A thread to talk about NBA Podcasts / Personalities / Announcers / Shows / Broadcasters / Commentators

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jonathantjarks/journal/view/id/63118e310f3ef0104cd375ed

Not a good update from Jonathan Tjarks, now in hospice care.

god that is awful

jesus christ. i feel awful for his family.

Ugh man that’s horrible

dammit

anybody watch the untold episode about tim donaghy?

tjarks news is so sad

he passed away last night. what a terrible, terrible thing.

So sad

RIP. Ringer NBA pods were never my fav but Tjarks always seemed like a solid dude.

Showtime Sports has announced that veteran journalist and NBA personality Rachel Nichols is joining Showtime Basketball as both a host and producer. pic.twitter.com/wREJgdi2N5

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) September 30, 2022

zach lowe did his annual “5 most confusing teams” pod w/ howard beck instead of kevin arnovitz, which sent a red flag up in the air for me. i searched on twitter and apparently last week zach mentioned on a pod that arnovitz is “no longer here” to do the pod, which most ppl are taking to mean he has left ESPN. his twitter account says he still works there but all his tweets have been wiped and his bio says the account is “inactive.” it looks like he last wrote something for them in august about the soccer team ryan reynolds owns. i’m now more confused & curious than i was before. i really liked him

Reddit seems to think he is leaving the NBA journo world to write about TV. I guess he’s already had a Top Chef podcast with Tom Haberstroh(?!)

I like Arnovitz too. Howard Beck and Ben Golliver are among my least favorite NBA podcasters, hate when they show up as guests on shows I like.

the tweets being wiped is new but his bio has had that inactive note for a long time bc he stopped using twitter.

it did seem like his piece and pod appearances were starting to decrease in frequency so he’s probably done there. i liked a lot of his stuff but it was a remnant of the truehoop era of espn’s nba coverage for better or worse.

arnovitz was great, too bad

Reddit seems to think he is leaving the NBA journo world to write about TV.

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, October 3, 2022 6:58 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw it says for tv

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/xqz03h/what_happened_to_kevin_arnovitz/

ah good for him if he’s doing TV writing. he seemed far more cultured (gay) (LA) than his colleagues so that scans. will miss him on the pods tho i always enjoyed his perspective

yeah, he always had a unique take. i think he leaned a little too hard into the importance organizational culture at times but his pieces on bill kennedy, the grizz game ops, and the kings guy who stole a bunch of money are classics

arnovitz was good. would be cool if he still did one or two pods a year with zach

There is tension over sourcing requirements, too, best personified by leading NBA reporter Shams Charania, who specializes in his lightning fast and exhaustive reporting of transactional news, which he always delivers first to his nearly 2 million Twitter followers. Indeed, the Athletic’s own reporters have raised concerns about his reporting when it veers beyond the narrow lane of transactions. Within the Times, there was some intrigue about whether Charania would re-sign with the Athletic, as a signal of whether the Times would embrace his kind of reporting. Perpich said breaking news was important for more visibility and that retaining Charania was a key priority, and he re-signed this month; the New York Post reported the deal was for a year.

re the athletic and times synergizing https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/07/new-york-times-athletic-subscribers/

As for whether insider reporting could exist within Times standards, Stallman said, “When we learned more about Shams and his methods, we were really, really impressed at how rigorous he is. Not only was there not any lingering concern over whether that worked under the Times imprimatur, but we were kind of dazzled by it.”

tbf the times has always been very beat sweetener friendly

interesting article. also interesting to learn I can use my NYT subscription to log into the athletic, meaning I can cancel that subscription?

I really do hope they can budget room for a nuggets beat writer though

yeah, an nyt sub, digital or paper, suffices for athletic access

Charles Barkley has agreed to a 10-year deal with TNT that could reach up to $200M, per @AndrewMarchand pic.twitter.com/lVpcXvLT9C

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) October 17, 2022

THE FELLAS ARE BACK!

The #InsidetheNBA crew will stay together for many years to come after signing long-term contract extensions with WBD sports. pic.twitter.com/X3l5oBuitc

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 17, 2022

Chuck contract has unlikely incentives of beating Kenny to the screen.

thank god he's not leaving. the LIV stuff was really worrying me

liv cant even get anyone to show their golf on tv

ALL ABOARD THE CHUCK BUS 🚌

The NBA season tips off at 5pm ET on TNT pic.twitter.com/tQmYmqIW7q

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 18, 2022

There’s a lot to appreciate here.

it sucks that tnt spent a zillion keeping the inside crew together for another hundred years hen they’ve been plainly bad for like a decade but that beast inertia hard to stop it

should be an interesting year for the ol drayman

WBD Sports, Omaha Productions and Green 23 will debut a new all-access series, The Countdown, during pregame tonight.

The premiere will feature Draymond Green's journey throughout the preseason, including Green’s reaction to his practice altercation and return to the Warriors. pic.twitter.com/ZO7clVQpnS

— Warner Bros. Discovery Sports U.S. PR (@WBDSportsPR) October 18, 2022

"He looked cooked."

Charles Barkley on what he has seen from James Harden 👀pic.twitter.com/Ogo4o8kEB0

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) October 18, 2022

lmao

chuck otm

lol good luck man

"We should treat [The Lakers] season as a celebration of LeBron's individual greatness... Spending all day everyday talking about their deficiencies, that's not great."

— JJ Redickpic.twitter.com/kuBXQBEtY5

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 19, 2022

yeah sorry but we're choosing violence

jj is so humorless and grandiose, type of guy who gets fired up talking about networking opportunities

i remember thinking JJ was great as the color guy when ESPN put him on games last year. but him and tommy alter as like serious pundits i need a barf bag

he could be good if hed just lighten up a bit and stop being captain save a player all the time, he understands the game hes good at talking on tv, hes just a giant bore

i know he says stuff like that because it’s good for business but even by that standard it’s an insane statement

thats his worst take ive heard

espn’s new score box is wonderful

wheres this?

like, on TV

i am still marveling at that barkley bus graphic. kd burner, russ on the outside, kawhi a blank slate. shit is rich. kudos to the uncredited(?) artiste

pylon chris paul

like, on TV

good story

“We were in the locker room for 9 hours after the game. Oklahoma didn't want us to go anywhere... Shoutout Chris Paul, he gave us 15 bottles of wine. We got drunk, not gonna lie."

Donovan Mitchell on the night of the NBA shutdown 😳

(via @OldManAndThree)pic.twitter.com/Oi6cgC1lrK

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 21, 2022

Lol whoever this guy is he’s on the money. I can’t stand EJ

TBH @Jumpshot8 I thought it was in bad taste so I took it down.

I should've said Eddie Johnson is awful.

I hate being that blunt, but it's very bad. https://t.co/yJNcxTX9PS

— Danny Marang (@DannyMarang) November 6, 2022