Who did he replace?

What about Casey and Woods togther and throw in Gaze for special comments.

Great news. Hopefully it works out well and is not just a one off, because the broadcast of the NBL is one of weak points in its rebuilding period. Reading the article, it sounds like Woods still has a lot of respect and love for the game so thats great to see from a fairly high profile commentator.

Carfino should improve also if he's moved to the role of special comments.

Maybe there has been a bit going on behind the scenes with the NBL and Ten to try and salvage a relationship?

Will they be bringing back the competition to win a Nintendo 64 at half time as well??

Or am I the only one that racked up $100 phone bills in the 90's during Sunday afternoon basketball?

I remember calling the 1900 numbers for the NBA box scores/news updates in the 90s.

My mother questioned me who I was calling, when she found out it was to find out basketball scores she was relieved, my father however was a little disappointed.

We've shared some tweets with Bill Woods over the past 12 months and I've seen him comment on some NBL topics on his show on TV. He seems as though he knows what's going on.

But I've been fooled before.

article here

http://www.nbl.com.au/article/id/1ngo5htvoqamm1sw448wg3nsuc

haha it was a super Nintendo! man oh man.... i'm feeling old now....

Will be interesting to see how Bill goes - he doesn't have the magnificent head of hair that Mike Ellis has, but few do.

Great news enjoyed his commentary in the 90s

Mike Templeton was the guy Anon. Bill did a good job tonight. A bit rusty but give him some time.

In the first half at least (it's only half time atm), Woods blurred the line a little between special comments and play by play. A tad rusty, but I don't mind him on the call.

My god, that was horrendous.

Just... awful.

Called them Illawarra for 20 minutes.

Definitely rusty. But could be worse. Understands the fundamentals and better than Carfino as the play by play.

Hahaha 'CHARGE!' No, no. Wollongong ball.

Plenty of mistakes were made, but his comments flowed well unlike many of the regulars. Bill also made Steve come across better, IMO.

Woods was rather refreshing to listen to tonight. So what if he was calling Rhys Carter "Rhys Martin" or calling the Hawks Illawarra for the first half or so. Those he can be forgiven for, he's been away for a while. And besides, I liked hearing them referred to by their original name.

While it was good to see him back tonight, I'm glad the Kings weren't playing. That was the only thing about his commentary in the 1990's that I couldn't stomach, his love for the Sydney Kings. This often came out when he did commentary on their games (IMO), and when he was in charge most of the stories they did on the NBL for Sportsworld seemed to centre on the Kings. IIRC the Kings were also on TV most weeks as well.....

Ah well, good to have the old bugger back. He distracted me at least, I only heard Carfino call a "Euro Step" once tonight.

BTW, I think Woods is still the host of Sports Fan Clubhouse that shows on 7mate. Seems to be the in thing these days appearing on a rival channel. After all, this week they had Steve Carfino on the show talking about the NBL.

Playmaker, in my opinion, it was more the role of special comments that portrayed Carfino as better, not so much Bill. Carfino has always been a good colour to listen to.

Love ya work Billy (hopefully Sportsfan Clubhouse is still on considering its made by Telstra not 7) and his work made tonight's game epic. Carfino was so much better being asked questions and not asking them himself.

Rosen was great in his limited role.

All hail Bill Woods for making our great game even more fun to watch

Bill Woods was great. A true quality caller who actually knows the players and calls with excitement and passion as well as actually making Carfino sound better. It was a great game! Good on the NBL and ch10.

if NBL.tv was more reliable they could get Bruce to commentate every game.

Except the ones being played at the same time of course, though Bill could probably do that too.

Thought the commentary last night was great. Woods made a bucket of mistakes but it was almost endearing as he shook the rust off. Carfino seemed a lot better as a result (rather than by comparison) and Rosen was good on the sidelines.

I was quite impressed how quickly Woods (for the most part) called the players involved and he had a reasonable awareness of past and upcoming details and context which is helpful.

Probably makes us realise how important a job commentators do to make it a spectacle.Loved having Bill Woods back.

I found him horrendously annoying to begin with, but either he got better or I got used to him as the game went on.

Equally possible is that towards the end, the game finally became as exciting as he seemed to think it was. People bag Carfino for never getting excited, but getting excited about "ERVIN HAS THE BALL AND IS BRINGING IT UP THE COURT, IT'S ALL TIED AT TWO POINTS APIECE!" isn't exactly better.

Yeah, so what's the deal with Bill Woods then? Was there a reason for this one off game? Im sure there's something there and I don't think he was just a "fill-in" as Rosen was also there doing court side. Plus it wasn't Heritage Round either, so there was no real nostalgic reason to have him back for just one game.

Will he be coming back again later on to do more games? If so, no idea why he wouldn't have done the Sydney Perth game as location was not an issue and the same commentators were used for that game (except the court side guy who I cant remember his name).