Homicide is bitter towards Gleeson and doesn't like Perth it was obvious in his call tonight.

I don't care about those dynamics, but Corey was craps on the Mic and should just concentrate on his game. I thought his big talk would translate on commentary.. it didn't

Who cares if a commentator is biased.

U can clearly tell when a commentator is obviously biased.

What does it matter.

If u can tell they are being biased then congratulations on not being stupid and thinking they aren't.

Enjoy them for the character they are being on screen.

The league needs more antagonists and protagonists to promote rivalries.

Without emotional investment there's no interest. People like homicide create that tension and draw a line in the sand. It's good. The league needs characters.

I didn't really warm to him unfortunately. Though he definitely had passion, he was a bit of a repetitive soundtrack even if United can't grab a rebound to save themselves.

The AFL & NRL boys club on the other hand are doing a fine job for mine, generally a big step up in professionalism.

It went pretty much how I expected it to go, which wasn't well. He, Bruton and Robbins are pretty bad. Heal's been alright, Rucker's been fantastic, Greer has been really good when he doesn't have to say "Hadziomerovic". Rosen wasn't great but was an improvement on last year.

Which basketball play-by-play specialists do you think should be doing it? There aren't any.

I agree Homicide was painful to listen to tonight. The amount of times he said "down the stretch"...Arrrgg

What's Ricky Grace doing? I remember he did some commentary around 10 years ago and really enjoyed his insight. Also miss Gaze of course.

If their aren't any play-by-play specialist then why are you asking the question?

Isaac, is the OP the same IP as 'blowout anon' by any chance?

How many games has Homicide called?
If that was one of his first then I'm happy to cut him some slack. Yes he was certainly too repetitive on some things, but that type of thing can be ironed out. Had some entertaining moments too I thought. I didn't mind at all that he got a bit personal at times. He still called the action in front of him as he saw it.

It's funny that ppl are complaining about Homicides dis like for Perth.

Memo: a lot of ppl don't like Perth!

My fav commentator so far is Harvey.

paul, no, it's another one.

This OP however complains about jobs-for-the-boys with basketball people commentating, and also complains about non-basketball people commentating. Wow, that's something.

I've found the non-basketball (let's just call them Professional Commentators, because that's how they've approached this) commentators to be quite good - very enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable.

Surely they should be judged on their merits and not their backgrounds!

Most of the ex-players in there as sidekicks have been good too. Heal, Rucker, Harvey, etc are all decent.

I muted Robbins and have managed to avoid CJ.

Homicide swore a couple of times during last night's call which is not ideal and he can leave the "I'm tellin' ya" being said over and over at home. It's like he was in some battle with dwayne Russell.

The street punk rap trash talking style of commentating isn't really needed in a game that is striving for further credibility and relevance.

LV, even more people disliked the Tigers but you never heard any other commentator openly cheer against them.

I thought Homicide was very entertaining last night. It was his first game commentating so he will get better. But his lively personality really sparked up a grind it out game. The other commentator kept reminding us Homicide was with him every 5 minutes though.

Any casual fan tuning in who's unaware of the street style language that can be associated with basketball would be quickly turned off.

Also, do we need to be referring to a commentator as "Homicide" over and over? Any young children watching may be a little confused as to what is going on there.

Unfortunately an unprofessional display last night in my opinion. Dwayne Russell did well under the circumstances.

So, what we want, if I am not mistaken is this:

Commentators who are entertaining, know the game, the players, the coaches and all their systems, idiosyncrasies and history, don't annoy us but at the same time have a cool US style basketball accent, don't keep repeating themselves or referring to each other like we have the attention span of a gold fish, don't swear, have respect and show some class, but at the same time have passion and an independently unbiased view of the game and every team in the NBL?

Shouldn't be too hard to find at least one of those in the time frame the new NBL has been delivered one would think, now would it...

#BEREALISTICANDHAVEPATIENCE

Bear , great post.

I'm not fussed about the US accent though.

Agree with your point. This will take time.

I'm willing to accept the cringe worthy bits (eg Homicides unprofessional moments, Russell putting a bad play from 8 or 9 year NBL veteran Brad Hill down to "inexperience" etc). It'll get better with time

The other comment I'd make is: bring back Gaze!

He's funny and insightful.

I think we all know why he's not there though...

Also, do we need to be referring to a commentator as "Homicide" over and over? Any young children watching may be a little confused as to what is going on there.

Calling every single thing is what the problem is. Even talking about every free throw. Do these AFL guys ever watch the NBA and see how they do it?

its called 'on the nose' commentary

eg->
"He has the ball'
"He passes it to the centre"
"the centre passes back to the point guard"
"he almost loses it"
"the defender has dived in there"
"hes using all his might to not lose the ball there, you can see how hard hes really trying!"
"and the referee says Its going to be a jump ball! great competitive basketball all around there!"


^ Pretty ordinary

Although the 'NBA style' can come off as cold, clinical, distant, apathetic to the action on the court, nobody knows what the score is if they arent watching.

"I think we all know why he's not there though.."

Because he wasn't very good and if we continue to make the same mistakes of the past (eg using Gaze and Carfino and Bill Woods) then we are bound to fail.

Homicide was as insightful as CJ Bruton but with more gang signs. He wasn't good.

I think RMQ forgets we aren't watching WWE.

I didn't like Homicides commentating one bit. My opinion is that he was unprofessional and rather annoying. He didn't as any insight to the gane apart from his gotta box out and get those rebounds which he repeated over and over and over.

I can deal with him being bias but honestly I think of rather commit suicide than listen to homicide again. Or even worse , listen to CJ Bruton.

I really enjoy Derek Rucker and James Harvey. Both give a great insight to the game and educate the audience.

I think what grated me about Homicide is that he acts like he's cooler than the other side of the pillow but he struggles to spit a sentence out without fumbling over his words.

I thought of a solution last night.

Homicide would work perfect in a situation where there were three commentators.

He'd say the least of course and save his big moments down the stretch.

You'd utilize him for his zingy one liners like "The biggest man in Australia", "You rebound, you win"

That's exactly what I thought RMQ.

Good suggestion RMQ.

I'm with Isaac on this one. While the rugby commentators are not ideal they are doing a pretty good job with their enthusiasm and excitement levels.

Having said that there was too much love laid on Homicide last night and the continued sucking up wasn't professional. If I heard Homicide (when I COULD hear him) say one more time about the lack of rebounding and "down the stretch" I was going to turn it off.

Bring back Gaze ( even if the NBL owner doesn't like him), Phil Smyth ( for Adelaide games) has been a good commentator and Derek Rucker has been a revelation.

Tommy Greer was pretty good but had too much bias for Melbourne, Shane Heal has been ok, Brad Robins, CJ Bruton a big no!!

And please, commentators, I know you are trying to be upbeat but please don't tell us it's a full house when its clearly NOT.

I didn't like how the aussie commentator would call the player has "showing some dance moves" when he was simply handling the rock.

It's this type of lack of knowledge of how the game is played that belittles the sport.

These "dance moves" are standard dribbling techniques.

To me, the term "dance moves" is almost derogatory ( i know that sounds outlandish) but it brands that type of play as "show off-ish" but it's not. It's a part of the game. It's something the Aussie AFL/NRL commentators don't get coz their sports lack that type of showmanship/finesse.

I think you're being a little bit sensitive there.

Hang on, so you are ok with Homicide saying "dats wat up" when someone calls a timeout, or saying "see i told u" when one of the 4,000 predictions he made finally came true, but a local commentator doing his bit to be more than bland is considered too much?

RMQ tl;dr - I like black guys.

I think the "pro" callers are mostly doing alright. I must admit when they were first announced I had similar to reservations to those mentioned in here. Why do we want Footy callers calling Basketball, what a joke. But if you stop and think for a moment, most of these guys are professional sport commentators. They might be most known for their stints in the footy codes but they already call other sports too.

I think Dwayne Russel has been excellent. Anthony Hudson was fine but will improve as he learns the flow of the game. The colour commentators have been a bit hit and miss but they're obviously just throwing some people in there to try them out. I didn't mind Homicides call last night, not amazing but really when you've got CJ as a benchmark for cringe-inducing commentary efforts most of them are looking pretty good in comparison.

I also didn't mind Bill Woods return to the fold last season, not sure what problem people had with his work. He'd fit in well this season because calling Illawara would actually be correct this year!

After years of Carfino "magic", i'm just happy for a change and some professionalism from the anchors.

I thought many of the commentators during the Ten era actually detracted from the spectacle by being negative and not doing the required research.

While this year hasn't been 'perfect', I have found the commentary enjoyable for the most part and I like the fact the play-by-play guys are enthusiastic about what they're doing.

I wouldnt mind being a commentator


I would incorporate the American style commentary and have a 10 minute conversation with my colour commentator rather than talk about the action

Me: "Dwayne Russell, what do you think the prospects for these teams are in this upcoming season?"

Dwayne Russell: "You just missed an almost spectacular 360 dunk attempt by that young man, the score's 18 to 16, 2 free throws'

Me: "Jawai was on leave after the first game of the season when the wildcats won'

*action on court* Swish on free throw 1

Dwayne Russell: What a magnificent free throw, that was by Wagstaff! he showed all the technique and calm and composure, the score's 19 to 16, one to come, this game sure is close!

Me: 'we go to our sideline commentator who will provide an insight of the talk of scouts investigating the possibility of signing up Chris Goulding to a 10 day contract with the San Antonio Spurs, which is well within the realms of possibility now given that the injury list has increased and how they've waived a couple of backup shooting guards'

BOGAN FANS WATCHING: CALL THE FARQ'N SCORE YOU CARNT! I WANT 12 MINUTE QUARTERS! MORE SCORING! STRAYA MATE!

What's good about the footy commentators is that they do put some emotion into things with their pronunciation of players names and how they get excited about things.

It's just when their lack of basketball knowledge/terms surfaces it gets cringeworthy.

That said all the emotional calls like "Worthington for THREE!" will make the highlights clips which sells the product better.

Lets not forget the aussie guy last night called a block by jawai a slam...

Also I don't watch cricket but I do notice when it's on the director/camera people always find good looking ladies in the crowd. The NBL needs to do this - find attractive/interested people in the crowd. Not a grandad with their 3 year old who is falling asleep.

"The NBL needs to do this - find attractive people in the crowd."

I hate being filmed though...

Shot clock might be a per-stadium thing as it's been on screen in the last two Hawks games I've watched on Fox.

(I mostly watch games on my phone.)

Wouldn't mind a female sideline commentator from time to time. You know, to show that the NBL is a progressive league.

Before commenting on the quality of the NBL's commentators one should take a moment to listen to the Sacramento Kings/Cavs/Clippers home call teams.............

Hornets home call team are also horrible, but mostly because they seem apologetic that people have to watch their team play.

re haz

Basketball is a progressive sport

Go to any court, and its played by Chinese people, they wont make the pros, but theyre drawn to it, like heroin :D

Homicide just said on Twitter that he just came out of the Fox Sports office and he will be commentating on Sunday.

I don't think Corey was any better than CJ. Admittedly, Corey could improve, but he provided no insight, and not even any excitement. It was just the same old crap on recycle. Maybe he needs to scull a beer before talking.

Wayne Russell is hopeless, I can actually do a better job than him

hopefully homicide isn't commentating down the stretch of this season

Corey was 10x better than CJ. I think people are forgetting how bad CJ was. I actually quite liked Corey, not conventional by any means, but passionate about basketball.

Corey may not have had a perfect start, but he knows you've got to rebound.

And it's pissing him off

What about retired players who were characters in the change room, weren't stars, had to work hard and have a good understanding of the game to stay in the league. I remember hearing Rupert Sapwell commentate a few years back and thought he went ok. A couple of those types may be ok. Only issue is they will not have high profiles but for non basketball people so has everyone else but Gaze, Patty Mills, Delly and a select few others

What about retired players who were characters in the change room, weren't stars, had to work hard and have a good understanding of the game to stay in the league. I remember hearing Rupert Sapwell commentate a few years back and thought he went ok. A couple of those types may be ok. Only issue is they will not have high profiles but for non basketball people so has everyone else but Gaze, Patty Mills, Delly and a select few others

Australia is not exactly blessed with a dearth of basketball specific comms.

Remember ... we're still on the up and coming from a pretty low position sports market wise.

Its a pity John Casey isn't available to call games because he's always been up with the play and has a vast array of turns of phrases.

Dwayne Russell is OK because at least he knows a bit of basketball & won't wing it so much like Voss. But Voss is not so bad because he has a familiar Casey sound to him .. just needs to catch onto the rules a bit better.

Matt McQuade would be a great choice as he is passionate about the game, has knowledge and now has a couple of years experience behind the mike now.

Its funny how people get upset about comms getting names wrong .. but King Gaze has always had a habit of doing this.

When Ebi Ere was a King ... he would always call him EEbee Ari. He even called Glen Saville "Glen Sa Ville" .

Dwayne Russell could be okay, but with lines like, "Worthington, bounce pass to Craig".

Really unsophisticated stuff right there...

Need Matt McQuade and Matt Smith.

Hearing Corey Williams for the first time. Agree with the general sentiment on this thread - He's terrible!

Needs to pick it up as a professional because some of the commentating from him is crigny.