2004 OLYMPIC GAMES - Athens, Greece Aug. 13 - 29

[BOREALIS]

West Coast viewers miss Dream Team collapse

Sam Kellerman / FOXSports.com
Aug. 28, 2004
Posted: 1 hour ago

Hey, NBC programmers. Need a new one? Cause I'm about to rip it for you.

You decided that I wasn't allowed to watch Team USA play the basketball semifinal against Argentina until after the game was over.

The TV listings said the game would air live at 1 pm, Eastern Time. Which led me to believe that it would play live on the West Coast, where I currently reside, at 10 am, given the three hour time difference.

It never even occurred to me that the programmers at NBC would prevent California — a state with an economy bigger than all but four nations in the world — from watching a game of worldwide importance live.

But they were indeed that stupid over at the No Basketball Conscience network.


I turned on my TV set at 10:00 am, Friday morning, ready to support the twelve NBA players who decided that representing America in the 2004 Olympic Games was more important than anything else on their summer schedules.


What did I see when I tuned in to NBC? The Ellen Degeneres show. I turned to the USA Channel, where team USA's previous games had been played, but all I saw was something about sharks. I quickly scoured every NBC-affiliated network on cable — you know, all those unwatchable, half-assed news channels — but Team USA was nowhere to be found.

So I logged onto NBC's olympic website, where I discovered the unfathomable truth: the basketball semifinal would be played at the same time — 1 pm — on both coasts. Meaning live in New York, but on tape in Los Angeles.

On tape in Los Angeles! Home to the NBA's greatest ever basketball franchise, the Lakers. The setting for most of basketball's most legendary careers — those of Wilt, West, Kareem, Magic, Shaq, Kobe — the players who inspired people all over the globe to love and learn the game. Los Angeles, the basketball capital of the world.

I was forced to sit in front of my computer, in Los Angeles, log onto an Olympics site, and hit the refresh button every five seconds. Watching the numbers change next to where it said ARG and USA, I followed the drama in its coldest form, as two scores racing each other up while the clock ticked down. This method of "watching" was demeaning. I say that without a trace of humor or melodrama or irony or dry wit. I'm deadly serious. It was demeaning and insulting.

I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like to insult people. If you read my past articles on this site, you will notice that I almost always choose to write in a positive tone about someone who is accomplishing something special in sports. Unlike some other journalists, I prefer to give the deserving their props, rather than tear people down.

But if you step on my toes hard enough, I will whup your ass one way or another. NBC, you made me do this.

It's no wonder that ABC now has the NBA Finals, while Fox has the two biggest events in American sports — the World Series and the Super Bowl. It makes perfect sense that NBC is currently completely shut out of championship coverage in the great triumvirate of team sports in this country.

I think the NFL, MLB, and NBA are too unabashedly American for NBC, a network which seems to relish covering an international sporting event where American athletes are discouraged from showing outward pride about where they're from.

Judging from their news department's fawning coverage of the United Nations and harsh coverage of the Bush administration, it does seem as though NBC believes that America should know its place.

As far as sports coverage goes, the peacock has buried its head so far up its own tail feathers that it was unable to see why the entire west coast of the United States would want to watch live coverage of the most important game in USA Olympic basketball history.

Good job, you freaking imbeciles. At least you still have Seinfeld and Friends. Oh wait, you don't.

http://msn.foxsports.com/id/2707982