I figure this thread is a good place to discuss this. I cannot stand listening to Doris Burke speak. She has a better knowledge of the NBA than most of the female broadcasters, and I don't even care that she is busted. Its her solipsistic pestering tonality that drives me bonkers. She acts as if she is dolling out wisdom never heard before when she asks the same banal questions as every other broadcaster.
The great ones, Marv Albert Mike Breen etc. understand how to be a commentator in service of the sport. They know their value comes in reacting to and enhancing what is happening on the court. Doris Burke babbles about fucking nonsense for a minute and a half and then has a look on her face like she just wrote the Hamlet soliloquy. There was a game last year where she was droning on about what some assistant coach said at halftime, while Lebron threw down a monster alley oop in the background. She seemed completely oblivious to the play and continued to discuss her conversation with the assistant like she was Bob Woodward during Watergate.
I was already at the end of my rope with her, and then I heard her on the Zach Lowe podcast talking about how difficult it was to compete in a male dominated profession. She went on and on about how she has to be smarter and tougher than her male colleagues. All of the usually tired cliches. Then she starts discussing a particular incident with Gregg Popovich.
"But, yeah, Zach, it’s not fun. Everybody laughed at that, last year – and I don’t know if you remember the moment – but I had asked him something about the offensive end, and he said “turnovers,” one word. Then I asked him about, “OK, on the defensive end, you held them to whatever percentage. What did you see that you liked on that end?” And he said “turnovers” again."
"Two words. I was devastated. It was brutal. It was absolutely brutal. I was almost in tears. I go back to where I sit, and I’m trying to compose myself, because I thought I asked two pretty good questions. And those were those were the responses I got.
Almost in tears. Literally blinking back tears"
It must be so hard, what a professional :tard:
