Barrett and Rice vs other PbP combos

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
bigbailes

bigbailes

The Resident Wazzu Grad
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
2,692
Likes
1,824
Points
113
wondering for those who live outside the area or have the league pass, how do M and M stack up against the rest of the league? barrett kills me in his over the top praising of everything blazers and rice is quickly losing his cred with the bs that comes out of his mouth sometimes. they're not horrible but they get on my nerves and i'd love to turn them off and listen to wheels but he's even worse, and that's not mentioning harvey.
 
I have heard a lot more of the Blazers' crew this season (here in Seattle) since Comcast Sportschannel picked up the Blazers here.

There are significantly worse broadcast teams (Golden State's is like Portland^2 on the homer meter, for example) but I prefer to hear what other teams and crews think about our team. I'd put M&M somewhere in the middle in terms of listenability, mainly because of the near-constant complaints about refereeing and their general homerism.

Ed O.
 
I've actually warmed up to the two of them this year, ever since they toned down the incessant bitching about calls (whether or warranted or not) Rice has also been much more complimentary of other team's players this year too.

on a league wide basis, I couldn't really say, but I've heard some truly awful guys like Tommy Heinsohn for Boston and apparently the NO crew was brutal the other night (based on game thread comments). If I had to guess I'd say they are probably somewhere in the middle of the pack.
 
i really don't mind the blazers guys.

the hornets guys were some of the worst that i've ever heard. not sure if it was an uncharacteristic night and they just have something against the blazers or what, but it was garbage.

sean elliot doing spurs games is consistently one of my least favorite guys.

i liked the rockets with bill worrell and calvin murphy. drexler for home games and bullard for road games to go along with worrell is not as good.
 
Last edited:
one of the celtics guy is really bad. i dont like barrett that much, but rice cracks me up
 
Uncle Ty said:
I can't stand Barrett. He's right up there with Chuck Swirsky as far as being a homer. A little homerism every now and then is fine, but Barrett goes over the top a lot of the time. I'd love to get an announcer that is more objective than Barrett, especially now with us being a competitive team. I could understand hiring Barrett as a rah-rah-everything-is-positive type when we were a bad team. He had his role to play to cheer Blazer fans up during those depressing days. But now, he's just annoying. Rice is a homer also, but I can at least tolerate him since he's funny in that senile kind of way.

The worst of the bunch is by FAR that Tony Luftman guy. The guy has a clown smile paste on his face all the time. And really, why giggle like a girl all the time? All his jokes are lame. Holten is just a robot up there for Luftman to clown with.

Get a new TV announcer. Bring The Snapper back. Get Rice back on the radio with Wheels. And for Heaven's sake, get rid of that clown face Luftman.
Click to expand...

i didn't even think of luftman, that guy could be the worst i've ever seen in a studio setting. i've seen MANY college kids who do a better job than tony. as for holton, he's terrible but the way i get by that is to play a game, in fact it should be a drinking game. you have to chug your beer until he figures out which camera he's on. i don't know if it's him, the floor director or what, but dude still hasn't figured out that the big red light means that is the camera that is on.
 
M & M are both great, but sometimes their constant apologies for bad shots or turnovers gets on my nerves.
 
They are actually quite good - exciting, entertaining, knowledagble. All local announcers are homers.

I've listened extensively to the Lakers with Chick and Stu, the Kings with Garry Gerould, and the Warriors with Tim Roye. They are all good (well, Chickie was the best), but our guys easily match up.
 
Hornets were *awful*. It doubled the pleasure when the Blazers pulled it out.

I don't think our crew actually laughs at opponents when the Blazers are winning... and they are cautious to a fault about whether being up 5, 10, or 15 really means the game is won.

iWatas
 
M&M are fine in my book; every game they make me laugh. :)
 
The Mikes make me laugh, but they are way too homerish.

I think they might be the most entertaining crew I have heard. I really like GS, Char, NJ and HOU with Clyde.

The wrost to me are Boston and NO
 
bigbailes said:
i didn't even think of luftman, that guy could be the worst i've ever seen in a studio setting. i've seen MANY college kids who do a better job than tony. as for holton, he's terrible but the way i get by that is to play a game, in fact it should be a drinking game. you have to chug your beer until he figures out which camera he's on. i don't know if it's him, the floor director or what, but dude still hasn't figured out that the big red light means that is the camera that is on.
Click to expand...

TELL THEM WHAT THEY'VE WON, MICHAEL!!

A BASKETBALL GAME!!

You can't write genius material like that. It has to be ad-libbed.
 
Stevenson said:
They are actually quite good - exciting, entertaining, knowledagble. All local announcers are homers.

I've listened extensively to the Lakers with Chick and Stu, the Kings with Garry Gerould, and the Warriors with Tim Roye. They are all good (well, Chickie was the best), but our guys easily match up.
Click to expand...

I was pretty impressed with the Kings' Television PBP and Color guys when watching the first exhibition game. They were remarkably unbiased and pretty knowledgable about the game.
 
chris_in_pdx said:
I was pretty impressed with the Kings' Television PBP and Color guys when watching the first exhibition game. They were remarkably unbiased and pretty knowledgable about the game.
Click to expand...

The Kings color man used to be their coach and GM - he definitely knows his stuff. Jerry Reynolds.
 
Keep in mind, last year there wasn't a team of commentators with anything positive to say about the Blazers. M & M have been pretty fair to other teams considering. Rice was a coach and will always call the game from that perspective. MB is brilliant with stats. The is no hiding the chemistry between these two on or off the air.
 
HamiltonBlazerFan said:
Keep in mind, last year there wasn't a team of commentators with anything positive to say about the Blazers. M & M have been pretty fair to other teams considering. Rice was a coach and will always call the game from that perspective. MB is brilliant with stats. The is no hiding the chemistry between these two on or off the air.
Click to expand...

Eh, I'd say they are pretty homerish. Rice makes a lot of subtle insults that we don't catch a lot of the time.

Worst pbp are the Cavs and Celtics though imo.
 
B-Roy said:
Worst pbp are the Cavs and Celtics though imo.
Click to expand...

Jesus, I have to completely agree with you about the Celtics announcers. The sense of smugness and entitlement that oozes from their calls of the games is vomit-inducing.
 
I "thought" the Cavs announcers were bad ..... until we were graced with the Hornets announcers. That was literally the first time all year that I just muted the tv in certain spots of the game. Do you have to try to that bad and that big of duchbags or does it just come natural???
 
I can only remember back to the last game and yes the hornets announcers where bad. I like the Mikes... I love that I get them most of the time on the league pass too. Its kind of like I am home. I remember myself making the comments a few times of these guys suck..

Another thing... stadium announcers are another thing. Charlottle's PA announcer is the worst I have ever heard. Wanted to jump off the second level when this guy talked.
 
Absolutely agree, the NOH announcers were by far the most ridiculous. They acutally sounded drunk. We muted as well and listened to Portland radio via internet
 
Ed O said:
I'd put M&M somewhere in the middle in terms of listenability, mainly because of the near-constant complaints about refereeing and their general homerism.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with that in terms of them being in the middle.
MB though is just WAY over the top sometimes with his homerism, it borderlines ridiculous. The sad thing is I actually think he feels he's being objective when he's being such a homer. But I'd rather have him as our PBP than most of the guys in the NBA. He's a smooth talker.
Rice is cool, and provides some comedy relief while giving respect to the opponent at times.

Luftman needs to go. A lot of his emotion seems to be fake, and he could care less about the Blazers IMO.

My favorites to listen to on league pass:
Knicks - Marv, Frazier, Kenny Smith sometimes, Gus Johnson
Nets - Ian Eagle is great IMO
Sacramento - They do their job well
Golden State - So homerish that it's entertaining
Clippers - Ralph Lawler is entertaining too.

Worst
Denver - So homerish that it's obnoxious
Memphis - Pete Pranica. Enough said.
OKC - Some former FSNW guy is there, and he sucks.
Lakers - Joel Meyers (zzzz.....)
Boston - The egos of the team seem to infiltrate the announcing booth too.
 
I think we as fans are lucky to have Barrett and Rice. Barrett is a national-level talent who is also a life-long Blazer fan, and Rice is humorous yet also knows what he is talking about. I don't mind at all that they are heavily slanted toward the Blazers. Just never bring back Eddie Doucet. That guy just mailed it in when he was the play-by-play announcer. I'm not even sure he was aware that the Blazers employed him.
 
Honestly, I don't really understand the fans who don't like a little bit of homerism when watching the hometown team. It's not over the top on Barretts part, so why is it such a bad thing? Personally when I watch a game I don't care to hear our guys gushing over the opposing teams players. The Lakers, or the Cavs, or the Celtics are the enemy, no need to tell me how great Kobe and Lebron are.
 
I think the Mikes are in the upper half of the league. My favorites are the Clipper guys. Very respectful, accurate and appreciate good basketball.

Worst:
Lakers (IMHO, worst homers in the league)
Denver
NOH (just don't know what's going on)
 
jwhoops11 said:
Honestly, I don't really understand the fans who don't like a little bit of homerism when watching the hometown team. It's not over the top on Barretts part, so why is it such a bad thing? Personally when I watch a game I don't care to hear our guys gushing over the opposing teams players. The Lakers, or the Cavs, or the Celtics are the enemy, no need to tell me how great Kobe and Lebron are.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'll keep the 2 Mikes and trade all of the fans who complain about "homerism". Sheesh, if you want a clinical play by play approach, maybe Paul Allen can get somebody to write a software program that can deliver the entire game in a monotone, stat-filled, snoozefest for you.
 
We've talked about this a few times. I'm biased of course, but I've had the LeaguePass for 8 years. Trust me when I say the the Mike's are in the top 5 of the league. There are some really bad announcers out there, and their hommerism is rediculous!
 
I like Barrett and Rice but something I absolutely hate about them is they always have some kind of excuse why the Blazers are not playing well during the game. I would be fine if they said it once or twice during the game but they always talk about the reason behind the Blazers not playing as well. They just never let it go! I know that their reason could have some impact but come on! I don't know how many times I've heard Mike & Mike say "the reason why Blazers are not playing well is because...the Blazers are playing a back to back, they are just young, Blazers have a big road trip coming up so they are not as focused on current game, Blazers got into town late, Blazers just had a long road trip. Those are excuses why the Blazers may not be playing well on a giving night but give me a good reason why like the Blazers are just not moving on offense so, they are not getting open shots. Alright, I've let my frustration out about those too. GO BLAZERS!!
 
Stevenson said:
They are actually quite good - exciting, entertaining, knowledagble. All local announcers are homers.

I've listened extensively to the Lakers with Chick and Stu, the Kings with Garry Gerould, and the Warriors with Tim Roye. They are all good (well, Chickie was the best), but our guys easily match up.
Click to expand...
Roye is pretty good, but he's their radio guy.

I was really impressed with the Clippers tandem. I don't know their names, but those two are insightful, not too hyperbolic, and pretty even keel on the homer scale

STOMP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top