The Press Box - NBA Finals Audio Fun. Plus: Dieter Kurtenbach on Covering the Games.

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

With the absence of Mike Breen from the past few NBA games, Bryan and David have some audio fun and highlight different broadcast styles (4:16). Then, they are joined by sports columnist Dieter Kurtenbach to discuss covering the NBA Finals and reporting on the Golden State Warriors (29:05). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Guest: Dieter Kurtenbach Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. We're not just reacting to the NBA playoffs on my podcast. We're also doing it on the Ringer NBA show and the Mismatch podcast. They are coming after some of these NBA playoff games. Check it out, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights on the Ringer podcast Network. I'm happy to announce that here on Monday, June 6th, we are doing the press box in person. You, David Shoemaker, me, Brian Curtis, and producer Erica, survived. in the same room at the same time for the first time since 2019?

2018? It's been so long that I did not remember if we'd ever done it with Erica in the same room when we got here today. And I can honestly say that after two plus years of separation, isolation, of completely changed work and home life. This is being here in the same room together is an abomination in the eyes of God. But you're more comfortable on Zoom. That's what you're telling them. I think that we've all figured out that communicating on Zoom is the appropriate way to be in communication with people.

It's really funny because Erica became our permanent producer right before the pandemic. So, and there was a thing at the ringer that we actually did podcasts in person quite a bit before the pandemic. Not only did we do it in person, but it was, it was, it was much preferred to do it in person. Right? When the pandemic hit, first of all, I mean, we were, our podcast wouldn't have started if we couldn't have been in the same room at the same time. I don't think Simmons would have even, even like, suggested it if we couldn't be in the same room at the same time. That's part of the magic of making these podcasts work. And second of all, when we started the pandemic, and I'm probably pulling back the curtain too much here. So, apologies.

to our apologies to our entire setup. But like, we didn't really know how to do a podcast remotely, right? Like, we had the, we had, like, Zoom recorders and stuff, you know, we had, like, our task cams. But the idea of, like, like, when we used to do a podcast remotely from back in L.A., pre-pandemic, we didn't have a Zoom window open. That was a luxury specific to, I mean, that only the high-level shows like the watch got to use, like, video conferencing during remote podcasts.

We would just, I remember people would ask how we did it. We were like, we just know each other so well that we can talk to each other on audio with no video and know when it's time to talk. We didn't have Zoom. We didn't have the video setups. We didn't have Zoom in our day. And now we do. Now it's like, why would you ever look at somebody in the face? I remember the weirdest time was I went to Australia for a few months.

You were still living here in L.A. Yeah. And Jim Cunningham, who was our producer at the time, would call me. on my phone in Australia, always at a weird time of day, and I would put the phone to my ear and talk to you or put headphones in and talk to you on the podcast. And it felt like I was a 1950s reporter sending my story from a foreign bureau back to headquarters on a telegraph. Now I would just look at you. Yeah. But I can't tell people, how important the Zoom has become to our relationship as friends.

Oh, yeah. Like the other day, Eric, kind of discovered that David no longer wears glasses. That was news. Didn't get a text about that. Didn't get an email about that. But David popped up on the Zoom and I'm like, aha, contacts. Or aha, you can't see me. Yeah.

Yeah, these are important developments. Coming up on a day's show, David, let's begin with some audio from games one and two of the NBA finals, where the play-by-play announcer had to call in sick, plus Dieter Kurtnbach of the Bay Area News Group tells us what it's like to cover those same finals in person. All that more on the press box. A part of the ringer podcast network. Hello media consumers, Brian Curtis, David,

Schumaker producer Erica Servantes here. Let us begin, David, with some audio from games one and two of the NBA finals, which are tied one-one between the Warriors and Celtics. The big media story was that ESPN's lead play-by-play announcer, Mike Breen, had to call in sick for the third straight game. Right before game seven

of the Eastern Conference finals, Breen tested positive for COVID. He missed that game, and then he missed the first two games of the finals. Jeff Van Gundy, who was an analyst, also missed game one of the finals after sounding like

Darscidious on the air during Celtics Heat game seven. That story got weird because Van Gundy told the New York Times, no, no, I didn't test positive. My test was merely inconclusive. So he weirdly missed game one of the finals, but came back for game two. First take here, by the way, and this is the most obvious thing in the world, but it's worth saying

because we get really, really wrapped up in all the media churn here. This really sucks for Mike Breen. Can you imagine working this hard and being this good at your craft, and then you have to miss an exciting game seven and then the first two games at the NBA finals? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's got to be heartbreaking for him. Presumably, he's going to get to come back and call some of the finals. I don't think this is going to be like, you know, quarterback where, you know,

where the producer is going to be like, no, Mark Jones has proved that he can quarterback a winning team, we're just going to keep him out there until he loses. I mean, I think that he has, you know, he'll be able to sort of get some of that redemption. Speaking of a Marine. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, what a wild time for it to happen, too. The Van Gundy thing just cracks me up because this is like after all of the sort of, you know, stories about some sketchy player testing and stuff like that and all the presumptions and jokes that people have made over the past two years,

it's great that it's all now embodied by Jeff Van Gundy with this like inconclusive test stick as seemingly like an unnecessary explanation for why he got to come back for a game too. The whole thing is just sort of hilarious. Yeah. We always wonder what COVID protocols means. Yeah. When it's not just COVID, that apparently was an actual case of COVID protocols. Yeah. But if it's only protocol, I mean, he got worse during game seven, right? I mean, he didn't start the game sounding like he was about that he was losing his voice, right?

During, yeah, game seven. He sounded really bad. But I feel like he got progressively worse during that game. I mean, if it's not a mechanical issue, right? If you could conceivably call the game, but the tests are going off, can they not do games over Zoom? So they can. I don't know if you remember, Kirk Herbstree tested positive for COVID a couple years ago right before the college football playoffs. Speaking of an event, a guy lives for, who has worked all year to do. And he called the first one remotely with Chris Fowler in the building. So you can.

And I was kind of interested why they didn't break that out, because Breen, if he was feeling up to it, presumably could have called it remotely with his analysts either there or somewhere else. And maybe it's the NBA finals. And you think, let's, gosh, we want to have a guy in the building for the NBA finals. Mark Jones is available. Let's do it. But that is a really interesting question. I guess after sitting here and having a weird half second delay when we're in the same

room and trying to use Zoom, that maybe answers the question, right? Even like a millisecond of delay would make being a play-by-play announcer impossible. And the way that it wouldn't necessarily make a, you know, talking head on first take or something like that. It's harder, but they did it all during the first year plus the pandemic. Yeah. There were so many remote calls. There was Joe Buck and John Smaltz calling huge baseball games not in the same room even with

each other. Crazy. It was the press box as a play by playing an analysis of a big game. That's not a go overboard here. So we get a question a lot. Whenever an announcer gets a huge multi-bigillion dollar contract, which is, why are they paying these guys this money? What does it matter who announces a game?

Couldn't you just put somebody else out there and it would be the same game? Well, when ESPN's Mark Jones stepped in for Breen, it was a very high-profile way to test that question of what happens if this a team announcer who's really, really great at their job, who we've come to rely on and identify it with huge NBA games. What if they get replaced by somebody else? And when Jones did his intro for game one of the finals, we knew things.

We're going to be just a tad different. It's the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors in game one of the NBA finals presented by YouTube TV. During the NBA's 75th anniversary, it almost being preordained that two of its original initial franchises would meet in a class for this moment of enthronement and enshrinement. two of the NBA's original initial franchises. Is that factually correct? Are we just talking about the...

We're talking about the announcer double dribble. Right, the double dribble, right. The immediate, the thesaurus usage there, yeah. And then later in the sentence, for this moment of enthronement and enshrinement, are you seeing a lot of daylight between the enthronement and the enshrinement that will happen at the end of this series

when one team wins? I feel like he's talking like I write so I don't really have any room to criticize here. You look at your piece and you're like, that's a little wordy. Yeah, you're right. I use two adjectives where one will do. I find it we hear the word enshrinement a lot of times when a player makes the Hall of Fame.

I'm not sure if I've ever heard the word enthronement in a sports broadcast before. Now, look, we could pounce on a little snatch of dialogue here from any announcer. But listen to Jones's intro from game two of the finals and see if you hear the phrase that pays one more time. Game two on deck between two of the NBA's original initial franchisers. So we've clearly decided that original and initial is the proper way to describe.

Wait, was that a different clip? That was game two. Oh, wow. That was game two. And you remember, I think I was telling you this on the last episode we did together, game seven of the Celtics Heat, he. He said, game sevens were the most powerful and profound words in the athletic jargon and lexicon. Mark Jones, Mark Jones just calls games.

He's maybe he's, he's maybe more current than we're ready for, right? He's just, he's doing this, he's doing play-by-play like Drake Raps, right? Like, everything is a synonym, right? He, like, defines the word and then says what it is. I think, I'd just give him credit for it. Yeah, some, some enthronement happening on this. And throw them in an enthrinement. This was the moment that really got me.

We can call it Portergate. Third quarter of game one, the Warriors Auto Porter just reaches out and tears the ball out of the Celtics Robert Williams' hands. Awesome moment. Porter then misses the three at the other end. Andrew Wiggins gets fouled. And listen to how Jones describes what Warriors fans were chanting in the stands at that moment. Okay. I don't know it's a spot-up shooter

healthy again just don't settle with just being a shooter with this warrior teams you've got to bring everything to the table active hands comes up with the strip getting involved defensively and Otto Porter has been almost automatic

Mark four or five and deep Dan's chanting his name so I started to tweet this and then I got freaked out because I'm like could I be wrong? Yeah. I think I hear warriors on the TV. I've heard the Golden State crowd chant warriors a lot before, but he is sitting there in the arena. So could he possibly be hearing Porter? And his defense, I mean, if you ask him, he could just be like, well, the people around me were chanting Otto Porter. And somebody was chanting Otto Porter.

Regardless, I love it. I don't care. I mean, this is, I'm the pro wrestling guy. I'm used to watching matches where the crowd, where the crowd is chatting, you know, like, this is bullshit. And the announcers are just like, the crowd, extremely passionate about what's going on in the ring. Just completely making it up. The crowd is living here. So, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, and it's also okay to miss that call because we always get those things. Listen, if you, if you watch the game, and again, probably wrestling more so than other things because the crowd's all actively trying.

to get chants started, but we've all been in a situation where you're just like, oh my gosh, are they, are they, are they, are they chaining that they, did they hate the guy who just got injured? That's really mean. And then you really, you know, you listen for a second. You're like, no, no, they're just chanting Randy Savage for no reason. I was listening to one of the Dallas radio hosts. I love Jake Kemp. And he was asking, what would Otto Porter have had to do in that game to get the crowd to start chanting Otto Porter? Like, that's an interesting question. Yeah. He'd have to, how crazy would Otto Porter have to go to get the Auto Porter chance started in that arena?

Oh, it would have to be a lot. It would have to be a lot. Even if they showed up, even if this is like a high school football game where like people get together at a pep rally and practice their chance, they'd have to get pretty deep into the playbook before they brought out like Auto Porter, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. You know, I mean, that's a deep cut. Here's the one that really got everybody. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. So I'm going to play this for you.

This was after the Celtics had flipped the game in the fourth quarter. Warriors start the fourth quarter with a 12-point lead. All of a sudden, the Celtics go crazy. Oh, my gosh, the Celtics are going to win game one. Just want you to listen to the language Jones used to describe that Celtics comeback. The Celtics have stormed ahead. This insurrection has them leading by 11. So right after he says that some people were just like, wait, did we just hear storming

an insurrection used in conjunction with the NBA and a comeback in the fourth quarter of the finals? Is that too soon? Is it too much? I heard it. And it was definitely a weird word choice. I didn't quite understand who I was supposed to be offended for at that moment because people were getting mad.

Right. Someone has to be offended for something to be offensive. That's one of my hard and fast rules. I guess though if he had said, if he had said, watch out Mike Pence, there's an insurrection coming. That might have been too far.

That might have been a little bit on the nose, I think. But I was just a little bit like, oh, that's a funny word to come to your mind. Insurrection for a team winning on the road during game one of the NBA finals. Yeah.

It's definitely in the zone of the word you're kind of reaching for. Insurrection. This was one, and this one, got to tell me this, because maybe I'm just mishearing. Maybe this is Auto Porter on steroids, as we like to say here at the press box. Here was the way that Jones described Jason Tatum, who had a very, very quiet game one at the beginning of game two of the NBA finals.

Mark, let's start with the Boston Celtics. In the win, Jason Tatum, their first team, All-NBA Cuellizade, had 13 assists, but he shot just three of 17. Who should be more worried right now? We've seen this before. gold is safe. I'm sorry, did he say all NBA quasar? Like the solar system quasar? Oh, man.

Is that what everybody heard? Because at first I thought, okay, it was All-Star and it just came out weird. But he said, all-NBA, so he wasn't identifying him as an all-star. He was an all-N-B-A quasar. Can we hear that one more time? I mean, again, this is, I feel like I'm auto-portering. my way around this. Did I just... Play it again. Play it again. Hold on. I tweeted it. I tweeted what did Mark Jones

just called Jason Tatum? What did people say? There were just a couple like three likes, like no one else heard it. And then I searched the word Quasar on Twitter and it was like one or two people who heard Quasar. Just one more time maybe for our purposes here. Here's Mark, let's start with the Boston Celtics. In the win, Jason Tatum, their first team All-MBA Quasar had 13 assists, but he shot just three of 17. Who should be more worried right now? We've seen this before. Boston or Golden State.

That was definitely Quasar, wasn't it? I'm trying to decide if that's a, if that's a one of those things where you just like, do you ever, like, say a word that, like, rhymes with, like, some sort of, not quite a homophone, but, like, a word that kind of sounds like the same rhyme with the same number of syllables. but it's a total wrong word and it'll just come out of your mouth, especially when you're trying to recite a turn of phrase or something. Sometimes that'll happen. My guess, though, is that he was,

he thought Cuizar was a synonym for star and was just trying to amp it up a little bit. Okay. Okay. And all in be a star. I'm looking for a heavenly body that's even bigger than a star. Yeah. Yeah, that would be my guess. I think that, I mean, I, this is all incredibly entertaining.

I think that Mark Jones, you'd say, was this like auto, auto porter and steroids? Mark Jones is just is is like is like Joe Buck on steroids like it sounds like it like it sounds like a professional sports game being called the content doesn't really matter right like we're like it's more like an emotional call like you you don't on first listen you're like that was fantastic and the more you break it down well you're just sort of doing a disservice to the art right yeah it was weird I mean to me it was like when you think of the difference between Mike Breen and somebody else calling a game.

There's a bunch of good NBA announcers now. You could have a Kevin Harlan and I, an eagle, but like Mike Breen not being there, there's certain small things like this that we could pick out. But I also feel it's also just a sense of, larger sense of control of the game, control of the call. Sean Grady compared it to an airline pilot

on the pod the other day, that you just feel like you're in good hands. And it's less what somebody says, than the way they use their voice during a comeback. Yeah. It signals to you like, this is how big this is. This is how awesome this is.

And they don't even have to say, this is big, this is awesome, this is incredible. In fact, it's better if they don't. Yeah. But they're just able to put the right notes to it.

Mm-hmm. And that's when I noticed during the last couple of games that Mike Breen wasn't there. Of course, we didn't hear the word bang, which we had heard a lot, especially during the first game

when the Celtics were coming back. But it was just like, it's those small things and I think that when you talk about what makes the absolute top of the heap announcer it is that ability to just sort of have your hands around the game

yeah to have your voice in just the right place every single time yeah I mean listen it would be unusual for there to be I mean I guess basketball NBA basketball is a real exception you know in football it would be unusual

to have two number one announcers available over the same game, right? If somebody got sick, you'd necessarily be pulling in someone who was less experienced or lesser than in some other way. But you're right. I mean, these are, it feels different.

To me, it didn't feel like demonstrably different, but you're right, but those are really good points. Feels different is the right way I'd put it. It felt different. We could point to, you know, words and stuff like that, but mostly it's like, it just feels different. Yeah. When the guy were,

used to and the guy who has such a great control over it isn't doing control is a good word i mean jones is a fantastic announcer he's a very different style of announcer and you know and frankly i mean maybe a little bit more of like them from the marv marv albert school but like in general not what we're used to hearing he's different than most current NBA play by play guys and it's sort of his well bombast isn't the right word because brain certainly has that too but there's Kevin harland those guys are big yeah big voices yeah it's true but i mean i think i think jones is great. And I think these are probably really valuable reps. I mean, he was very, he was very, um, he was very, um, he was very, um, he was very, um, he was very, um, he was very, um, I don't know,

he seemed to have a good grasp of the storylines and, you know, with the, everything that was happening right in front of him and, and good back and forth with other people in the booth, right? And that's what I really enjoyed about his call was the questions he was asking. Yeah. to Mark Jackson in Game 1 and Jackson and Van Gundy in game 2. He would often just stop and be like, what do the Warriors need to do to get Steph more involved? Yeah. And ask these, like, really good pointed questions,

which you very rarely see during a basketball game. During a big time basketball, it's more of a studio show sort of thing, but it's also a- Or coming back from commercial when I and Eagle goes, Jim Jackson, what do the Warriors need to do to turn it around the second half? Yeah. I mean, sometimes more local broadcasts when the people have, more comfort more uh you know they're more they're more have more comfort with each other and they

have a little bit more you know empty space to fill when it's like you know hornets versus magic third quarter middle of the season you know they can they can kind of go into that stuff a little bit more but you're right that was really that part was really great a couple of other uh notes from games one and two uh we got the boys are back in town one more time david yeah to continue our study of bumper music here one of our listeners tweeted at me brian do you know the local location of the boys. Yes, they are back in town. Thank you. We got a what can Brown do for you from Mark Jackson during the second quarter of game one. Nice. I want a ticker. That's one during the NBA finals. Please report any other uses that phrase to us. Before game two, David, we had a Stephen

A. Smith bleep malfunction. Adrian Woz-Norowski had reported that Donvin Mitchell was a little bit upset that his coach, Quinn Snyder, had quit. So this naturally is an opening for Stephen A. Smith to talk about Donovan Mitchell going to the New York Knicks. Because we must talk about the New York Knicks during every NBA pregame show. Oh my God. Even during the freaking NBA finals. Now, Smith used a small cussword, if that's the right term here. He said, God damn right, I'm going to say the New York Nix.

But the ESPN censors kind of mistime the bleat. I love the mistime bleat. Listen to this clip from NBA countdown. Ready for your next job. And you now see if maybe if Stephen A's right and Donovan Mitchell ends up somewhere else and don't say New York. God damn right. I'm going to say to New York this. New York.

We'll be for a quick slider. We all know. The great Phil Jackson 11 times champ. It sounded like they were trying to bleep Phil Jackson's name. It sounded like he said some really negative things about Phil Jackson that was covered up by the bleep. This is another one of those instances where I'm sitting there watching the game, had my computer out, and I'm like, did, did everyone hear what I just heard? Am I totally confused about something that has happened? But it seemed like Stephen A was bleeped at a very odd time.

And I can't even begin to guess what he would have said about Phil Jackson that would have required he had to step in. Did they just miss the goddamn? They missed it. And no, no, I'm saying, was that the beep for the goddamn? I believe so. Wow. I believe so. And the sensors are working on like a seven second delay. That's very bizarre. One last note for you, David.

Pre-game or at the beginning of the game, we got a very special politics and NBA finals tweet. And since I'm sitting here with you, I can just show it to you. This is a tweet from Nancy Pelosi wearing Warriors gear. Let's go Warriors. Champions on and off the court. Hashtag Dubnation. Why does Nancy, Why does it matter that they're champions off the court? Well, you could presumably tweet that anytime, right?

You can tweet that in three weeks. Yeah. Or you would tweet that in a reaction to them doing something wonderful for the children of the Bay Area or something, you know? Nice appearance at a food bank or hospital. I'm not doing justice to this incredible photo of Nancy Pelosi and a warrior's jacket of some sort. Yeah. It looks like maybe a sweat, sweat suit. or something, and then she's got the

yellow coat with the zippers on it. Very, very intense photo, very Instagram appropriate headshot there. This was before game one. And Hector Diaz responds on Twitter, the Warriors saw this tweet in the fourth quarter and were inspired to do nothing during the most important stretch.

Little politics humor there for you. Which brings us to the overworked Twitter joke of the week where we celebrate a gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. Send your nominees to at the press box pod where they are always gratefully received. Today's winner, David,

comes from Tori Hart and Kevin Clark. Yes, that Kevin Clark. During last night's game two, LeBron James, as he often does, decided to weigh in on a basketball game that he was not playing. James tweeted, jumping on someone's podcast soon,

may be my own. It was a very overword Twitter joke to say that LeBron James was coming on your podcast. Even Press Box alum Jim Cunningham got involved in that one. LeBron James, come on Titus and tape. Do you, do you, I just kind of take it as a rule not to be doing the Please Come on my podcast on Twitter. Yeah. We're doing that so much behind the scenes. There's no real reason to do that in public as well.

Yeah. Well, and there also has to be some, like there. was a point where that was a running joke on NBA desktop back in the old ringer office days. Yes. But part of the implicit humor that, I mean, obviously, it's a little bit like it's a shot in the dark and like, you know, and you're sort of shooting your shot as the hashtag right in front of me in the studio says. But shout out, Shea Serrano. But there was also like, like, if they're making that joke about NBA desktop, you can't make that joke about the press box. Just because the odds of desktop getting that guest are so much higher.

Right? There has to be some level of either plausibility or incredible ridiculousness to it. It can't seem like you're hungry for it, right? It has to either be a joke or it has to be a little bit feasible. You should do it if you have a basketball podcast, probably, is what you're saying. Yeah. Now, if you have like a weird corner of American history podcast, LeBron James, please come on my Route 66 podcast. Okay. I'm in. Yeah. But then when it gets in the realm of actually plausible, then you can't do it there either.

No. Right? If Woge was in there saying, like, LeBron, you can come on your humbly and cautiously invited to the Woj pod. That would seem sad. That would be very, very weird. Yeah. Conan, Mark Merrin.

I'm trying to think of people that would actually potentially book LeBron on their podcasts. Yeah, like every, like top ten podcast, sure. Yeah. In history, basketball, anything. Yeah. Dax Shepard's podcast, whatever that's called. that would be a good one. If you're trying to keep up with the press boxes booking,

congrats. You made the overwork Twitter joke of the week. All right, in the notebook dump, David, there was a suggestion online that there was a little bit of a pro-Celtics tilt to this podcast recently. Sean Grandi, Bill Simmons, Kevin O'Connor. We're like the McNeill-Lair NewsHour here.

We strive for balance. So for another view of the NBA finals, let us turn to Dieter, Curtinbach, Bay Area News Group columnist professional talker at KNBR. Dieter, how are you? I'm good. If I'm being brought in as the Warriors perspective, it's like some Washington General's nonsense here.

You're bringing me in to only prove the point further, but we'll endeavor nevertheless. You are doing what most people, and this includes David and I will never get to do, which has cover the NBA finals from inside the arena. Yes. What has that experience been like so far? Peculiar, not that it's new. anyway, though I will note that I've never actually seen the Warriors fully clinch an NBA finals win, despite being now at six NBA finals, I suppose it could only have seen five,

because every time I'm in the bowels of the arena trying to type something out as the buzzer's about to go off, but maybe this is the year, just to keep my fingers crossed. Regardless, it's been weird because of the fact that we weren't in arenas for like two years here in the Bay Area. And we don't really have a good feel for Chase Center, the arena that we've been in thus far. Obviously, we know the, the, just the legend of Oracle Arena in Oakland and all of the great vibes and secondhand highs that we got there. And Chase Center's a different cat. And we're, we're feeling it out. And it's actually kind of been really interesting in terms of when I come back home after the game and watch the game, how different it feels in the building versus

when I watch it on television. I don't know if that's a new development in the post-pandemic TV. world, if that's me being desensitized or way too much dope of mean adult? I don't know, but that's a very different vibe than the last time the Warriors were doing this, which was obviously a very different world than we live in now. You touched on this on Twitter, actually. Was it today, yesterday? Yeah.

You were tweeting about the fact that there was a, your perception of control or the control in the game was different than watching it at home. I think we're all feeling a little bit of. about just trying to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other woman. No, no, no, no, no. We're all trying to figure out how to, you know, what life in the real world feels like these days. Yeah. But the lack of control with Jordan Poole specifically you were talking about,

explain that a little bit for us because I found it really interesting. Well, I'm watching the first six quarters of these NBA finals, Jordan Poole just looked spun. He looked shooketh, as I like to say. And it was just plainly obvious. to me, everybody's sitting around me, anybody that I ran into in the arena, we're in a Warriors jersey, Celtics jersey, anybody. They're just like, wow, Jordan Poole is out of control. He doesn't know he's doing. And then kind of what I was saying earlier, like, I come home and

I'll rewatch the game because you're just not able to catch everything in the moment. And there's little minute things that really would only be able to find on television that will be deemed important. And it just didn't resonate the same way Jordan Poole's out of control, spiral nature just in experience. It didn't resonate the same way on television. He didn't look good. I mean, he wasn't playing well, but it didn't feel almost existential in nature. It didn't feel as heavy just watching it on TV. And I thought that was interesting, especially because there were a lot of folks in my Twitter mentions and the jokes on me for checking him, but like saying like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like you're being way too hard on Jordan

Poole here. And I'm like, how could you not be? Like this is stating the obvious, but it's not obvious through the television lens. And I don't really know what the truth is. And it's these weird, I don't know, it's not body language. There's just emotions and vibes and energy in the building. And we're close enough that we can pick up a little bit of it, but obviously we're not courtside or anything. But there's just little things of the human experience that really can only be perceived inside the arena. And maybe I just forgotten that there's a differentiation between those two things or maybe maybe this is a new thing to where you know we all got desensitized for two years and here we are back and now it's plainly obvious for everybody to see but um it was it was weird

I was trying to figure out why it was that no one no one who was watching the game on TV seemed as upset as I because I didn't feel like I was being all that harsh and uh and then I watched the games back and I realized like oh it just it just doesn't feel the same and in a series that is really tight. I don't think there's a lot of margin between the two teams talent-wise. It's little things like that. You know, emotional swings,

guys playing out of control. It's little minute details that are going to make the difference. And if that's not coming through on TV, that's really interesting. I think there's two things going on. One, as someone, I just got back into context the first time in like 15 or 20 years. And there is a, it's a very different thing

to go back and forth. It's not just wearing the context. It's going back. and forth that you're just not used to. And I think going back and forth, like re-engaging in real life in real life gameplay, there's going to be a difference of perception. But you don't even need to respond to this, but I am all in on this diagnosis because it actually makes it seem less ephemeral.

Sometimes you're watching these games at home and you hear the coaches say, well, Jordan Poole is playing out of control and you don't, and the fact that you don't perceive it just makes you feel kind of stupid or makes you feel like there's something, it's something you'll never get. The fact that you feel you can see it better in real life, it makes it make more sense. You feel it. You know that he's playing faster than everybody else.

And maybe it's like the other suggestion that I've heard is that it's somewhat like of an all 22 thing. Obviously it would be all 10 in basketball. But you get to see the full floor. You get to see a lot more of the movements. You get to see everybody coming up the floor, which isn't necessarily true because the ball stays with or the camera stays with the ball coming up the floor. And it's in those moments that you realize like it's not like he's stopping. and then starting going fast.

He's running like a crazy person all around the floor at all times. And if you're not seeing that part on TV, it's important context. But again, we're dealing with really like minute details here. And yeah, I just, it is pretty wild to me, though, that it just doesn't resonate on television. Because legitimately, one of the great parts about this Warriors run over the last, you know, now six title round runs, eight years, is that you can catch a lot of what makes the Warriors awesome and a great watch on television. You can feel the crowd. You can catch, like, it's Steph Curry.

It's very blunt and obvious. And it's this sort of avalanche that's about to begin. You can feel that coming through television because it's very macro. The micro stuff that we're having to kind of hone in on now, not just because it's the NBA finals, but because it's such a tight NBA finals and should be a tight NBA finals, maybe I'm just getting better at my job. maybe I'm getting worse at my job, but I find the micro stuff is not resonating. Settle another debate for us because there were people on Twitter like our old pal Jason Gallagher

who were making fun of the fact they'd say the crowd's going wild and then they would cut to a shot of the Chase Center and people would be either sitting down or actually not in their seats at all. But then Bill, I noticed in his podcast on Monday and he was in the arena said it was a pretty live crowd for an NBA finals. How did it sound to you? It was it was an appropriate NBA finals crowd. I also noticed in those rewatches. They really did seem to catch the 10 folks who were on their cell phones the whole game with that nice 4K soft background shot that they love to do now. Thank you.

Fox Sports for making that now apparently a prerequisite for every television program ever. But yeah, they kept finding the wrong people in the crowd there. And listen, this is going to be an easy talking point for a lot of people. and I'm not telling anybody that it's wrong. It's not Oracle. Oracle was awesome. Oracle was almost collegiate. Oracle had an aura to it that you wouldn't recreate in the modern world, right?

It was a crappy arena on the highway in Oakland that had a concrete concave roof. It made it pretty loud in there. And you had a season ticket base that was like stuador's for like 30 years. And they got about it. You know, everyone was just there to get a nice, a nice little buzz on, watch some bad basketball, and yell about, you know, yell about the game. And then eventually it turned into what the Warriors are today. And then Chase Center is the perfect manifestation of the Joe Lake of ownership experience for the Golden State Warriors. It's all top of the line.

It looks like an international airport that was just built. It's not sterile, but it doesn't have character, if you know what I'm saying. Like, it's into, it literally has an art gallery. It's a basketball arena. Like it's a bit of a difference between the Oakland Arena and the new one with the art gallery and the fine the fine jewelry store and all that stuff. So it will always be crapped on and for good reason because it's not Oracle. But it's been a really good crowd. It will never get up to those Oracle levels.

It doesn't have to. I think it's been plenty engaged. You can always ask for more because we've seen more. We know what the bar really could be. But compared to any other arena in basketball, it's as well. good, if not better. One more crowd debate to settle. And David and I were just talking about this. Mark Jones during game one of the NBA finals, and you probably saw this on the rewatch, Otto Porter rips the ball out of Robert Williams' hands. It's a nice deal. Yeah. They come down

the court. Porter misses a three, and I believe it was Andrew Wiggins who got foul. Yeah. The crowd sounded like they were chanting warriors, as they are want to do. But Mark Jones said, no, no, they're chanting Otto Porter's name. Can you clear that up for us? What a clunky thing to chant. It would be auto, no, or Porter, Otto Porter the full name, that would be even clunkier.

No, it was Warriors. I mean, and that's the thing. And I think that's the one thing that is separated Chase Center from Oracle and why you kind of miss Oracle. And this manifested a lot in the earlier rounds of the playoffs, so when the Warriors were just sort of messing around.

And when you would suck, when the Warriors would even have a five-minute lull at Oracle, and they certainly sucked for like three decades straight and then they were really good for a really long time. But when they would suck, the crowd would have this like quasi-bronx cheer thing that I hadn't experienced any other MBA arena. It was half promotion, like push them on, let's go and half, hey, get your act together. Like we're sick of this nonsense. And it would manifest as, you know, that warriors chant or just, you know, the crowd would come up. That doesn't happen with the new clientele.

faded at the end of the Oracle Arena rain when it was more Patagonia vest than Stubedores. And a lot more people started looking like me in the bowels of the arena if you can get my drift. That faded, but now it's obviously full of bore because I think floor seats were going for $70,000 for game two. We met a guy who was in the world's worst standing room only seats. I mean, just laughable. You can see like half the court. Those cost $700.

dollars. It's just the clientele that would do stuff like that, the clientele that could create such a weird, I can't even define it. Again, it's not even a Bronx cheer. It was half positive, half negative, but it would always come out kind of when the Warriors needed it. And early in the playoffs, you would notice the Warriors veterans who had been through the wars at Oracle, they would kind of wait. There was almost a, they were waiting for that cheer to start coming to kind of egg them on. They were waiting for the crowd to get behind them. And now, like any other basketball crowd in America at the NBA level, it feels as if the crowd only cheers when the team gives them something to cheer for. And I think the team has figured that out. And it's kind of disappointing. But it's good. But it was a warrior's chant. And they've gotten a lot better, I think, as the playoffs have gone on. I think that there was a bit of a feeling out period at the beginning of the playoffs.

People just hadn't been in the arena. Like, people hadn't been in there. They didn't really know what was what. They didn't know where their concession stand was, where their bathroom was. It's mostly the same people every game. And I think the feeling out period is over. And it's a pretty good crowd. I don't want to make it out to be something incredible.

But like it's no worse than anywhere else. I wouldn't say that it's a bad crowd by any stretch. Well, this is the press box. So I have to ask, or I would love to ask. Yeah. How does it feel to have the, what's the media vibe like there now? I mean, we've talked a bunch about everybody getting back together. But is this like, does it feel like a little bit of a NBA homecoming?

Is this like a, you know, is this Sabermetric? Is this Saber metric's prom with everybody back together in one spot for the first time in a while? Or what does it feel like? It will never, it will never be that because the self-righteousness is just minimal compared to that. So it's, there's a lot of that. This is, it feels like the lack of LeBron James really does feel like a

differentiating factor. Again, we did four of these with LeBron James. the Warriors and they kind of built momentum on each other, even though the series got progressively worse, if we're being honest. This time around, it doesn't feel as if there's as much media. There's still plenty, but there's not as much riffraff. It should be noted that the Chinese media contingent, which was insane in the final years of the Warriors going to the finals before the pandemic, is almost not existent now. I think it's only the U.S.-based Chinese media outlets, international outlets, it's just the, it's just the international rights holders, just the

flagships that have shown up. That has actually made these finals like an absolute dream to cover because you're not fighting through just chaos. And they've done media. And obviously then you also have this specter of health and safety where they're kind of pairing everything down a little bit. But it's been really great to actually cover. it. I do think that having the teams be, you know, in major cities on both coasts has been helpful. I mean, it's not Los Angeles, but there's plenty of people who come up. Not as many. Maybe that's the price of gas and flights. I'm sure that the New York contingent of media will fully fill Boston. But it's been good, but it has been a real, like, dream to cover. You can

really get your job done as a writer in this environment in a way that legitimately you hadn't been able to do without some serious help from the team itself up until this point. Like right now is the first time really all season for the last couple of seasons that just every player and coach and even front office people just sort of standing around and you can just go grab them and they're all in one place. And that's been totally awesome. And the fact that there's not 500 extra people in the media who aren't really actually doing anything. Like you never actually see that produce anything. They're just sort of there. That's been, that's been really helpful too. So I found this to be, I found this to be the best one to

cover yet. And I'm not naive to perhaps why that's the case. I'd like to think I'm not at least as to why that's the case. And I know that will probably change moving forward, but I'm trying to savor it right now because it's pretty good. Last one for you, Deeter. And a related question, the post-game press conference has always been stilted at the NBA final. Over the last two years, we've also had the kind of COVID Zoom version of that press conference. What have you noticed about the post game action so far? There's a bit of a split, right? So there used to be one kind of grand hall where everyone would go in,

and that's where the big players would come through, and there'd be 400 people crammed in there, and I'm just getting a little bit triggered even talking about it, given one in the world. Now they have, at least at Chase Center, split it up, to Celtics media post-game press conference, sort of a big room in the bowels of the arena, and then the Warriors typical interview room. And so you just sort of go to whichever one you want.

And perhaps part of the reason why so much media isn't traveling is because you don't really have to unless you're like gung-ho about asking a question. And by the way, if you are gung-ho about asking a question, that better be a weird one because, like, people are fully capable of getting the obvious stuff on the record. Unless you're really gung-ho about it. The Zoom capabilities, the live stream, the ability to record off of, you know, like a VLC M3U8 thing they got going on. Like, it's gotten so much better. It's always existed.

Oh, by the way, live transcripts. It's the best thing ever. ASAP sports has saved my ass so many times over the last week. It's been amazing. The infrastructure of being able to cover this series remotely, as in all things, it's just gotten infinitely better. And if I'm somebody who is looking at plane ticket prices right now, it's not even my money and I feel bad, I'm thinking to myself, damn, like, what's the benefit there other than

understanding if Jordan Poole is or is not actually playing out of control? So it's, yeah, it's been good. it hasn't gotten to the point. And maybe this is also a part of not having the riffraff. Like we haven't had any crazy questions. We haven't had any hijacks. We haven't had anything like that quite yet. And I'm sure one of them will come. But it's been like so deeply professional. And as someone who doesn't necessarily pride themselves as a great professional, like it's almost been like deeply rewarding. Like we've all handled ourselves really well in this thing or they have and I've been watching and giving them a thumbs up from a distance.

Deeter's editor just sent him an email, David, about the whole option. out of the Boston part of the finals and plane tickets, everything. Congratulations, Deeter, for sabotaging yourself here on the press box. Dieter Curtinbach, Bay Area News Group, K&BR, thank you for restoring balance to our podcast.

We will talk to you again, I hope. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. It's time for David Shoemaker guesses the Strain pun headline. Yeah. Thursday's headline about the new Doctor Strange movie was The Flying, the Witch, and the Red robe.

Today's headline comes from valued listener, Wham-Bam, thank you, Fran. It's from ESPN.com, David. Here's the story. Injured New York Metsace Max Scher confirmed Saturday that his dog bit his pitching hand this week,

but he says the wound won't slow his recovery from an oblique strain. Kind of bad when you're dealing with two injuries at once. The New York Post reported earlier Saturday that the right-handed Scher was bitten by a dog on his left hand, a second bizarre injury for New York this week after shortstop Francisco Lindor

got his right hand caught in a hotel door. What was ESPN.com's strained pun headline? Are we talking about Lindor too? Or is this just a Scherzer headline? We're going to just do Shurs. I mean, I'm immediately going to

Manbytes dog, but I'm not exactly sure where that, how that would work into this. Don't abandon that. Man bites. He was bitten. Shurzer was not doing that. I know dog bites man. Okay.

Okay. Just need a little top spin on that. Dog bites. Max. Uh, dog bites. Max. Dog bites Max.

That's it? Dog bites Max. Yeah, that's good. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Erica Cervantes. I'm back later this week, David, with a hard-hitting sports media interview.

Ooh. Plus, more lukewarm takes a, about the media. See you then. See you later, Brian.