Some of those guys "have a head for radio"

I thought Oscar Forman did an excellent job being a recently retired player and gave a lot of insights. Brett Maher hasn't done it for a few years but he was great when he did too.

No BT, but I wonder if they plan to have a BT style "roving reporter" going into the locker rooms and in the stands?

Gaze there as well. And no Carfino.

I love watching the NBL but I can just can not listen to Dwayne Russel commentating, he is a basketball Idiot.
Please NBL, don't bring Dwayne Russel back.

Geez Dwanyne and Matt Russell are both terrible. Will be as unbearable as those first ever ads. Where is Gazey and carfino?

Wow no Rosen as well. He has been there for a while. I like his insight and knowledge. What is going on with all these changes????

My A Team would be Casey Heal Gaze and Liam Santa on the sidelines

A roaming brian segmant would be great but not sure who could do it like BT. I mean corey homicide williams is cringey enough in simple after game interviews.

Who the hell has picked this team. Some Of these names are ridiculous. No Rosen, Carfino and even Worthington who are all bloody good

WTF is going on.

Matt Russell is woeful

Yeah, we really need more Matt Russell reminding us of things that have or haven't happened in history. Massive eye roll. He pissed me off majorly at the world cup

I don't know half the people listed in that secondary group.

Happy with no Rosen/Wortho. No Carfs is strange though.

I'd like to have seen Carfino. Lots of names there I'd rather not listen to, but some good ones too - glad to have Gaze as a commentator rather than coach of my team, in particular!

Oscar was a natural and seems like a lock at a commentary gig if that's something he wants to do. I also thought Josh Garlepp did a good job when I've seen/heard him do various gigs and he'd maybe be another fresh injection of talent into the commentary pool at some stage.

I assume by the press release that the commentary will be from the Melbourne broadcast hub off a TV??

Only the sideline reporter will be at the arena??

Please don't send Heal here

Nobody will be sent here. The commentary will be done from a studio in Melbourne.

What an utterly idiotic move.

Now really doesn't feel like the time to be taking a big backward step in the broadcast production. That sucks.

I look forward to a lot more of the "I'm not sure what the call is, the referee is out of shot" that we constantly got during the World Cup.

Bit of a disappointment but can understand as they are paying for all production costs. SBS and ESPN are not providing any funds for this.
Quite a few of the commentators listed already based in Melbourne.

Quite a few of the commentators listed already based in Melbourne.

That is most definitely a huge step back - commentators feed off the atmosphere.

Silly, silly, silly. It's very very obvious when commentators aren't at the stadium. Networks have tried this BS for Winter Olympics etc.

Does seem illogical tho if Lachie Reid and Shawn Redhage fly into Melbourne to call a game from Perth Arena

Surely they can manage some home-based commentary?

John Casey/Brett Maher in Adelaide?
Lachy Reid/Redhage in Perth?
Heal/Carf/Huddo in Sydney?
Russell/Gaze in Melbourne?

etc etc

Anthony Hudson from Melbourne

Heal and Homicide headline the list. That really says it all - how awful.

Wortho gone is great but apart from him all the other spuds kept their gigs.

The AFL and NRL drongos remain.

JvG oh how awesome (sigh) - another massive ego who will keep reminding us what he has done in his NBL executive career. Argh.

Heal will probably commentate daily if there is no travel requirement. Got to pay those bills.

This is the #1 area NBL are regressing in. Such a shame.

Will they at least be in the stadium for the Melbourne games?

If I were the NBL, I'd put Casey, Gaze and Heal together as often as possible.

How is Dwayne Russell on the list? The only situation I can think to use him again is if he is volunteering his services. I take that back, dead air performs better as a commentator than him.

They aren't getting any money for the broadcast deal, and this is the result. Loeliger trumpeted that the commentary team would be 'a dedicated basketball commentary team' and what do we get? The same old same old, with three football guys, none of whom are any good at calling the game, two egomaniacs in Shane 'to be able to' Heal and Corey Williams and a bunch of second-raters including Cam Luke, who was dreadful at the Blitz. You'll have the callers in-studio and then people on the ground in every city as sideline commentators, presumably (e.g. Lachy and Shawn wouldn't be calling games from Perth as such, they'd be doing sideline plus pregame and postgame interviews). This whole thing is a massive step backwards no matter how they try and spin it.

They aren't getting any money for the broadcast deal, and this is the result.

If I were the NBL, I'd put Casey, Gaze and Heal together as often as possible.

I'm a little concerned we haven’t heard about who’s broadcasting the nba x nbl

My idea was more about having a recognisable core team rather than a hodge podge of characters.

On budget. If money's too tight to mention why not downsize back to two commentators per game rather than three plus a sideline reporter? They've doubled the amount of personnel for no improvement. It worked for over two decades on Fox Sports with Casey and Carfino paired up with the latter leaving the commentary seat at the end of each period to interview a player on-camera. When playoffs began they would add a third commentator like Gaze, sometimes a current player who got knocked of contention to provide a current opinion.

Just downsize the amount of people rather than calling games from a booth.

I wonder if it's about wanting to do a studio pre-game/half time show without needing to have two crews.

Or makes it easier to send the feed into the US allowing them to put American commentators voices over the top of it. It's a cost cutting exercise for the most part which isn't good.

Good point re: making it easier to put other commentary teams over the top. Maybe a little cost cutting was also in order to help the league foot the bill for Ball, Hampton, and the other rising stars.

How would it make it any easier to put different commentary over the top?

Greggo - maybe you aren't relying on the commentators' mikes for the crowd and other stadium sounds? i.e., you can cut out the local commentary without also losing live stadium background.

They don't use commentary mics for crowd audio anyway - the commentary mics aren't supposed to pick up the crowd which is why the headsets allow them to hear each other. They can show highlights and replays without the commentary that accompanied them at the time, so it should be trivial to cut in other commentators.

It's not trivial though if you're actively trying to appeal to the US market as the NBL is currently doing. Americans often say they find our accents hard to understand so rather them putting them off maybe part of the idea is to allow them to put American voices over the top of the feed to make it more palatable for them.

I have no idea what you think I meant, so I'm not sure how to clarify it. Clearly you've completely misunderstood though.

Shane Heal - Controversially a tick for colour commentary & panel expert
Corey 'Homicide' Williams - Cross, if necessary, panel expert
Shawn Redhage - Cross, not a fan
Jenni Screen - Newbie, jury out
Cam Tragardh - Cross, sorry trigger
Jeff Van Groningen - Another cross
Dwayne Russell - Controversially, a tick as anchor commentary, albeit annoying
Anthony Hudson - Tick for anchor commentator
Matt Russell - Controversial tick as anchor commentator
John Casey - x1000 tick, plz be anchor commentator and anchor on panel show, do everything please
Liam Santamaria - Tick for expert commentator, panel expert
Lachy Reid - Tick for commentary anchor
Louise Ransome - Tick for courtside coverage, panel host
Candy Hertz - Newbie, jury out
Seb Costello - Tick
Cam Luke - Tick for panel show, cross for commentary
Jack Heverin and Peter Hooley - Juries out
Gaze - Tick

Disappointed to be missing:

Abbey Gelmi (I know she's doing cricket, still disappointing though)
Steve Carfino
James Harvey
Brett Maher
Rupert Sapwell

Wish NBL would pay massive amounts of money for a token few games:
DENNIS COMMETTI

+1 Abbey Gelmi / James Harvey.

Just realised no Simon Kerle. I really liked him, spoke well enough and always spoke his mind rather than sitting in fence.

I don't believe the NBL hierarchy really cares about the fans any more - it’s all about selling the 'product’ for maximum profits.

Either the commentators selected were available and cheap, or available ‘characters’ to stir people’s interest (for good or for bad). Plus, you need a few anchors who are the face of basketball, such as Gaze and Heal who everyone in Oz and the US know.
I expect that the better commentators probably priced themselves out of the market.

Perthworld, for once I agree totally with your thoughts.


And I consider BT a bigger f@#kwit than any of the Russell’s. He used to play - I’m sure I played summer comp against him - but when he commentated alongside Gaze, all he wanted to see was biffo, and he’d complain about players who played by the rules.

commentators need to be at the court side commentating ! That's what they are for.
To describe and explain the games closeup without relying solely on tv views.

"I don't believe the NBL hierarchy really cares about the fans any more - it's all about selling the 'product’ for maximum profits."

To say the NBL doesn't care about its fans is kind of ludicrous. You're talking about an organisation that makes absolutely no money yet, run by a man who invests millions of his own money. What are you suggesting they do care about if not the fans - fans who should actually be thankful we even have a league at this point. If you cast your mind back 4 years we were on life support. They're not just selling the 'product' for maximum profits. They're selling the 'product' to merely break even on the millions of their own money they've spent so that people like you can complain about something as petty as where commentary happens from.

"Disappointed to be missing:

Abbey Gelmi (I know she's doing cricket, still disappointing though)
Steve Carfino
James Harvey
Brett Maher
Rupert Sapwell"

Yes, Abbey Gelmi is just lovely to see on camera with her big, beaming smile. Definitely a character that is missed. Carfino used to cop a lot of crap so it's interesting how the tides have turned in his favour among the basketball community in his absence.

---


As far as I understand it there is meant to be sideline reporters for these games as well as the commentary anyway. If the NBL needs to cut some costs to bring this product to more people, then so be it. Most people didn't love the commentary before so I am not sure what is being missed if you also don't love it now. I agree we could all do with less Russells and Hudsons, but if we move completely away from footy commentators what are we left with, Matt McQuade saying "WROAOWOAOWAORW" after an open Cam Gliddon lay up, or a bunch of regional ex NBL TV nerds nerding up the place?

I expect the production value on these games will take another step up with ESPN. We're getting more pre and post game content. And we're getting more games LIVE on FTA then we ever have had in history. Be glad you're in the position to complain about exactly where the commentators are.

ME

I'll concede on the maximum profits versus breaking even or even trying to recoup losses, but I disagree that LK is trying to satisfy hard-core fans. Do you think he’s setting up eXciting stuff such as NBL vs NBA to please the true fans, or is it to just sell to a bigger TV audience regardless of who’s actually watching?

As for what LK has done in the last 4 years, thank god that he’s been so generous with his time and his money. He’s brought me back to live games and watching it on TV, which is why I want to see the game sold well through competent commentators and quality production, not taking the cheap & nasty approach. If I have to choose between a dying NBL and one run on the smell of an oily rag, of course I’ll go for the cheap version, but only if it really needs to come to that.

Apparently they have broadcast deals in Europe and Asia, wonder what they are

We haven't even heard the commentary yet to judge it. I don't see it being much different to before. And I'm not even sure if it's the commentary that is based just in Melbourne and not just the producing and editing.

Can people give examples of GOOD bball commentators - whether they be overseas based or local; past or present?

Clinton Grybas, Dennis Cometti, John Casey, Mike Breen

Boom.

Is it hype or are you just a hater?

Perspective, perspective

So everyone needs to know that commentators will be at every game. They won't be calling the games from a screen in Melbourne. The game will be produced from Melbourne. Not once does it say in that article that they will be commentating the game in Melbourne. What will be happening is there will be a hub in Melbourne that produces it all and packages it in a way that is uniform with graphics etc to match every game. Having commentators at the game is still happening. It is more cost effective to have local callers at the game. Every game has commentators there courtside.

I have spoken to one of the interstate callers and this is true

Can’t believe people in the thread have got this so wrong.

There is also a guy in Perth that has commentated the SBL for a while who is pretty good. He did the SBL Grandfinals this year but can't recall his name?

KET, I thought that was the case. Good clarification.

Haha that wasn't me, someone playing a nickname stealing prank

They won't be calling the games from a screen in Melbourne. The game will be produced from Melbourne. Not once does it say in that article that they will be commentating the game in Melbourne

It is extremely difficult watching NBL games on TV when Jenni Screen is in the main commentary team. Her voice is so irritating, so nasal (she speaks through her nose rather than her mouth). Yesterday I had to turn the TV off. i couldn't stand her screeching voice any longer. Please make the necessary adjustment.