NBA's Awesome/Awful Announcing; Stanford Basketball Goes International; Giants' Hitting Woes

One of the most interesting things about watching the NBA Conference Finals over the last couple of weeks has been the opportunity to compare coverage by the two networks.

TNT had the Eastern Conference Pacers-Knicks series, and ESPN/ABC had the Western Conference Thunder vs. Timberwolves.

TNT crushed it, to put it mildly. And ESPN was barely adequate.

The iconic "Inside the NBA" studio show on TNT, which will move to ESPN next year, is in a class by itself. Ernie Johnson does a great job moderating and navigating the somewhat chaotic discussions between Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith.

They talk over each other, they're irritating at times, and Shaq's mumbling can be hard to understand, but the show is entertaining as hell and the pearls of wisdom come fast and furious.

ESPN's studio show with the insufferable Stephen A. Smith, former Warriors GM Bob Myers and Kendrick Perkins is generally pretty awful. Myers hasn't learned how to relax, Smith is a constant negative with his posturing and angry demeanor, and Perkins adds little.

The game broadcast is much the same story.

TNT's Kevin Harlan is one of the best play-by-play men in the business. Andlysts Reggie Miller and Stan Van Gundy have good chemistry. I love Miller's enthusiasm, and Van Gundy offers plenty of insight.

Over the years, TNT's legacy includes four gamecallers among the best of all time in Marv Albert, Ian Eagle, Dick Stockton and Harlan. Not to mention top analysts like Hubie Brown and Steve Kerr, and sideline reporters Cheryl Miller and the late Craig Sager. 

But after 30 years of building the NBA, TNT was dropped when the league took the money and ran to NBC and Amazon Prime Video. Fortunately Harlan will call NBA games on Prime Video next year.

By contrast, ESPN's team of Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson--thrown together after a late, ill-advised decision to drop the terrific Jeff Van Gundy and solid Mark Jackson--hasn't jelled. 

Breen is very good, but Burke and Jefferson seem like two strangers getting to know each other on a BART train. They give speeches to each other and tend to go their separate ways without any meaningful engagement.

Unfortunately, the Thunder-Pacers Finals are on ABC, which means the lackluster ESPN Disney crew will do all of the games.

Stanford Goes International: Much as he did when he worked as an assistant coach under Randy Bennett at St. Mary's, Stanford men's basketball coach Kyle Smith is tapping the international market.

Already this year he's signed a pair of 6-10 players from Latvia and Belgium, both rated as four-star prospects on some recruiting lists.

Oscar Giltay, one of the more promising European prospects, is a strong rebounder and rim protector. Giltay averaged 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks per game in the Eurobasket Under 18 tournament, hitting 56% from the floor and 82% from the line.   

Earlier Smith landed Kristers Skrinda, another 6-10 power forward, who attended the prestigious Riga State Gymnasium No. 2 in Riga, Latvia. Skrinda starred for Latvia in the Eurobasket, averaging 17.7 points, 10.4 rebounds and shooting 44% from 3-point range and 96% from the line.

Closer to home, Smith signed two highly-ranked guards who both won the Gatorade Player of the Year in their home states--Jaylen Petty from Auburn, Washington and Ebuka Okorie from Nashua, New Hampshire.

Petty averaged 28 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, leading Rainier Beach H.S. to the state title. He scored 61 points in one game.

Okorkie led his team to the semi-finals of the Chipotle National H.S. tournament, averaging 14 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds per game.

As noted last week, Smith has lost Oziyah Sellers to the transfer portal. He picked up two lower division All-Americans in Jeremy Dent-Smith, a Division II star at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and graduate transfer forward AJ Rohosy, a Division III standout at Claremont-Mudd who previously played two seasons under Smith at Washington State. 

Neither will make fans forget Sellers, but they will provide needed depth, and the incoming four freshmen are all quality recruits.

Giants' Hitting Woes: The San Francisco Giants have been getting great pitching this year, but hitting remains a serious problem. They haven't scored more than four runs in their last 14 games, a stretch in which they've averaged just two runs a game.

Their lineup wouldn't strike fear in the heart of many college teams. The Giants rank 25th out of 30 MLB ballclubs with a team batting average of .233.

In reality, they only have two good hitters--outfielders Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee--along with a solid RBI man in Wilmer Flores.

Speaking of pitching, in a 2-0 shutout win over Miami last week, the Giants used seven pitchers in the game! Seven pitchers to throw a three-hit shutout.

Hard to believe, hard to understand, and harder still to watch.

Bob Gibson is turning over in his grave.