Announcers for NBA Finals know that every comment will be dissected

MIAMI — If the adage is correct that the NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint, then the NBA playoffs are a balancing act, at least for those calling the action.
Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson know the drill. They know that while some might describe their perches for Tuesday night's Game 1 of the NBA Finals as courtside seats, a better description might be hot seats. Nearly everything coming out of their mouths during this series will be dissected by fans.
Say anything negative about the hometown Heat and it means they're rooting for the Dallas Mavericks.
Say anything negative about the Mavericks and it means they're obviously for the Miami Heat.
"It's amazing," said Breen, the play-by-play man for the ABC/ESPN crew. "We'll go into an NBA Finals and just for example, last year, we'll go into Boston and the Celtic fans will say, 'Boy, it's clear you guys are rooting for the Lakers. And then the series will shift to L.A. and the Laker fans will say, 'Boy, it's obvious you guys are rooting for the Celtics.' "
During the Eastern Conference finals, Heat fans were so worked up over TNT's Charles Barkley that he threatened to "come down there" to straighten out one towel-tossing fan.
For the next game, TNT moved its studio from outside the AmericanAirlines Arena to a more secure location inside the building.
Some might claim Barkley asked for it by calling the Heat "a whiny bunch," but network announcers know that at this stage of the post-season, emotions are so high that even innocent comments are over-analyzed. With a bemused look, NBC's Bob Costas said never in his career has a fan approached him with compliments for the remarkable way he was calling a game right down the middle.
Why is it especially an issue during the playoffs? First, most games are broadcast using national announcers as opposed to those hired by the clubs for the regular season.
Second, if an announcer rubs a fan the wrong way during the regular season, that might be the last time the fan hears that announcer for months. During the NBA Finals, it's possible that Breen, Van Gundy or Jackson could irritate a fan for seven consecutive games - if they haven't already done it during three prior rounds.
"When you hear from each city that you're biased, that means you're doing the perfect job," said Mike Tirico, play-by-plan man for this series on ESPN Radio and the voice of Monday Night Football.
Jackson added, "Our job is to tell a story. And basically, if you're playing bad, we're going to talk about that and I think it comes off to a true fan like you're disliking their team."
Make a mistake in the regular season and the worst that often happens is it's replayed on SportsCenter for a day. Not so now.
"In the playoffs, you're really focused on individual plays," Breen said, "so I think overall broadcasts are more critical in the playoffs in terms of what a team is doing, what a certain player is doing, and I think that's part of why sometimes the fans might be a little more sensitive, because also, their emotions are running high."
Announcers agree that the only rooting they do during games is for a good game.
"We put so much into a broadcast, my goal is the ball is in the air, the clock says zero, and wherever it comes down determines the outcome of the game," Tirico said.
So before Heat fans or Mavs fans accuse him otherwise, Tirico figured he might as well set the record straight.
"I couldn't care less who wins," he said.

NBA commissioner David Stern is hoping talks during NBA Finals will bring progress avoiding lockout

MIAMI - Taking a cue from LeBron James, David Stern has advised his owners and the players' union to "bring their negotiating talents to South Beach."
NBA owners and the Players Association will meet Wednesday to try to make some progress on a new labor deal, with a lockout scheduled to go into effect July 1.

But Stern is not hopeful that the two sides will get any closer, with owners and players far apart and the current deal set to expire June 30.
"It's going to be a challenge to the owners and the union to reach the right deal," the NBA commissioner said Tuesday night before Game 1 of the Finals. "The question is really whether we're going to be bold enough to negotiate as opposed to posture."
The two sides are also scheduled to meet twice when the series shifts to Dallas next weekend.

With the league claiming that 22 of its 30 teams are losing money, owners want to drastically reduce players' salaries and benefits from the current 57-43 split of revenue enjoyed by the players. They're looking for a 50-50 split, along with replacing the soft salary cap with a hard cap. Players, meanwhile, do not want to blow up the current economic system.

NBA Finals: LeBron James is focus of the series, win or lose

Dwyane Wade had a message and a reminder for his teammate when it ended: “Congratulations, LeBron, you just won your first NBA Finals game.”

View all Items in this Story

Hey, with LeBron James 0-4 in June coming in to Tuesday night’s Game 1 against the Mavericks, it’s a worthy milestone. Three more victories and let the bows begin.
Either way, win or lose, hoist that big, beautiful gold ball in triumph or humbly bow his head in defeat, LeBron already owns these NBA Finals. They are his the way the 1991 Finals were Michael Jordan’s and the 2000 Finals belonged to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal — the way the entire basketball community anxiously waited to see if the child stars had yet matured into championship adults.
The Heat was too defensive for Dirk Nowitzki and Dallas, and as white hankies rain down from the rafters of American Airlines Arena, Miami moved three wins away from Team Collusion’s stated goal.
Good sign for the Heat: Jose Barea, Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic, who looked like a deer in headlights, missed 17 of the 21 shots they took. Dallas can’t win this without its bench outperforming Miami’s.
LeBron had a nice line — 24 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists to 1 turnover, even if he didn’t score in the fourth quarter until the game was decided.
Now here comes the double-edged sword for LeBron the next two weeks: He needs to close or the criticism won’t cease.
A great, young player only is afforded so many years to grow up and become king before the derision becomes more damning than “The Decision.”
Michael needed a grueling seven seasons to win it all. Kobe needed just four to win a title, but that’s mainly because he had Shaq, who before he won was eviscerated as a B-movie-making, hip-hopping lug more interested in studio time than court time.
When the Lakers won, the wait was over — not just for Shaq and Kobe, but for a league patiently biding its time before another star-laden team could help fill the void left by Michael’s Bulls.
Let’s be clear: A victory by LeBron and his Super Friends is important for David Stern’s NBA, almost as important as it is for the Heat and its 26-year-old supernova. Indeed, as the ball left LeBron’s hand at the end of the third quarter Tuesday night, deep on the right wing behind the three-point line, the league needed that swish almost as much as he did.
Of course this is also about whether the Mavericks can win a title in the Dirk Nowitzki era — whether Dirk and Jason Kidd will join Elgin Baylor, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Charles Barkley as some of the greatest players to never celebrate an NBA championship.
But mostly this is about LeBron. Four years after his last appearance in the championship round, the next two weeks represent a referendum on his progress as an all-time great player. It’s easy to measure.
The Heat wins and he is ready to take Kobe’s place as the most necessary, must-see player in pro basketball. Miami loses, and LeBron is 0-2 in the Finals with two different teams. Completing his eighth season without a title, he would also have been in the league one year longer than when Michael won his first title. Jordan had two championships at the completion of his eighth season.