Quote of the day.

“This year’s televised playoff coverage encapsulates everything that the NBA gets wrong. I’ll give a pass to TNT, whose broadcast personality lineup contains few, if any, duds. But the high-exposure games on ABC are a nightmare. First, there’s the “Right Now” theme song from the Pussycat Dolls, a TV-timeout dance routine that never goes away, with the added annoyance of pretentious lyrics. What is a “whirlwind playoff tour”? Did David Stern write that himself? Then there’s the horribly distracting “tracking cam,” which makes the game almost impossible to watch. Also, I hate the McDonald’s halftime highlights. I realize that corporate sponsorship is a part of the game, but I want to see actual highlights at halftime, not a nausea-inducing music video set to a “thanks for the memories” song that would be rejected by any self-respected quincea?era DJ.

Basically, the NBA gives off the impression of an old white guy (like, I don’t know, David Stern) trying to be street. The league caught lightning in a bottle for almost two decades, but now its approach seems desperate and a little old-fashioned. The public can be fooled easily if a propaganda campaign, like the NFL’s or the early Bush administration’s, is properly targeted. But when the campaign is badly calibrated, even by a couple of degrees, the public turns. And there you have the NBA’s relative unpopula rity.” – Neal Pollack, Slate

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