ESPN and TNT are paying a ton for broadcasting rights for the NBA yet they permit home cities to broadcast the game with local announcers competing directly with the national broadcast. I prefer the national broadcast for the 76ers games. Our local broadcasters turn it into a yuck fest and complain about every foul call committed by the 76ers or not called against the opposition. The local broadcast is overproduced with too much talk. I'm trying to watch the game and it detracts from what's on the court. What I'm curious about is why don't ESPN and TNT have exclusive rights in the first two rounds. It has to cost them a ton of money in big markets like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, ect. The viewers get siphoned off by those who want watch the local telecast. If a playoff game is on NBA TV it is blacked out locally. I believe any ABC televised playoff game does have exclusive broadcast rights. The regular season NBA broadcasting rules have changed too. ESPN games used to be blacked out locally in the home market. Now they are simulcast too. Not that I have looked but there has to be three separate camera crews at each game. Or maybe there is one and they all share the same feed. The one thing the national broadcasts do is feeds from inside the huddle. The local broadcasters do not. Another thing I'm not sure of is coaches interviews between quarters. Israel Gutierrez did the interviews for the Heat/Sixers. Because I always watch the national telecast I have no idea if Sixers sideline reporter gets to asks questions too. Same goes for Heat sideline reporter. Maybe they get different quarters.
The only national guy I'm tired of is Jeff Van Gundy and in the finals you are stuck with him. You can't go local. I don't what has happened to JVG over the years but he it totally distracted and rants about everything except the game. JVG is 56 years old and Hubie Brown is 84. Hubie is actually watching the play on the court. He's not as sharp as he once but at 84 most people are lucky to still be walking around. Jeff is turning into Bill Walton who in his final years doing the NBA would get on a soapbox and start rambling about anything that came into his head. I used to love Bill with the late Snapper Jones when they did games on NBC. Marv Albert and Mike Fratello were also great. Breen is decent, I just wish JVG would go back to coaching so they could pair him with someone else.
