Mike and Mike are OUT? Same with 'Tone.

King speed could be the first only opera color commenter!

 

Yep. I watch the games in Fox1 or whatever it is. I see him every week. Watch the entire game and crack the fuck up.

 

Are you hearing from multiple sauces though?

 

Good point..Mike Rice is from Detroit and Brian Wheeler is from Chicago

 

Maybe they finally realized Meyers best position.....behind a mic

 

Kaman has that job on lockdown

 

The seattle hate is real.

 

We don't even know why it was done yet. All the speculation in here about going after the Seattle market is just that, speculation.

This is true both ways.

 

That's a shame. I really liked the Mikes. They were my familiar voice from home now that I no longer live in Portland.

I know that there were player coaches in the NBA in the past. Can we make CJ the first player-announcer?

 

Mic him up during playing time

 

They were let go with a year left on their contract. That was cool, actually. Gives them time to figure out rheir next step without panicking

 

Wow - crazy news! I haven't - and won't - read through this thread, but skimmed several posts to try to get the gist of what happened and what some general thoughts are.

I can't say I'm upset - I never particularly cared for M/M, but I never was turned off by them either...other than Rice's unwillingness to pronounce names correctly. But I am shocked. Seems like change for the sake of change, rather than something that's been well thought out and planned - but that's from the outside looking in.

One of my first thoughts for a replacement was Cool Nutz. I don't know if he has the chops to call a game, but if he did I think that'd be pretty awesome. And then I thought to pair Sheed up with him - we'd have the best duo in the league!

 

The REAL reason Rice was let go.

He kept pointing out how absurdly over priced the "deals" were.

 

Of course, instead of having home and away announcers, with Meyers there they'd need a different color guy for for defense. I can hear it now.....

play by play guy: And a tough rebound for Davis....Meyers?

Meyers: Not really sure what happened there? In my day getting pushed under the basket was usually the approach I took. Didn't like the hair to get messed up

 

Yeah, for everyone saying how awful it was handled, my guess is they probably wanted to make the move last summer. But with the exodus of players, recognized how badly it would be perceived. Gave them a two year extension, knowing full well they were basically paying them double for one year. But it gave them security for this season.
I still don't understand both why McGowan is awful, and how people expect to know in advance something like this is coming, but so be it. I grew to like rice. Harvey was terrible. Barrett, meh.

 

Of the four, the only one I would have liked to have kept was Barrett. Of course, I grew up with Schonz, so Wheeler's "fan" approach to calling the game has never sat well with me. When I can't see the game, I want someone who can paint an accurate picture of what's going on. Wheeler paints with emotion rather than fact. Harvey was a hot mess from the get-go. Besides, that guy will always be a L*ker to me. Rice was a character, but it was time for him to retire. Barrett I liked. He was certainly a homer, but also not afraid to tell us when things weren't going according to plan or who was not showing up that day.

I can't begin to guess why this move was made. I can't imagine money was an issue as I don't think those jobs pay incredibly well, so it had to be something else. I don't think it was a personal issue, because only one would have been gone rather than all three.

When you take over a team, not all the changes you want to make can be made at once. These were probably changes McGowan has wanted to make for a while, but was waiting for the right time. Of course, there is never a "right time" for these moves. It sucks for them, their families and the fans that liked them. My fear on the TV end is we'll get a ridiculous homer as the PBP guy (a Pete Pranica type) and a color guy who doesn't really understand the sport or how to translate it to those watching the game. They will view their job as selling a product rather than enlightening the viewer. As for radio, Wheeler and Harvey were tough to listen to before, like N'SYNC. As a solo act, he's going to be even worse as Justin Timberlake.

I think McGowan has a plan well in place, we just haven't been apprised of it yet. Firing those three without an idea of what or who is going to replace them seems reckless and out of character for him.

Anyway, that's my $0.02.