“Can you imagine working with a guy like that that wants to cut off what you’re saying it just distracts you from your thought?”
So began Boston Celtics living institution Tommy Heinsohn, discussing his thought on what makes for a good color commentator on a recent episode of the “Celtics Talk” podcast that also featured longtime co-worker and fellow courtside personality Mike Gorman.
“And then I worked with some other guys that there really were radio broadcasts, so that they would talk about the game,” continued the eight-time champion, who spent nine years with the team as a player and as many as head coach before becoming as a fixture of Boston color commentary.
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“Like they were on the radio, so they were not doing a regular TV broadcast,” he continued, “so they were doing a radio broadcast. And they were describing a picture of what was happening on the floor when it was a picture already on the screen. And they didn’t enhance the picture, and most of them talked forever.”
“So, there was really no rhythm to your broadcast. So working with Mike at that particular point. I mean, we just get in and get out and make a statement. Try and make money,” added Heinsohn.
“That let the game breathe so that people reorient to the picture. And what I try to do is give people clues as to how one team is going to beat the other ,and then augment it through a great producer and director. We had Paul Lucy who has been around this thing a long time who enhances what we’re saying with some replays that go along with what [we were] saying.”
“The way I feel, the broadcast ends up [better] when we do that, and we’re successful. The guy watching the game thinks he thought of this for the first time — ‘All right, look at I discovered this idea'”, he continued.
He had some special advice for those who were making the transition from another area of expertise altogether — in this case, sports — instead of the issues which can arise from the wrong technique for the medium of choice.
“Anybody that goes into broadcasting like with a background like mine, the first thing I say to them when they asked me for advice [was], ‘Look, you know a great deal about basketball. I mean, the average person is not going to come anywhere close to what you know'”.
Heinsohn went on to describe meeting a group of strangers at a party whom you had no idea the level of their understanding of the game.
On this day: Russell, Jones, Heinsohn drafted; Rivers hired; Bass born https://t.co/zgEyFPjDSS via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) April 30, 2020
“I mean, would you be talking about double picks and rolls and this and that?”
The Celtics legend closed by saying, “keep it simple, [and] stupid so people can get into the sport. Most a lot of guys with my type of background try to argue with their Einstein knowledge of the game of basketball.”
Sage advice indeed, though you might want to give the visiting team a fairer shake than Heinsohn, too — not that most of us Boston fans mind if you don’t.
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