<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Paul Sunderland was informed Monday that the Lakers will not bring him back as their television play-by-play announcer. He got the word from Laker executive vice president Frank Mariani, who handles the team's broadcasting deals. Mariani did not say what the team's plans were regarding a new TV play-by-play announcer. But he did say he expected to re-sign commentator Stu Lantz, who has had that role for 18 seasons. One possibility for the TV play-by-play job would be moving Joel Meyers from radio to TV and replacing Meyers on radio with Larry Burnett. FSN West's Bill Macdonald is another possibility, either on TV or radio. Sunderland said he was not told why his contract was not being renewed. One source said the Lakers' broadcast partners were upset with declining ratings, but that is mostly attributable to the team's performance this season.</div> Source Sorry to see him go. He did a nice job considering the enormous shoes he had to fill, left from Chick's passing away.
I like Paul alot, I didnt like stu at first, but he has grown on me. It's a shame paul wont be back. Id love for them to get Kevin Harlin or Kevin Calaberough(sp). I know, i know... Harlin does bball games already and Cal is the sonics announcer, i just like them as play by play/color guys.
I sort of had a feeling that Stu didn't like Paul? Haha, just by how he would respond to Paul's comments and all. Oh well.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Is Spero Dedes, the versatile backup TV voice of the Nets, headed west? An NBA broadcast source said yesterday that Dedes is a prime candidate for the Lakers' TV or radio booth. The "help wanted" sign went up when Lakers suits recently fired Paul Sunderland, the team's TV play-by-play voice.</div> Source The article mentions some potential replacements.
I like spiero somewhat, but i was so used to listening to paul the last couple years. It may take a while to get used to, but i have the NBA Ticket every year(i live in MD, so no local stations carry LA games) and i get every laker game, and anything will be better then listening to the opposing teams announcers while trying to watch your lakers....annoying!
Bringin up an old thread because this didn't get much discussion, but I'm not so much disappointed that Sunderland got let go as I am that Joel Meyers is the replacement. I didn't care much for Meyers on radio because of his heavy bias for the Lakers. Dont get me wrong, passion for the home team is always a plus. But when doing the game on radio, it was hard to tell whether whatever was described as happening (oh, Kobe was hacked but no call!) really indeed did happen or was it just an embellishment on Meyers part. But maybe his style is better suited for T.V. We'll see. btw, any word on who's gonna fill in for radio? or are they going back to simocast? (doubt it)
