ratings will come back.
Shiffler, you hit the nail on the head. The product is the issue..that and the fair weather fans of our fair berg.
ReplyDeleteOrtegal and Followill compliment each other well. I thought the Brad Davis experiment proved that to be true.
However, I do feel like Skin is getting somewhat of a bad rap by the locals. He knows his stuff. He just hasn't found where he fits with Ortegal and Followill.
That being said. I think Skin should be left in the studio or for pregame with Ortegal and Followill or even as a replacement when either Ortegal and Followill can't make the broadcast. Let him bide his time and figure out his role. I think in due time he could be a great addition to the broadcast.
I don't know. I kind of agree with Cuban on Coach. I think he's pretty bad. I think Followill does an excellent job on play by play, but BoB's color is just boring- has been for years.
ReplyDeleteDo agree that the ratings correspond more to the state of the team than the broadcast team. When the Mavs were winning no one cared that coach Bob wasn't very good.
All I ask when I watch a game is that the announcers do not taking anything away from it to promote their own agenda and give me a little extra insight here and there.
ReplyDeleteI like Skin on radio and think he would be good for pre and post game, but he just doesn't do anything for me in terms on in game.
This reminds me of when a sitcom would get stale so they would add another kid to the mix (Oliver on The Brady Bunch, the little red head girl on Growing Pains, Nikcy and Alex on Full House) thinking that would inject some life into the show