FanHouse ErnieJohnson

The TNT "Inside the NBA" guys -- Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith -- always have funny little postgame gimmicks (provided you think "crappy photoshops" are "funny") but last night they busted out a remake of the famed Cleveland Tourism Video (note: it's fake people) which included little bits mocking the various analysts. And if that wasn't enough to get me on board, they also poked fun at Kyra Sedgwick.

Via NESW Sports.

Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley can't avoid the playful jabs of Saturday Night Live any longer. Actually, it's ubiquitous house ads that earn most of the scorn here, along with ... Ray Allen? The sketch has Allen getting injured in today's Game 7. Methinks some SNL writer doesn't care for the Celtics. (Sully would have never let this happen.) Video hat tip to Awful Announcing. (Anyone else excited about Mark?)

Another day, another NBA Twitter story. This time, it's not a story about a player on Twitter, but the league and its broadcast partners utilizing Twitter to promote this year's NBA playoffs. According to a report on Mashable.com on Wednesday, Turner Sports (TNT and NBA TV) plans to have its team of commentators start tweeting throughout the playoffs.

I know what you're thinking ... Charles Barkley on Twitter. Well, not quite. Kenny Smith, Craig Sager and Ernie Johnson will all be tweeting, but there's no mention of the the Chuckster on the list of Turner personalities getting Twitter accounts. Turrable!

For once, he was silent. Charles Barkley paused for what seemed a lifetime, then took the deepest and bravest breath of his 46 years, clenching his fists and briefly meditating on national TV. This was a Charles we'd never experienced, knowing him as the rude, crude, decorum-be-damned analyst and basketball legend who threw down drinks as easily as he took down anybody who ticked him off or invaded his philosophical space.

Suddenly, he was vulnerable Thursday evening. Suddenly, he was in pain. Suddenly, Good Time Chuck was a human being.

Okay, so I've spent a lot of time over the last two days watching playoff baseball on TBS, and while there are plenty of things I'm not too thrilled about with their coverage, for the most part it hasn't been half bad. The studio show with Ernie Johnson, Dennis Eckersley, and Cal Ripken is a bit unwatchable at times, but they're still getting the feel for each other, so there's a chance for it to get better.

A quick fix would be to replace Ripken with Charles Barkley, but I'm pretty sure that it would be impossible to get him away from whichever golf course/craps table he's frequenting at the moment. So I guess I'll just have to deal with Ripken and cross my fingers he gets better. The one thing I know I can't take much more of, though, is Mr. Dick Stockton.

How does this man continue to get work with networks? The man butchers names on a regular basis, and half the time I'm not even sure he knows where he is. Dick was working the Cubs and Dodgers game on Wednesday, and before the first pitch was even thrown he'd already made two mistakes.

When describing how historic a matchup it was to have the Dodgers and Cubs playing a postseason series, he said "to say this is a big series would be an understudy." I think he meant to say understatement, but with Dick Stockton, who knows for sure? Maybe he really meant that it would be a great series that TBS can move to the primetime slot when they don't have a Red Sox/Angels game to show.

A minute later he referred to Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Dempster as Bryan Dempster. It's a tiny mistake, I know, but it's the kind of error Stockton makes on a regular basis. If TBS wants to make their baseball coverage better, the first move they should make is finding a replacment for Stockton.

This is some of the greatest television you will ever watch. Ernie Johnson pulled an Anchorman on Charles Barkley last night, editing the teleprompter to read "I'm a dumbass" while Charles was filming a T-Mobile commercial in the TNT studios. Charles did not realize it until after he'd said it. Actually right about the last syllable of the sentence, you see this amazing look of recognition come over his face.



To Barkley's credit, he doesn't get angry. He just seems amazed.

H/T: Foul Balls

Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson had some fun parodying Kobe Bryant's car-jumping commercial, but it was a little bit predictable, no? Kenny signs off heading into commercial by remarking, "YouTube is going to be going crazy now," but if they actually spent a little time on YouTube, they'd know this joke is about 10 days old, which in internet time is something like 12 years.

That said, the shoes in the road were a nice touch, as was the slow-mo replay of Ernie driving the car, building just enough on top of the comedy pyramid to escape accusations of completely lifting material from the internet.

(via Odenized)

Philadelphia and Allen Iverson obviously have a special bond, as shown by the welcome the fans in Philly gave him when the Nuggets played the 76ers on Thursday night, and also by Iverson's sentimental press conference following the loss. But it slipped under the radar (thanks to The 700 Level for catching it) that Iverson came prepared to give the city of Ill a shout-out, as he rocked a pair of shoes that say "THXPHILA".

Following Lakers-Jazz, Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley talked about Iverson's return. Two things stood out for me: first, Barkley said he "doesn't know Allen Iverson as a person" (really? how is that even possible?) and after chiding himself for only getting seven rebounds in his own return to Philly, he said he was still drunk from the night before. Which, um, kind of detracted from the emotional video they showed of Iverson kissing the floor and hugging Maurice Cheeks for the previous five minutes.

I've always thought of Ernie Johnson as a basketball guy because of his award-winning role on TNT's "Inside the NBA," but I've been pleasantly surprised with his work doing the MLB playoffs on TBS. This is hardly his first exposure to baseball, though -- I just learned today from an interview with SportsBusiness Daily that his dad actually played in the majors:

When I was born, my dad was playing with the Braves in Milwaukee. He was on that '57 team that won it all, came out of the bullpen, and really pitched well. Growing up that's [playing] what I wanted to do. We've got all kinds of home movies with me out there with my dad; he's throwing stuff to me, wiffle balls and all that stuff. ... I grew up hanging out at the batting cage and having Hank Aaron ask me how my little league team was doing. So, it's always been right there.

Johnson's baseball chops don't stop there: he actually witnessed Aaron's 715th live, and he played baseball through his freshman year of college until getting cut before his sophomore year at Georgia. That's when he started to consider a career in broadcasting, which, to be honest, really worked out for all of us. If you've at all enjoyed his work on TNT or TBS, this is an article you need to read in its entirety. Johnson is one of the reasons why watching sports on television is fun, and it's rare the spotlight gets turned around back on him.

Previously on FanHouse:
Frank Thomas Shouldn't Quit His Day Job
In Appreciation of Ernie Johnson

After Day 1 of the MLB playoffs, the reviews of are in, and they're not particularly kind to Frank Thomas. From the LA Times:

Given that TBS is spending a reported $45 million a year to televise Major League Baseball's first-round playoff package through 2013, you would have thought the network would have invested more thought and research before handing a prized big-stage studio analyst's seat to Frank Thomas, a.k.a. the Big Uneasy.

Before, during and after the Angels 4-0 loss to the Red Sox, Thomas looked and sounded more nervous than Reggie Willits, the Angels rookie thrust into the lineup to replace Matthews in center field. Thomas either had nothing to say or was unwilling to say anything meaningful for fear of offending someone he'll be playing against next season.

What about Cal Ripken? As the Baltimore Sun's Ray Frager wrote, " ... at least he wasn't Frank Thomas." I hate to pile onto the guy, but television analysts are only useful when they actually express an opinion, when they actually offer insight as opposed to simply trying to stay polite.

Of course, that's not to say that playoff baseball on TBS is a complete disaster. No, I think I'd watch any sports studio show anchored by Ernie Johnson, the underrated glue that keeps TNT's NBA broadcasts in a league of their own. Even with Thomas flopping and Ripken barely impressing, Johnson kept the show interesting and light. With him on board, I'm giving the show an awkward thumbs up. Without him, though, the whole endeavor would probably be an unmitigated disaster.

(via Sports Business Daily)