The Boston Celtics’ representatives in The Athletic’s 2020 NBA local broadcast survey have a prominent place in the write-up by Zach Harper, but not necessarily for the reasons you’d think.
Unless, of course, you also think color commentator Tommy Heinsohn can be a bit over the top with the green goggles.
As has been the case in similar surveys the Celtics Wire has covered in the past, the legendary Celtics forward turned media personality is an intensely divisive character when it comes to his role calling games with longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman.
The Celtics rank among the most-watched local announcers with 4.9 % polled relating Boston’s local announcers were their most-watched local NBA broadcast team, good for a tie for fifth-best overall in the league.
Boston legend Tommy Heinsohn on the art of effective color commentary https://t.co/4JUmPRIRpf via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 2, 2020
But, regarding that polarization we mentioned earlier, the Celtics also came in second-worst in terms of broadcast team quality, “bested” only by that of the Houston Rockets.
Noting the Celtics had “the most negative nominations with 78”, Harper also points out they had “a fervent 22 positive nominations” as well.
“Mike Gorman handles almost all of the play-by-play duties, and I enjoy him on the call. It’s the color commentary that tends to pry the negative nominations toward the Celtics here. Tommy Heinsohn is an experience when it comes to games. He breathes heavily into the microphone and he’s all Celtics, all the time. Infamously, he jokingly compared Greg Stiemsma to Bill Russell once.”
“Brian Scalabrine on the road game calls isn’t nearly as homeriffic as Heinsohn, but it creeps through,” he added.
Tom Heinsohn set to return to Celtics broadcast https://t.co/OOBE6oHreF
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) February 8, 2019
A sampling of critiques of the broadcast include annoyance when, “the opponent is getting away with egregious violations but every call against the home team is an outrageous miscarriage of justice.”
However, another respondent thinks such moments are “the best part,” especially “when Mike Gorman makes fun of him for it,” reflecting the polarizing nature of such broadcasts.
Given the tendency for Boston fans in general to be disliked for their historic success (and lack of modesty about it), it makes sense such broadcasts would be like candy to fans, and poison to haters.
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