Have you listened to them? Hudson did the Adelaide game with Heal and was very good. He's a pro and has done other sports after all.

Hudson did pretty well, who ever the bloke was last night was shocking.

Funny how people see things differently. Hudson was one of the worst play-by-play commentators I've ever heard! I couldn't believe how little he knew about how to call a basketball game. Sounded like he'd never worked in commentary either as couldn't fill like a pro.

Russell last night has obviously followed the NBL a bit over the years and sounded to me like he knew the flow of the game pretty well.

Unfortunately CJ Bruton had his mike down too low and early on had very little to say. He did improve, let's hope he gets that enthusiasm up from the start of his next game and they get his mike up too! Heal was solid on Weds in what was a pretty average game to call.

Give CJ a go, its literally his first game ever isnt it... The other guy might know what he's talking about but his style of commentary was all wrong I thought. It doesn't need to be a pass by pass commentary.

AFL/Footy commentators have their strength.

I think they will get better as the season goes on - but there are little things that really annoy me.

It makes a basketball game not feel like a basketball game. Saying things like "passes it to Weigh who is un-marked", when most bball savvy commentators would say "un-guarded".

It's a little thing, and I'm trying not to be too precious about it - as at the end of the day I'm in that bball minority that includes die hard fans that'll watch (and complain) everything.

If casual new viewers are OK with it then that is all that matters for now.

But yes, it's infuriating to here a dunk called a "Smash down Splash down".

It's the little nuances that the Foot Commentators miss out on and I dislike how they use footy terms in a bball game.

I do like how they put emotion and hype behind what players do though. It adds more meaning to each play. just needs to be complimented with basketball Ebonics.

In time it will happen.

Last nights guy got so many names wrong he couldn't have followed the league much at all. It was terrible, rather CJ any day.

Both non NBL guys have be brilliant and for the average fan who loves there other sports codes, probably makes it easier for them to watch and relate too. Its the non commentary former legends of the game that is the issue. Even in the NBA, not every great player is worthy of a mic, CJ is a real worry, and the league and coverage can't afford to carry guys until they get better.

I must agree on something here, that is the fact that they do need to source former NBL players or at least people who have been involved in the NBL and who have some potential for commentary.

Reason is that when I look at the A-League, NRL and AFL that is what I see, they are developing past players and coaches by combining them with seasoned pros.

The end result over time is that we should get a decent team of NBL commentators, we just have to have some patience in this process (at least I hope this is the process)...

Funny how people see things differently.

Haha, that's about the only thing I'd agree with in that post. I thought Hudson was OK, had obviously at least done some research. Heal was good too.

CJ was just horrible. No other word for it. Horrible. And when the other guy early on referred to a turnover as a "handover" I knew we were in for a long night.

Commentators and production have been underwhelming. They have basically just given us last years production plus a bunch of inexperienced commentators. I am not over-the-moon at the NBL or Fox Sports at the moment. There needs to be improvements, specifically to production, or the NBL wont reach their goals.

@Anon...I never said I liked CJ's commentating but would much prefer a quiet mute like him than some Idiot commentator who doesn't know the names of players let alone the rules or lingo of the game. I felt embarrassed watching/listening to it.

Lets all stop whinging, calm down and let Larry and co. sort this out. He knows what he wants to see and what he has promised us all and he knows what we are getting in the first 2 games is well short of that.

Surely it cant be that hard to get a selection of ex Australian basket ballers together for the commentary as a whole.

The advantage of the afl and nrl callers is that they have quality and class, no matter what people say there's no basketball commentators that have it in Australia outside of John Casey/Heal/Gaze.

The disadvantage is they don't know bball that well, but if they commentate long enough they'll get there. Some of the best commentators have done both NBL and AFL historically - look at dennis cometti, Clinton Grybas.

I think Carfino is busy in a CEO type role, Gaze is supposedly an LK veto (one of the SEN radio guys argued this) and i'm not sure about Casey.

Boy oh boy ...woweeeeeee

Gotta love BT!

BT is horrendous, both as an AFL and as an NBL commentator

No it doesn't. There won't be good ratings till it gets onto one of the main Fox Sports channels. Both the NBL and Fox would be well aware of that.

Speak for yourself, think of Cometti, Grybas, McAveney types.

Do you actually think the NBL TV commentators are more competent to a professional product than Hudson, Russell etc.? The answer is no

Every pro starts somewhere KET, and Tom King was excellent, he is certainly a better basketball caller than those guys and he was very professional.

I am just happy that I can watch every 36ers game in high quality vision than the odd game on 10 or the waste of bandwidth of NBL.TV that has been served up over the past several years. The players had all their names on their backs, and the scoreboard worked, eventually. Some people are just too precious.

Basketball player and fan since 1965

You can't judge someone just because they're an AFL or NRL commentator, look at the 2010 NBL coverage, Brian Taylor was terrible while Dwayne Russell was very solid. New callers will take time, you just hope they do the work to improve, and most pros will.

I guess the frustration comes when someone like John Casey is calling netball on Fox but isn't involved in the NBL coverage when callers who now nothing about the league are.

That ex-AFL plater with initials BT doesn't even deserve his name to be mentioned!

One of the biggest f-wits to ever call basketball. All he wanted to see was fighting and wrestling. I felt really sorry for Drewey that he had to commentate next to BT.

Loving Derek Rucker tonight, providing great insight and energy.

Yep, enjoyed the Fox tv commentary tonight.
So did the people of Townsville apparently.

The one thing that would be great for the overall presentation of the game would be a seperate in studio pre-game, halftime, full-time show. Especially for double headers, just to break it up a bit and get more insight.

Jeremy loe... Said there will be bigger changes to come to production and presentation

Second that.