On the eve of ABC’s first NBA broadcast of the season, NBA general managers can give fans a gift that will last throughout the year.
Mark Jackson will begin his third year with the NBA on ABC, and his second year on the lead broadcast team, when he calls the Phoenix Suns/Los Angeles Lakers game with Mike Breen and Jeff van Gundy. And more than likely, Jackson will spend the two-and-a-half hours stating the obvious, making painfully lame, pithy comments, and taking over the telecast.
For some reason, Jackson is considered one of the top analysts in the business. Certainly, Jackson works with the very best. There are not many who can boast working with the lead play-by-play men on two networks, which Jackson does on ABC (Mike Breen) and YES Network (Marv Albert). By all accounts, his critics and peers consider him to be near the top of the NBA analyst heap. Still, listening to Jackson analyze games is a steep step down from listening to Mike Fratello, Jeff van Gundy and Doug Collins.
Awful Announcing summed it up last May, pointing out that Jackson often makes statements (usually in the form of some sort of cliche or nonsensical catchphrase), but rarely backs them up with any actual analysis.
?Okur has played Duncan better than anyone I?ve ever seen anyone play him?- MJ, Okay, why would you say that is?
?He doesn?t block a lot of shots, but he spreads out and makes it tough for Duncan to get by?- JVG, Jeff….stop it. I asked Mark.
Despite his flawed analysis, Jackson is a rising star in the announcing business. The only way fans can be saved from having to listen to him for yet another season and yet another NBA Finals is if NBA general managers also find themselves fond of him. Jackson is considered a possibility to take over several NBA coaching vacancies, and as one of the great point guards of all time, could easily make a far better coach than analyst.
Jackson’s name has been mentioned as a slight possibility to fill the inevitable New York Knicks coaching vacancy — ironic, due to the fact that Jackson and current Knicks coach Isiah Thomas have more in common than excellence at the point guard position.
In 1998, Thomas was hired to be the lead analyst for the NBA on NBC. He was paired with Bob Costas in a two-man booth, and was arguably worse in that position than he is now as Knicks head coach. Midway through the season, the Detroit Pistons did the world a favor and fired Doug Collins, allowing NBC to hire him and partially save their lead broadcast team. That year, Costas, Collins and Thomas worked the NBA Finals, and NBC had enough good sense to ‘promote’ Thomas to the studio team the next season. The resulting two-man team of Costas and Collins was one of the best NBC had during its NBA coverage.
The parallel is uncanny. In 2006, ABC named Jackson the lead analyst for its NBA package, pairing him with Mike Breen. During the 2007 NBA Playoffs, the Houston Rockets fired Jeff van Gundy, and ABC added him to the team of Jackson and Breen. So far this season, Breen and Van Gundy have worked in a two-man booth for most games, due to Jackson’s YES Network duties, and those telecasts have been far easier to listen to. In fact, the teams of Breen and Van Gundy and Dan Shulman and Hubie Brown have easily been the best ESPN has had since taking over the NBA in 2002.
With one team already having a coaching vacancy (the medicore one-time contender Chicago Bulls, who fired Scott Skiles this afternoon), here is hoping that this Christmas, NBA general managers can give fans a true gift and hire Jackson away from the broadcast booth.
