Hey, Cavalier fans and CavFanatics! It’s Austin, checking in as the calendar turns to fall. What’s happening?Training Camp is less than a month away now, and I can feel the season coming soon. Once the weather starts to change, I know it’s almost game time!
I thought I’d do something different today. A lot of you ask me basketball questions and some of you want to know about the broadcasting world. So I thought I’d tell you about my second basketball career.
I never thought I’d get into broadcasting when my playing days were over. I had no idea. My whole mindset, after I played ball, was to have something to do on the basketball side. I never thought I’d end up on the “entertainment” side! I always thought I’d be general manager or something like that. I even thought of coaching. But now I’m pretty much locked in.
It’s funny: over the years, fans have encouraged me to try coaching. But that’s not for me. I don’t have the patience.
That’s one thing that Byron has. He has good patience, but he also knows when to rule with the iron fist.
I don’t know if I’d have the patience part of coaching down. I might be iron fist all the time. But all the coaches that I’ve ever played for were like that! It’s a privilege to play this game, and I don’t think I’d have patience for a guy who had the talent but didn’t have the drive to give it his all every night. I’d blow up and the next thing you know … I’d be out.
I’d rather work with the guys I work with now. And I have to start with my fantastic broadcast partner: Fred McLeod.
Fred is a great one, a true pro. And he’s also got a little bit of a temper – which I love. You see it mostly on the golf course. During our telecast, you don’t see it. But I see it!
And, the thing about Fred – he’s definitely a Cavaliers fan. When it doesn’t go right, boy, he gets upset! But that’s what I like about Fred. He’s passionate about the game. We both are! And we kind of mesh together because of that reason.
It probably took us one full season to get a good feel for each other. Really, Fred was the one who started calling me “Mr. Cavalier.” And that in itself has developed a life of its own. Now our chemistry is automatic. I think we’ve developed a great rhythm.
I talk about Fred getting excited during games, but I’m the same way. You’ll hear Fred joking about me catching him with an elbow during games, and that really does happen.
But, just like Fred might get excited during a game, I might get excited too! And I’m used to being physical. It’s just that he happens to be a little too close! That’s all. So once in a while I’ll catch him and I’ll hear that “ooohhhh.” But it’s all in good fun. Sometimes, especially when Kyrie makes a nice move in a critical part of the game or someone makes a good play, I get into it.
I’m definitely a fan. We both are.
One thing I appreciate about Fred is that he makes it easy to be myself. He almost encourages me to be myself. So we just kind of get into the ebb and flow and, maybe at a certain point in the game, I’ll do a little of his job and he’ll do a little of mine. And we understand when to back out, when to stay in – and there’s just a good flow and a good rhythm.
On the road, we socialize together. We golf together pretty frequently. To me, that makes it smoother on the air. People can sense a fake friendship. And our friendship is real.
Of course, when you travel throughout the league, there are good arenas to work in and some that, let’s just say, aren’t that good.
Utah is probably the worst place in the world to do a game. But see, their people are in discomfort as well. It’s like being in the cockpit of a plane. And you’re in there and you might as well be strapped in.
For me to go to the bathroom, three people have to get up, move out of the isle and I have to jump over some chairs to get out. It’s the most uncomfortable place to do a game – you can’t move, you’re stuck. Even the stage manager, who sits next to Fred and I – she has to literally jump over the table if she wants to move.
Philadelphia’s tough too. People are telling us this is going to be the way it’s going to be in every arena, but we’re so far away from the floor that the players on the opposite end look like ants. You can’t really see anything. And we’re actually behind the basket. It’s just the worst place in the league to watch a game.
But people are saying that radio and TV are eventually going to be up off the floor in most places, so it’s something we’ll have to get used to.
There are some great arenas to broadcast in, too.
Naturally, I enjoy our arena. It’s very comfortable. I like the Garden, too. It’s away from the benches so you can see the bench reaction and everything is right there. Miami is good. Most of the arenas where you’re on the opposite side of the floor are good. You can see everything. I like L.A., too. There’s good freedom at the Staples Center. It’s open – you can stretch out.
And just like the arenas, you get used to the players, coaches and refs during the course of the year. And I talk to almost all of them and have a good rapport with most of them.
It’s funny, though: the referees, they’ll listen to the games and I might say something about a call and they’ll actually come over during a timeout and tell me: “Nah, A.C. You didn’t see that one right.”
Some of the most entertaining coaches are (or were) Stan Van Gundy in Orlando and Doc Rivers in Boston. Doc jumps on the refs right away – he doesn’t fool around. Gregg Popovich is on the refs, but he’s quieted down a little bit. He whispers his problem with the ref now. He waits until they get down near him and he gives it to them … right in their ear. Now you see the refs running down to the opposite end of the court.
I try not to get too technical – too much into X’s and O’s – when we’re doing a broadcast. I don’t want fans to ever think we’re talking down to them. I want fans to feel that we’re watching the game together. And Fred and I kind of follow that rule: You’re watching the game with us. The only difference is – you’re having a beer and I’m not.
Fans don’t see all the preparation and teamwork that goes into a broadcast. The whole day is about the telecast, and the people behind the scenes – they’re extremely hard workers. They work their tail off to make Fred and I look good. And I take my hat off to all the people that work behind the scenes – director, camera man, sound man, everybody.
It’s a full day on broadcasting a game on the road.
I’ll get up in the morning and get to the gym around 7 a.m. Get on the bus to shootaround around 9:30. We come back and have our broadcast meeting. (That could be before shootaround or after.) Then, the rest of the day – right up until we leave for the game, maybe around 4:30-ish – you’re on your own.
But once you’re on that bus, it’s non-stop until you get to that next city. And once that routine starts, that doesn’t stop for the next seven months. It’s a never-ending battle once the season starts.
We’re getting a new sideline reporter this year, too – Allie Clifton. I don’t know much about her, but I hear she’s excellent. And it’s going to be an added attraction to our show.
The think I love about our show is that we constantly tweak it to make it better. And I think Brett Valenti has done a great job of breathing new life into the broadcast. I fought the change at first because it was uncomfortable and wasn’t what we were used to over the years. But now I understand, and I like it. We’ve changed the X’s and O’s of doing the show. And I like what we’re doing.
This upcoming season should be fun.
I think the team, what they’re going to have to do is figure out a way to score because you’re going to lose some of that with Jamison. But I think it’s going to be more well-rounded scoring. We may not have a 20 ppg guy, unless it’s Kyrie. But I’m not sure we want Kyrie to score 20 points. We want him to be a 15-10 guy. If he can be 15-10, we can make the playoffs.
If we have a few guys scoring 10-15 points per game and you have a couple guys averaging 9-12 rebounds a game and that’s the kind of team that you can sustain over the course of an 82-game season. That’s what we’re shooting for. We have some young guys – and some big guys – who can run the floor.
And what they’re doing is getting players that fit into their system – guys that get up and down the floor and can play on the move, not be stuck in a halfcourt offense. And you have two guards that can beat you off the dribble in a half-court set, and that keeps the offense moving.
You can tell that I’m fired up and ready to go. I’ve had enough vacation. I’m anxious to get moving and get back into the game. And most of the fans I’ve talked to are saying the same thing. They’re ready to get it going.
Once football starts, the tumblers in fans’ minds get going – and they know that basketball is just around the corner.