Broadcasting at its Worst

Texas Legends' Broadcast Team Gives New Meaning to Unprofessional

The Santa Cruz Warriors continued their road-trip as they defeated the Texas Legends on Saturday 96-85, but the bigger story was the commentary provided on the YouTube broadcast. 

The team is comprised of play-by-play announcer RJ Choppy and analyst Mike Fisher.  Choppy is the pre and postgame host for the NBA Dallas Mavericks as well as the host of ESPN Radio's 'Gamenite'.  He currently hosts New School on 105.3 The Fan weekdays. 

Choppy earned his 15 milliseconds of fame as he exclaimed 'Mom's Spaghetti' during a Devin Ebanks dunk last week.  The phrase, made famous by Eminem in his 'Lose Yourself' single, wasn't even in reference to that song.

Fisher is a radio and TV-personality with over 20 years of experience covering both the Dallas Mavericks and Cowboys.  He also can be heard on 105.3 The Fan.

In between their inside jokes, sidebar commentary, inability to provide proper information to their viewers, lack of in-game commentary and incessant need to promote themselves as bigger than the game itself, it was absolute torture sitting through a game with them making the calls (or lack thereof). 

Amongst the arena announcer, the horrible in-house pop-music DJ and the YouTube timeout music, one would normally go insane trying to listen to cacophony put together at Dr. Pepper Area.  Not to mention the amount of dead-air in between baskets as well would make any producer cringe. 

The following transcript documents actual conversations between the two broadcasters and how at times they were incredulous, inappropriate and incapable of calling a basketball game.  Included are the appropriate timestamps from the YouTube feed so feel free to follow along if you want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI23wlGODFk

16:11 Choppy: Tweet Mike Fisher @Fishsports, you can tell him why he's wrong on everything.  You want to tell me why I'm awesome, @RJChoppy.

16:35 We try to come up with some words for me to say during the broadcast…

Fisher: Is this an open secret?  That you're now begging to go viral…

Choppy: No no no, this is just a radio bit, it's an inside joke. Last night I was able to work in [inaudible] porcupine landfill.

Choppy continues to discuss this radio bit about words to seamlessly plug into his broadcast, thus admitting his own lack of creativity and hijacking a broadcast for his own personal gain at the same time.  He promotes a radio show which will be listened to by virtually nobody watching the YouTube feed unless they enjoy losing brain cells.

Audio silence follows as Choppy and Fisher are too busy discussing garage bands and whether Choppy can play an instrument or various sports (basketball, baseball) failing to acknowledge Hilton Armstrong picking up two fouls over the course of twenty seconds.  Oh, and Ognjen Kuzmic checked in for Armstrong at this point, do you think they mentioned it?

18:53 Choppy: At the free-throw line, is a seven-foot center out of Bosnia.  Would you look at the thing and try to tell me what his name is?

Foul on Cam Jones on the other end, let's check in with Choppy and Fisher.

19:50 Choppy: Fourth team foul on Santa Cruz.

That's it.  Once again they fail to mention who was charged with the foul.  Is that a piece of information fans at home watching might be interested in knowing?  This lack of providing information continues throughout the broadcast.

20:05 Fisher: They [Warriors] had to make the trip from Tulsa to DFW, Frisco.  Not the most arduous trip…

Choppy: Good word [arduous], no idea what it means.

While I find it hard to believe Choppy doesn't know what the word means, he continues to hijack the broadcast for his own benefit while his fellow analyst was making a point about the visiting team playing the night before in Tulsa. 

You know what's also important when broadcasting?  Using the monitor instead of looking on the court itself.

21:20 Choppy: I'm actually glad because that made Eddie Najera [Legends head coach] move out of my way I couldn't see the basket.  I didn't have the guts to tell him, hey…

Fisher: Najera stands in our way so often…

Choppy: He does.

Fisher: It's almost as if…

Choppy: He's purposely trying to make us watch the monitors.

You mean like you're supposed to?  One more time.

29:32 Choppy: Cameron Jones on the drive it looked like it was tipped away by Melo and out of bounds, Legends ball.

Fisher: Good help defense by Devin Ebanks.

Choppy:  Was it Ebanks who tipped it or was it blocked out?

Fisher: Yeah I think Ebanks shuffled over and got in the way.

Choppy: If there's a shot block it would assume it's Melo if I can't see.

You know where you can see?  On your monitors.

30:04 Choppy: Inside Kuzmic.

Forget the sweet assist from Seth Curry to give Kuzmic the ball to begin with, I'm guessing Choppy forgot who Curry was for a moment, or maybe he wasn't looking at the monitor again.

35:56 Fisher: This pace is a little slower than it was last night (stated in a monotone manner).

Choppy: Breaking News and exclusive, exclusive… Mike Fisher's bored!

Forget the game, it's time for a movie breakdown.

37:42 Choppy: You [Fisher] got hammered last night on Twitter when you said the Sandlot was not an iconic movie, which it clearly is and now you're dare gonna go say Back To The Future's not iconic?

Fisher: I'm just saying your choice of word iconic.

Choppy: I think I…my choice of the word iconic is pretty spot on.

Fisher: I, can I give you the word touchstone?  It's a touchstone of your childhood.

Choppy: NO!  It's an iconic movie.

Fisher: I will bet you 100 dollars that when we ask Ricky Ledo after the game, 'Hey what do you think of The Sandlot?', he'll go, 'What are you talking about?'

Choppy: I don't know about that.

Fisher: He's going to say, 'Is that some restaurant in Frisco I should try out?'

Ledo was one-year old when The Sandlot was in movie theaters.

A great quality of a color commentator is narrating an interesting or insightful story about a player from their respective team.  At the same time it should be poignant and not as dismissive as a counter clerk at the post office.

45:20 Fisher: Ricky Ledo has been the best athlete at anything that he's ever done at any level, except one time.

Choppy:  I heard this story, it's a good story.

Fisher: His freshman football team, and, he was a freshman it was the varsity, and he's a freshman so he's what, 15?

Choppy: Uhhhh, I don't know.

Fisher: Something like that, right? And he's six-foot four, freshman, on the varsity football team.

Choppy: Yeah, that's very odd.

Fisher: And as you can imagine, at six-foot four and what we know about him as an athlete, the best speed on the team, the best arm on the team, the biggest guy on the team, the tallest guy on the team, but he's a freshman.

Choppy: Right.

Fisher: He was with the varsity, but he didn't get to play.  And the story we're told is, he could have played wide receiver as the number one wide receiver, but one of the coaches had a son who was a wide receiver.  He could have played running back, but one of the coaches had son who was a running back.  And he probably almost certainly should have played quarterback at six-foot four, but the coach…

Choppy: Had a son who was a quarterback, right, yeah.

Fisher: So Ricky calls his dad, Ricardo, 'This isn't working for me Dad I'm going to quit football.' Dad, to his credit, said, 'No you signed on for football go take your lumps, go be the backup something' So Ricky played varsity football as a freshman and after that season never played football again.

My world view of Ricky Ledo has changed forever.

A series of plays benefit the Santa Cruz Warriors including a three-pointer by Nwaelele followed by a bucket in transition as well.  Choppy's lackadaisical approach would have you believe nothing important was taking place on the court, at least not for his Legends team. 

Ebanks puts up a simple-dunk to the behest of Fisher and Choppy.

57:00 Choppy: Here we go, Devin Ebanks.

(dunks)

Fisher: Awww,

Choppy: Give the kids a show.

Fisher:  And give RJ Choppy a YouTube opportunity.

Choppy: YES!

Thanks, but no thanks. 

After a P.J. Hairston three-point attempt that missed everything including iron, Fisher used his quick-wit decisively.

1:01:10 Fisher: Why don't you call it a hairball?

Fisher truly is the Cat's Meow.  Or he could be considered a, fish out of water.  (Aren't puns awful?)

Using their text-line, a fan wants to know if there are any differences in rules, uniforms, or anything else in contrast to the NBA that is done experimentally.  Choppy merely cites the international goaltending rules but fails to mention the new timeout rules as the NBA looks to shorten games to two-hours for advertisers, and also the unique playoff format.

With only seventeen teams in the NBDL, the top eight teams are seeded and the top team gets to select its first-round opponent regardless of seed.  This process continues with the second seed until all playoff matches are set.  This rewards teams that play to the end of the season and also gives the higher-seeded team the benefit of choosing its matchup.  It's one of the D-League rules the NBA should apply to its own format with an abysmal Eastern Conference.

Instead he and Fisher trail off while talking about the NFL and its debate on eliminating the extra-point and also promote the NFL Network's Red Zone Channel.  So not only do they fail to promote their own product, they give away free promotion to another sport vying for entertainment dollars from the public.  Great job guys.  The exchange beings at 1:05:20.

Time for the second-half, and what are they talking about?  Movies again.

1:27:40 Fisher: Everybody's so busy arguing on Twitter about 'The Godfather versus The Sandlot' that we can't get a basketball word in edgewise.

 Choppy: Well Fish, when you're going to say something stupid like, 'Sandlot and Back To The Future are not iconic films', I mean, you know.

The basketball game clearly isn't important enough for this pair to pay attention.  This discussion even leads to the graphics department putting up the definition of icon on the screen.

1:28:18 Fisher: Now look up 'iconic' guys.

Definition: of, relating to, or of the nature of an icon.  Otherwise known as, 'see icon'.

On discussing D-League contracts, Fisher made quite an astute observation, mentioning the defunct Montreal Expos, and proceeded to continue the discussion later.

1:39:28 Fisher: I'm also thinking of starting a new website, Montrealexpos.com.  I assume it's unused it's available.

Choppy: I don't know, you might wonder if the three Montreal Expos fans that are left may have bought the domain name.

Fisher: Yeah, Andre Dawson's wife, Timmy Raines' wife, the late Gary Carter's wife.

Choppy: Rusty Staub might have had a hand in that one.

Fisher decided to take his Montreal shtick a little bit further.

1:40:15 Fisher: When I growl my French like that it sounds really sexy, doesn't it?

What else is professional?  Talking Twitter beef on air.  Especially when it pertains to the game played the previous evening and not what fans are currently watching.

1:46:36 Fisher: Now I made a football reference last night on the telecast.

Choppy: Did you?

Fisher: If you'll recall the physical nature of one particular Vipers were, remember?

Choppy: Oh, yeah uh, Isaiah Canaan.

Fisher: And a couple of Viper fans; first they attacked you.

Choppy: Right!

Fisher: On Twitter,

Choppy: I know and I'm like, come on now, that ain't me, don't blame me for that one.

Fisher: It's not exactly like you stood up for me.

Choppy: I said it ain't me.

(continuing to discuss the Canaan physical play)

Fisher: It caused me to say, 'it's felonious assault out there', and the next thing you know some Canaan fans were pretending like they thought that I had said someone was getting a felony.

Choppy: Yeah they were saying, 'I Canaan believe what he's saying about our guy.'

Fisher even makes the mistake of promoting the naysayer by stating his Twitter account handle on-air.  If someone was acting so negatively towards you, why bother giving them free promotion?

Fisher: And the one guy who was really most upset with the most profanities and his Twitter account is Goracers and he's got two followers.

(Note: His actual Twitter handle is @RacerPaynes). 

Choppy: Yeah and I'm one of them now.

Fisher: So with great respect I responded to all three and said 'I think you're taking me out of context a little bit.'

Really?  Since you enjoy discussing definitions, here's felonious for you.

Felonious: of, relating to, or involved in crime.

So it's safe to say when using the word you are implying his physical play on the court is indeed criminal in nature.

Fisher makes the mistake of noting that someone's intelligence is implied by the number of followers they possess on Twitter.  You can't have a valid opinion with a lot of people to validate you apparently.

Want to hear a not-so-fun double-entendre?  It's time for inappropriate corner with Fish and Choppy.

1:55:48 Choppy: Fish we got a very special mascot in the building tonight.

Fisher: Is that UT-Dallas…?

Choppy: It's a UT-Da—I don't know what UT-Dallas, are they the Rockets?

(Note: The school's mascot is the Comets)

Fisher: Cause he's got a…flaming head.

Choppy: Yes he does… (as Choppy becomes ever-excited with the pun he has to put his mouth over his microphone in the process).

Even a discussion on Erin Andrews and her sideline reporting is relevant to the game at hand, as Fisher brings up Jon Hamm in the process, because making a YouTube name for one's self is much more important than calling a game.

1:58:44 Choppy: why would you even bring up Jon Hamm into the conversation? Where'd that come from?

Fisher: I'm trying to get you on YouTube.

Choppy: Right?  Yeah that'll do it.

(In a mocking tone)

Fisher: Listen to those two idiots talking about Jon Hamm during a basketball game.  What kind of operation is this?

You said it Fisher, not me. 

Then comes the misinformation.

A fan wants to know more about Seth Curry and what his future holds.

2:00:40 Choppy: I think we all fall in love with the name and his brother is just a special player.

Fisher: Starter in the All-Star game coming up, right?

Choppy: Yeah, and you know the thing is, Seth Curry, Seth not Steph.

Fisher: By the way, with all due respect to his parents, don't do that…to broadcasters.

Choppy: Oh, Steph and Seth?

Fisher: That's tough, that's tough.

 Choppy:  Look I think he's got a future in the NBA, I do.  I think if you look at him Curry is size-wise, you know he's six-one, he's not great size, but it's not like his brother's six-six.  If you can shoot you can shoot and they'll find a way to get guys that can shoot in the game.  Steve Kerr wasn't seven-two but he made it.

But don't forget this, Seth was also much more highly touted coming out of high school.  Now maybe some of that was reputation because of who his brother became and Steph played for Bob McKillop at Davidson and had a really good run in the (NCAA) tournament at the same time Seth was coming out of high school.

So you see what happened, and that's maybe part of the reason, along with talent that he was able to go to Duke and play with Coach K (Krzyzewski).

But I think he's got a future.

Among the errors in what Choppy says, Curry was not highly recruited coming out of high school.  Curry wasn't listed in ESPN's Top 100 rankings for the Class of 2008.  Curry signed with Liberty, a smaller school that plays in the virtually unknown Big South Conference.  It wasn't until Curry led NCAA Division-I in points-per-game did scouts take notice at which point he transferred to Duke. 

Choppy implies in his statement Curry isn't made for the NBA despite what he may say, that he was perhaps overhyped coming out of college.  Choppy is soon to forget Curry suffered from a shin injury during his playing time with Duke which limited his opportunities to join teams in training camp.  But if he wants to paint Curry as merely succeeding because of his family's namesake then that's his prerogative. 

As a broadcaster, Choppy has a responsibility to share accurate and pertinent information and not falsify details to fit the narrative of his choosing. 

Fisher dismays all negative reactions to his broadcast to people that are just fans of the opposing team:

2:12:16 Fisher: Hundreds of thousands of people think we're having fun and enjoy it.  About three people per broadcast, all of them from the enemy team, they don't seem to see the humor in your (Choppy's) delivery.

Choppy: Right-- My delivery?  My delivery's terrific.  Are you kidding me?  I'm about to win an award here.  I don't know what award.

Fisher: Kids Choice Award?

Choppy: Maybe it's a leg lamp, Christmas Story.

Fisher: Oh what an iconic film that is.

Just to remind the fans that a basketball game is going on, Fisher feels the need to discuss musical topics instead of what's taking place on the court.

2:15:45 Fisher: Just a second ago here in the building, big performance to the song 'Blurred Lines'

Choppy: I'm aware of that song, yeah.

Fisher: Which is stolen straight from Marvin Gaye.

Choppy: That's a song by Marvin Gaye?

Fisher: He steals the essence of it from the great Marvin Gaye.

Choppy: Like the background music?

Fisher: So, can you believe there's a lawsuit involved?

Choppy: I don’t know.

Fisher: That's why you come to me for these matters

Choppy: I can't imagine Alan Thicke's son would do anything like that.

Fisher: Are we going to be applauded because we mentioned Blurred Lines and it's so modern and cool? Or are we going to be made fun of because we're Marvin Gaye guys?

If you've made it this far then you realize the unprofessionalism put on display by both men.  Regardless of their credentials, they chose not to take the game seriously and portrayed themselves as a pair of novice broadcasters who decided to put on a podcast one day because they thought it would be a 'cool idea'. 

Choppy and Fisher definitely are iconic though, for the simple fact that if anyone studying to be a broadcaster can take a lesson from either of these men to learn how not to do their job.

And if anyone feels the need to let Choppy and Fisher know how they feel, they can 'Use that magical smart phone and text the word 'Texas + message' to 37048' as Choppy suggests.