ESPN’s NBA Research Falls a Little Short
With the Cavs taking on the Nuggets last night, ESPN tried their hardest to rekindle the whole “LeBron/Melo” battle that has failed quite miserably. This morning, it seems that they are starting to lighten up a bit as Sportscenter admitted their shortcomings. However, thanks to Scene Magazine’s Vince Grzegorek, we have a few words of analysis that the WWL may want to revisit next time they discuss Cavaliers-Nuggets. Vince’s words follow after the jump.
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ESPN and Sportscenter are certainly not infallible, but there are some things you would expect them to get correct.
Turned on the Saturday 10 a.m. edition this morning to find co-host David Lloyd and the World Wide Leader not so up to date on their recent NBA history. The introduction to the Cavs/Nuggest highlights from Friday night was a small dissertation on the disappointing rivalry between LeBron and Carmelo Anthony. They were supposed to be the new Magic and Bird, and it hasn’t panned out that way, blah blah blah.
Then Lloyd dropped this nugget: “Five years later, neither has even taken his team to the Finals.”
Hmmmm.
Listen, I know the 2006-2007 Cavs performance in the NBA Finals against the Spurs left a lot to be desired. Getting swept really isn’t the way to cement your legacy in the minds of fans and sportscasters, but on the other hand, that was only two years ago. We’re not talking about an obscure ABA game from the 1970’s.
If LeBron and the Cavs were looking for some bulletin board material to keep their motivation up while running out to a 22-4 record, well, this just might do.
December 20th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Talk about disrespect…Fire whoever writes his script ASAP
December 20th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I posted about this on another board this morning. I could not believe what I heard so I rewound my DVR to make sure I heard it right.
forget about bashing Cleveland; this is simple fact checking and editing and most of us would be fired for something as bad as that.
PLUS, the d-bag should not make that mistake as a sports fan, let alone an anchor on a sports show.
It would be like George Clooney looking at the camera in his next big movie.
Amazing.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
i was watching the cavs game a few nights ago (not against denver but i cant remember who it was against – possibly one of the games against the sixers). i believe it was rick Buecher (i think?) who was reporting something about the improvement of lebron and the cavs and said something along the lines of “its amazing that lebron has yet to lead his team to 50-win season.” ummmmmm – not quite. not sure if anyone else caught that.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Disrespect?
Or perhaps he just forgot.
My God I’ve never seen people so sensitive about being “disrespected” than Cleveland fans. Who cares? SportCenter started sucking when I was like…in sixth grade.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Mike:
I did catch that. Simply incredible. For someone who knows the NBA so well, that’s pathetic.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
dave d – which game was that? was it buecher? i wasnt watching it on my tv with the dvr (so i couldnt go back to double check it) and it was the kind of thing that when i heard it, i really didnt believe what i heard. i thought for sure i just misunderstood.
December 20th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
kinda off topic but Cavs/LeBron related, has anyone else seen this article floating around ESPN yet?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3784334
wouldn’t THAT be something
December 21st, 2008 at 1:29 am
BSPN is so unprofessional. The other day, this woman sportscaster called the Oklahoma City team the “Kansas City Thunder.” What the hell is she doing on the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader?” I mean, I know the Blunder are a joke, but after the entire Clay Bennett/Seattle scandal, how can you NOT know where the team was moved?
Just a horrid network…and the fact that they’ve completely monopolized the market is just a tragedy. Thank goodness that TNT still carries NBA games.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:47 am
Its gonna be a shame if the BCS actually goes to ESPN and they don’t spread it to ABC when the new deal starts. Not to say that BCS is good at all but some of us don’t have cable. Thank goodness there’s websites that stream live tv!
December 21st, 2008 at 8:00 am
Bambino,
When I saw sportscenter, I did not feel disrespected as a cleveland fan, just shocked that someone in the sports field could make such an error, not to mention not correcting himself.
I would have felt the same way if he had said that AI had never made the finals.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I agree with the guy being an idiot. Certainly that’s true. Being disrespected is another matter entirely though.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Or how about when the Cavs were playing in Philly on ESPN a couple weeks ago and Ric Bucher says Lebron James has never been on team that has won 50 games in the regular season.
Uhh, sorry Ric but we did that in 05-06 and 06-07. Good to know you take your job seriously.