By David Barron
Over the years, KBME (790 AM) sports talk host Matt Thomas and I have discussed the manner in which NBA arena announcers introduce visiting team players in bored, monotonal fashion, followed by shouted hosannas for the home team starting five.
I’ve always felt that it would be more respectful to adopt at least a semi-interested attitude toward the visiting team introductions. However, Thomas, who mans the PA microphone at Toyota Center, says he is merely following the industry standard by downplaying the other team during intros.
Thomas, however, made an exception Wednesday for the return of James Harden to Toyota Center with the Nets against the Rockets.
While he did not elaborate, Thomas said on his Thursday talk show, “I introduced (Harden) the way I normally would introduce him.” In other words, he put some enthusiasm into it.
The crowd reaction was mixed, as Jonathan Feigen recorded it, which is to be expected. But I am pleased that Matt used his big-league voice to introduce a big-league player from a visiting team.
Thomas said Friday that his introduction of Harden was standard operating procedure for the initial return to Toyota Center of former Rockets favorites.
“I did that with Chris Paul and Trevor Ariza and Russell Westbrook,” he said. “It’s my way of bringing people back and appreciating what they had done before.”
Disney to re-air Ali-Frazier I
The Disney channels next week will re-air the first fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier from 50 years ago, March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden.
ABC gets the first re-air, at 1 p.m. Monday on KTRK (Channel 13). ESPN has it at 5 p.m., ESPNews at 11 p.m. and ESPN2 at 3 a.m. Monday. All three fights between Ali and Frazier also are available on ESPN+.
Don Dunphy, former champion Archie Moore and actor Burt Lancaster called the fight on closed-circuit TV. It later aired on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and has shown up in recent years on ESPN.
ESPN, however, says it has remastered 461 segments of the original film to improve picture quality and color. The network also has prepared several new segments surrounding the fight, which Frazier won in a 15-round decision, focusing on the fighters and Ali’s comeback after being stripped of the title because he refused to register for the military draft because of his opposition as a Black Muslim to the Vietnam War.
Sunday’s version will use the Dunphy-Lancaster-Moore play by play with Howard Cosell’s “Wide World” commentary in Rounds 9 and 10.
Four DVRs, no waiting
ESPN+ will have the Texas-Houston baseball game at 2 p.m. Saturday, and SEC Network+ will have New Mexico State-Texas A&M at the same time. ESPN+ will have Longhorns-Cougars at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, and the Aggies game is at 1 p.m. …
ESPN says that Mike Greenberg will host the first two days of its NFL Draft coverage beginning April 29. He fills the role vacated by the unfortunate departure from the network of Trey Wingo, who hosted the last four years. …
Skip Bayless has signed a four-year, $32 million contract with Fox Sports after being courted by ESPN, the New York Post reports. Andrew Marchand of the Post says that Bayless is in talks with Fox to add a second afternoon solo show to his morning show with Shannon Sharpe. …
Rece Davis also has reached a new contract agreement to remain in his current role as ESPN’s top college football and basketball studio host.
Sign of the times: Ad Age reports that advertising for Disney’s digital channels, including Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+, totaled $882 million during the fourth quarter of 2020. At current growth rates, those channels will soon overtake ABC Television Network revenues, which totaled $984 million for the quarter. …
The New York Daily News reports that “Inside the NFL,” once a staple under the NFL Films aegis on HBO Sports and Showtime, is moving to the streaming side on the Paramount+ service. …
Former CBS and Turner Sports producer Mike Pearl has died. Mike was of great help to me a few years ago when I was compiling my collection of Super Bowl game films, including a copy of the rare Super Bowl XII pre-pregame show, which CBS did by the seat of its pants when the Phoenix Open golf tournament was rained out. …
UFC has a history in Texas, having hosted events in Houston as long ago as 2007 and as recently as February 2020, and UFC president Dana White says that the sport could return to Texas soon with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions by Gov. Greg Abbott.
“I want to go to Texas ASAP,” White said this week.
4 DVRs and Beyond 