The Boozy on Blazers TV

Game watched: Blazers v. Celtics

The league pass is great. We get all the games for all the teams so we never skip a beat. Our fingers are always firmly on the pulse of the league. However, the pass is not without its problems. For the most part, we see the games we want and it's no trouble. But once in a while there is a local sports broadcasting team that is so atrocious it makes us think that we're better off with just the national broadcasts, or at least listening to only music during the game.

Enter the Comcast Sports Network Northwest broadcasting team, the worst group of guys to ever hold cameras and microphones. Now three things have been bugging me with the broadcast since I've been watching the game:

1) The announcers have no clue what they're talking about.

Like, when they dish out facts that make no sense. Mike Rice, the color commentator, gives us his bizarre two cents on Rajon Rondo. He says he's impressed in Rondo's improvement after replacing Sebastian Telfair in the lineup. That great and all, but the starting point guard last season was DeLonte West! Wouldn't somebody point this out to him? You would think the guy could at least remember last season, but I guess it's tough when you're senile and all.

2) The announcers are hopelessly homers.

There's a great story where the Boston Celtics' TV announcers were given a talking to by Red Auerbach one time, saying to them, "Remember who signs your paychecks." I guess it's not much of a story. But the lesson is local announcers really are supposed to cater to the local crowd. But mix in my first complaint and you've got annoying results. The refs were bad tonight (an official team led by Bennet Salvatore should have been a dead giveaway), but not as bad as the announcers made them out to be. Rice did a good job of catching Boston's flopping when trying to draw a foul, but when the Blazers flop, it's a different story. That Blazer was really thrown back. I find it hard to believe that an announcer, whether he's a homer or not, would be that biased towards they're team. They're cheerleaders. When they foul, they cheat. When we foul, it's the refs playing favorites, or using their "star power," as Rice says. When Przybilla and Garnett fight for position, Garnett is the bully. This gets to be unbearable after an hour.

3) The announcers' insight adds zero to the entertainment factor.

No matter which guy talks, it seems like they're talking for the sake of talking. No insight to strategy, no intriguing facts or stats, and no excitement to what's going on in the game. Now the lack of enthusiasm can be attributed to Portland's awful second half performance, but nobody was excited for the early seventeen-point lead, either. Halfway through I wanted to play a tape of Marv Albert talking just so I wouldn't lose my mind listening to the CSN Northwest guys. Then again, there's a reason why these guys are stuck in Oregon.

I propose we write a letter to the League Pass guys and keep the Portland team off of the network. When the Blazers play, we should get the opponent's local broadcast because these guys just gave me a reason not to do league pass next year. Those guys are that bad. Then again, it might just be because I'm a homer and I wanted to hear my CSN New England crew. But I think the Portland crew's so bad that even people in Portland know they suck. What do you think, Blazers fans? Let your voice be heard!