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Every time Breen, or any NBA announcer shouts "from downtown!" I'm reminded of this piece by Hunter S. Thompson: The Curse of Musburger

 

 

My grudge against Brent Musburger has been smoking on a personal back burner for many years -- since the early 1980s in fact, when Brent was covering the NBA Finals for CBS-TV, and it involves the word "downtown."

 

That is when Musburger changed the language of sports forever when he kept repeating this ignorant notion that any basketball player firing off a long 3-point shot is shooting from "downtown." (Celtics announcer Johnny Most might have coined the "downtown" trademark in the 1960s, but it was Musburger who beat it to death.)

 

I still hear in my dreams his wild gibberish every time Michael Cooper or Dennis Johnson drilled one of those long flat-line 3-pointers.

 

"From way downtown!" Brent would scream. "Another one from Downtown!"

 

It drove me mad then -- & it still does every time some fool blurts it out. It was quickly picked up and adopted by a whole generation of half-bright TV commentators every night of the bloody season. It has become part of the Lexicon now, & it will not be easy to correct. In gyms & Coliseums all over America (even in Greece or Korea), wherever basketball as we know it is played, there will be some howling Jackass braying, "From way downtown! Another 3-pointer! Is this a great country, or what?"

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It is the Curse of Musburger.

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Every time Breen, or any NBA announcer shouts "from downtown!" I'm reminded of this piece by Hunter S. Thompson: The Curse of Musburger

 

 

My grudge against Brent Musburger has been smoking on a personal back burner for many years -- since the early 1980s in fact, when Brent was covering the NBA Finals for CBS-TV, and it involves the word "downtown."

 

That is when Musburger changed the language of sports forever when he kept repeating this ignorant notion that any basketball player firing off a long 3-point shot is shooting from "downtown." (Celtics announcer Johnny Most might have coined the "downtown" trademark in the 1960s, but it was Musburger who beat it to death.)

 

I still hear in my dreams his wild gibberish every time Michael Cooper or Dennis Johnson drilled one of those long flat-line 3-pointers.

 

"From way downtown!" Brent would scream. "Another one from Downtown!"

 

It drove me mad then -- & it still does every time some fool blurts it out. It was quickly picked up and adopted by a whole generation of half-bright TV commentators every night of the bloody season. It has become part of the Lexicon now, & it will not be easy to correct. In gyms & Coliseums all over America (even in Greece or Korea), wherever basketball as we know it is played, there will be some howling Jackass braying, "From way downtown! Another 3-pointer! Is this a great country, or what?"

BUY THE BOOK

It is the Curse of Musburger.

 

Nice piece....I do love Mike Breen though. Not nearly as much as Jeff Van Gundy (I think he's the most entertaining sports commentator in the game right now), but those guys are one heck of a team. Bang.

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Every time Breen, or any NBA announcer shouts "from downtown!" I'm reminded of this piece by Hunter S. Thompson: The Curse of Musburger

 

 

My grudge against Brent Musburger has been smoking on a personal back burner for many years -- since the early 1980s in fact, when Brent was covering the NBA Finals for CBS-TV, and it involves the word "downtown."

 

That is when Musburger changed the language of sports forever when he kept repeating this ignorant notion that any basketball player firing off a long 3-point shot is shooting from "downtown." (Celtics announcer Johnny Most might have coined the "downtown" trademark in the 1960s, but it was Musburger who beat it to death.)

 

I still hear in my dreams his wild gibberish every time Michael Cooper or Dennis Johnson drilled one of those long flat-line 3-pointers.

 

"From way downtown!" Brent would scream. "Another one from Downtown!"

 

It drove me mad then -- & it still does every time some fool blurts it out. It was quickly picked up and adopted by a whole generation of half-bright TV commentators every night of the bloody season. It has become part of the Lexicon now, & it will not be easy to correct. In gyms & Coliseums all over America (even in Greece or Korea), wherever basketball as we know it is played, there will be some howling Jackass braying, "From way downtown! Another 3-pointer! Is this a great country, or what?"

BUY THE BOOK

It is the Curse of Musburger.

I'm like that with at the dish or on the bump in a baseball game.

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The two phantom fouls on sefalosha were some quality officiating.

 

What one? The one at the end where Battier grabbed his head instead of boxing him out?

 

They called that on Shane. I watched it, and it's in the play-by-play on ESPN with 44 seconds left in the 4th.

 

I saw earlier in the game where Sefolosha had a breakaway dunk that he missed, they called a foul on Chalmers. The replay showed that Chalmers didn't even come close to touching him, but they called the fould because he missed the dunk.

 

I wouldn't want to be an NBA ref because it's too physical and too fast to see everything perfectly. To think that ALL the calls go one way is beyond ridiculous. It's almost like watching WWE anymore. Whoever sells it the best, wins.

 

(That's probably my last post in here, because I most likely won't be watching the games anymore. The NBA sucks.)

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