Way better than Heal though.

It is better than NBL commentary

Commentary is fine to me. Standard to be expected from a WC I guess.

bloody awful. This lady is killing me

Why is there this weird fascination nowadays of having female commentators for men's sports? Most are hopeless (but still better than Heal).

Facepalm

When a man commentates badly = bad commentator, get another one

When a female commentates badly = why do they insist on female commentators?

There are plenty of good female commentators, there isn't some inherent biology that one gender is bad at commentating.

Some silly comments on this thread it's not hard to turn volume down.

So, I'm trying to figure out who won. From the commentary team's post game comments I take it Canada won the game on the back of a dominant 3rd quarter. Is this right?

I am sure these two are respectable enough and comparing them with Shane Heal is ludicrous, but I've heard nothing about Australia's efforts. In a group which has been deemed the toughest of them all, Australia should be getting a little more love for their dominance over a very good team for 2-3 quarters

KET way to misconstrue what I wrote. Since she was an ex-player in the women's game why not have her commentate the women's World Cup and have an ex-player who is male commentate this one as he would be more familiar with the men's game? For example if it had to be a Canadian pick up someone who recently retired from the team as a player or coach to give us the best insight. You went off on a tangent like a warrior and didn't give yourself enough time to read properly.

I heard a profoundly deaf monkey with no tongue, that was away better commentator than Heal.

But he somehow still manages to get on Australian Television.

... and it's quite clear Rucker isn't a mate.

Way too biased towards Canada. Really poor commentary. Hope Fox foxes the coverage - draft in some professionals.

Why does it have to be all men commentating the Men's games?

What’s the male British commentator to know about Australia or Canada at basketball? The girl paid far more attention to the intricacies of the Boomers than the Brit.

Gender is irrelevant, some commentators are better or more knowledgeable than others

Fox are using the world FIBA feed to not spend any money. They are cutting costs on everything after realising blowing their load on cricket and eggball codes isn't profitable. Yet the smaller sports have to suffer for it. Imbeciles.

KET I was talking about the colour commentator position only. I prefer an ex-player/coach who has a connection to the team, that would mean same gender (unless an ex-coaching staff member was female). That's not unreasonable. Nothing sinister in it. In women's World Cup I prefer female commentators.

Obviously the lead commentator totally sucked. The problem is in international tournaments producers go for people with English accents because no matter what they say at least it sounds 'refined'. It happens across so many sports. These poms get paid well for not even knowing what they are talking about. Highway robbery.

I really don't understand how anyone can say this commentary is good. Passable, yes, but nowhere near the quality of the commentary in the warm-up games.

rjd with the exception of Heal no argument there.

I actually think Heal is excellent, especially his analysis in the warm-up games.

The Boomers have just won against Canada under tremendous pressure. The win is ok but a loss would have been tragic, as it is for Canada now.

Yet, some opinions here focus on how bad the commentary is/was.

How about the massive turn-arounds, all game, especially after halftime? Really good result for the Boomers. Will have to tighten the TO"s though. Was Canada's highest scorer.

Because this is the commentary thread.

There is a separate game day thread.

The commentary is terrible. Really these are people who know nothing about basketball. I'll never speak ill of NBL commentators again. Even the footy guys induce less cringing for me. I feel like some NBL commentators should get together and do a live podcast during Boomers games so we can listen to them while they play

Meanwhile Gaze is commentating FRA-GER. Baffling stuff.

Clearly done her homework, which is nice, But still prattled on too much. One of my pet peeves, is when commentators just completely ignore the on-court play, whilst prattling on about some pointless piece of trivia.

Fox evidently are done with basketball, last time they bothered to have commentators.

Casey would be a godsend

While not completely great, I thought in the times the female commentator was talking about Australia she did show some insights in to why er are legit in FIBA competition. (Depth, experience, chemistry, ball movement etc)

She could teach something to a few of the "NBA derr" types in here

One sided, I watch the second half on mute. Just couldn't stand that lady's voice.

"Let's be real, there are plenty of incel MGTOWs on this forum."

And I suppose that's your go-to any time someone doesn't like something a female does?

Both commentators sucked equally if that makes you happy?

1. She was absurdly biased to Canada. You can't be pretty much supporting a team whilst commentating for a neutral broadcaster (FIBA)

2. She made a lot of mistakes, and her knowledge was a little off sometimes. How many times did she say "Canada's box and one on mills", when they were clearly in a man. They just had whoever was guarding Bogut sagging in the key.

I thought she did ok. The commentary hasn't been great, particularly the play by play guys. Something just doesn't sound right with a British guy calling basketball and, while they seem to know many of the players (I guess from seeing them in Euroleague play) they offer virtually no insight. Wish Case was out there.

Yeah, if you just want to talk shit and not help her improve and maybe make her aware if she was really biased but otherwise good'ish, sure...

Speak up politely and respectfully and most people can take the constructive criticism... Just bitch and moan somewhere that can't fix anything and you've got nothing to complain about...

Totally agree with the above comment about a British accent commentating basketball. It sounds as wrong as an American commentating cricket.

I like the main english FIBA commentary guy.

You are all to sensitive, she did fine. I'd take her ahead of Heal every day of the nweek.

I thought she was okay but two big things stood out, her saying Nembhard was the point guard who torched us in warm up games when it was actually Pangos (in one game, DNP in the other) as a Canadian herself she really should've known that and her somewhat blatant cheering for her home team.

I don't think she deserves any criticism for being a female commentator she was better than a lot of useless guys are but as a Canadian to avoid bias and conflicts of interest she shouldn't have been allowed by FIBA to commentate this game.

In the cricket, Isa Guha is very good IMO - notices the technical aspects of the contest, yet has personal warmth which is not forced. The US wnba commentators can be good. As for the canadian lady, she's okay, not great. It is hard to get commentators who can follow the richie benaud approach and be economical in their language, who are comfortable in allowing pauses so that the viewer can notice the action, the crowd and atmospherics.

Lol what, now fox are overlaying their own commentary.

Did they just randomly choose to start doing it from game 2 or accidentally air the wrong commentary last game?

WTF Heal is back? Fox you utter morons.

Horrible is what the people wanted, apparently.
Way more biased, and way less informed.
Hooray for people power.
:/

Gaze commentating GER-DOM.

Two hysterical commentators covering philos vs serbia game. Ridiculous tone - you would think it was a close game, these guys are screaming and the score is 118 to 65. WTF.

Lithuania's Jankunas with a wily post move and the Canadian commentator's response is to sound completely deflated and say it's "disappointing" because Canada played good defense for most of the play. I don't think she took on board the advice to appear more unbiased. The exciting basketball seems to only matter when it is Canada doing it.

This is the World Cup. Good basketball deserves some excitement from commentators, regardless of the team.

Agreed I've always been of the opinion no matter how ordinary a person Heal is he's always been a very good commentator.

It's only been in recent times when LK has added buffoons like Homicide to the NBL commentary teams that Heal has felt the need to get in on the act and "jazz up" his calling, unfortunately.

Even bankruptcy didn't dent his ego. Amazing.

Really not a fan of Heal, but, gotta say, the couple of games I've watched that he's commentated have shown he's near the top of this group of commentators.

Gaze pronouncing Gobert was...interesting. Rhymes with sorbet?

Imagine if you used that as the basis for a drinking game. You'd be in hospital getting your stomach pumped by now.

Dwayne Russell and Shane Heal calling this one. Hope y'all are happy.

Somehow the commentary keeps getting worse. Fox has no respect for basketball.

Fox has no respect for basketball.

Correct. Utter dogs.

Dwayne Russell is the worst, at least get John Casey to go with Heal ffs

Brenton Speed and Shane Heal did a good job. Not sure why you'd choose Dwayne Russell though. He's ok for NBL, but his basketball knowledge is nowhere near the level needed to do a world tournament he knows nothing about.

Can we please not have Heal and Speed for our next games??

John Casey is calling SANFL finals games for Channel 7 that's why he's not available.

Anyone know the name of the british colour commentator who did the Canada vs Jordan match? Also did USA vs Japan. Really enjoyed his work. Seems to know his stuff which is rare for a British basketball commentator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw75Nh1NvHQ

@Red64: Two hysterical commentators covering philos vs serbia game. Ridiculous tone - you would think it was a close game, these guys are screaming and the score is 118 to 65. WTF.

You must be referring to the same two hysterical commentators covering POL-ARG now. The Filipino commentator especially. His tone is ALWAYS like it's the last 20 seconds of a tied Game 7 final - kills me. We're 3mins into the game mate, it's gonna be a long night.

Mat Russell tonight.

Ingles launches a three.

Matt Russell: Ingles says 'try stopping that!'

Ingles airballs it.

44-44 and then Mills converts two free throws:

Russell: "Australia lead by one."

Russell just called Bogut's last NBA team the "Golden State Wanderers"

Gazey probably not up to it after hearing of the sudden death of Spud Frawley.

Gaze doing the call of USA v Brazil

I do vaguely recall during one of Gaze's prior FIBA stints that he said he preferred not to commentate Boomers game due to nerves/excitement etc.

Both Russells are absolute crap basketball callers. That game deserved better than what Matt Russell dished up last night. And 'To Be Able To' was his usual pathetic self.

Beat me to it. He states things super confidently to mask the fact he has no idea. Absolute moron.

Speed keeps making NRL Finals references to the AFL-supporting Heal who just ignores them.

He also calls us getting into the final before we have even played the quarter. He has to stop doing that! Talk about getting ahead of it.

Shane Heal goes BANG

Far out how can there be more complaints about the female commentator then the pommy ones. Those English commentators are a disaster. But Aussies would rather complain about a female. You guys are fucked.

The Pommy commentators have copped heaps of complaints on here over the years, everyone who's watched FIBA ball is used to how bad some of them are. The Canadian commentator is new, and adds little value in the special comments role, so not surprised there are complaints.

Personally, there aren't too many commentators who get my goat, and if they do I just turn the sound down!