Last night I tuned in to a great NBA matchup, the Milwaukee Bucks against the Boston Celtics. I watched the broadcast on TNT but my TV was muted. Instead, I had my tablet open as two guys on their couch did commentary for the game.
I think this is the future of sports coverage.
Well maybe not exactly those two guys on their couch. But I think we will see more options for consumers. Last night I tuned in to the “#NBACast” show by Nate Duncan and Danny LeRoux. They also run my favorite NBA podcast Dunc’d On.
There are two categories of NBA games, national broadcasts and local broadcasts. National broadcasts are those on networks like ESPN, TNT, or ABC. There is one neutral commentating crew. Local broadcasts have two separate broadcasts of the game by each team’s crew. League Pass subscribers like me can still tune in to these.
The announcers for national broadcasts are unbiased and more ‘prestigious’ in their field. As a pretty extreme NBA fan I find their commentary bland. Some announcers like Jeff Van Gundy often go on rants unrelated to the game they are announcing. This actually makes some sense. The average NBA fan follows their team and probably tunes in to one national broadcast a week. That game is their weekly lens into the NBA at large so they actually find some value in Van Gundy complaining about LeBron’s defense during a Toronto / Philadelphia game.
But it drives me crazy when I’m trying to watch a game and the announcers are on a completely unrelated rant. I know I’m not alone. Cue the “#NBACast”. It fits my style because they approach the game from an analytics mindset. They also take viewer questions using the chat feature of their online broadcast.
Anyone can tune in to this show for free but you can subscribe to their Patreon to financially support them. I have been contributing $7 per month for a few years now. Between their show and podcast, I get well over 21 hours of content a month. I get more than $0.33 per hour of new NBA information. I particularly enjoy their summaries of games I missed (especially West Coast games that happen on weeknights) and their “15 in 60” segments throughout the season where they quickly run through the status of each team.
Duncan and LeRoux certainly aren’t perfect. Lots of people can’t stand their style and even as a big fan I have some complaints with them. But I enjoy having the opportunity to tune in to their commentary of an NBA game instead of listening to Reggie Miller or Mark Jackson. I hope we all get more options for how we consume our content.