The Big Lead has a story today of yet another talking head at ESPN screwing up, but this one seems worse than both the Lyons and Kinchen comments. Your culprit.....Mike Greenberg.

Greenberg was discussing the suspension yesterday of Guillermo Mota, the hard-throwing former Mets’ reliever, for violating MLB’s steroid policy. Mota is automatically subject to a fifty game suspension and issued a statement taking full responsibility for what he had done. Greenberg expressed shock that a modern athlete would simply accept responsibility for what he had done, and not try to make excuses for having failed a drug test. By contrast, Shawne Merriman and Rafael Palmeiro, for example, insisted that if they ingested banned substances, they did so unwittingly.

I heard this while driving my daughter to school, so I don’t have the full quote, but Greenberg did positively say that Mota “manned up” by coming clean, as opposed to all of these other athletes who “womaned down.”

The quote comes from the fabulous Sports Media Review. We at AA were watching the M&M show this morning, but weren't lucky enough to catch the chauvinistic Greenberg in action. We instead got to hear Mark Schlereth talk about how he peed his pants in every game. Seriously, he said that.

So Mike Greenberg....What exactly does Womaned Down Mean? (The Big Lead)
Should Mike Greenberg be Fired? (Sports Media Review)
Mark Schlereth's Wikipedia Page (Wikipedia)

P.S.- The fact that this morning's comments are already up at Wikipedia is kind of scary.

Jon Barry!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Yes it's true. We love ESPN's new hire Jon Barry as the third chap in the booth with Tirico and Walton. Here's why......

We've made fun of Walton before. He's oafy and he exagerates things greatly, but we believe him. He's very John Madden in that way. Well Jon Barry did the perfect job of bobbing and weaving with him all night, and the two of them created the chemistry that Tirico wishes he had in the MNF booth. Some highlights.......

After Walton said that the Lakers have a chance to win the Pacific Division Barry chimes in with....

"Luke Walton plays for the Lakers and I’m sure his father is pulling for him, but I have to disagree with him and say the Suns run away with this thing”- Jon Barry

The comment was funny and nowhere near the "I'm Right...You're Wrong!" mentality of the pregame show.

Another great exchange came between Tirico and Barry. Tirico asked Barry to elaborate on why Steve Nash was so special because he's played against him before. JB goes into his piece, "He's just so special", but the Clips broke out on a fastbreak, so he stopped in the middle so Tirico could call the play. The Suns get the ball back and Nash is not even to halfcourt when he says....

"Like this...watch....he's going to get another assist right here."- JB

Well he was right....a full 3 seconds before Nash got an assist on the fastbreak.

But my favorite comment of the night came after Bill Walton's piece on Red Auerbach. Billy stated that Red was such a shrewd trader of players that people would purposely avoid dealing with him. Jon Barry had this to say.

"Well I don't know that he was always shrewd.....He did trade me for Alaa Abdelnaby"

Now that's funny. I don't care who you are. (1992, December 4 - Traded for Boston Celtics' rights to Jon Barry.)

He stumbled a couple of times, but nothing too noticeable. It was a great rookie performance....especially since it was the Suns and you can barely get a word out of your mouth before they sprint down the court and score. Keep up the good work Jon......really......you don't want to get on our bad side.

As for Mike Breen and Hubie.....we'll get to that later, but they can go to hell for all I care.

Every Night (not really) we will pick up on a great NBA game that you wouldn't normally come across and give you the rundown.

Tonight's game: NYK at MEM.

We pick up the game in the 3rd OT!!!! (More on the earlier part of the game later. We live-blog starting now.)

11:22- Crawford fouled and hits the shot. Knicks 111-109

Crazyness as Mike Miller hits a fadeaway three. Key players of the game.....and you're not going to believe me.....Rudy Gay, Chucky Atkins, and Kyle "I'M MIKE!!!!" Lowry.

No joke but Kyle Lowry has made Starbury look like an idiot on multiple plays tonight. Can someone point Damon Stoudamire to the bench.....Wait he already knows where it is???? Good.

11:26- Quentin Richardson blows a kiss to ex-Brandy and has 29 points to bring the Knicks to within one.

Chucky Atkins looks like an All-Star against the Knicks and I think that tells you everything you need to know about the 06-07 NYKs.

2:06 left in the third OT.

Channing Frye tries a three?!?!?!?!?!?! It was a set play also.....great call Isiah.

11:30- David Lee gets the craziest reverse alley-oop ever.

Rudy Gay hits a huge two to get to 21 pts.

Nate Robinson gets his own offensive rebound and calls a timeout with :40 left.

The Memphis Announcers are pretty darn good. I need to look those cats up.

117-115 Memphis NYK Ball.

Nate Robinson to the line and misses the 2nd........117-116.

11:36- Wow....Chucky gives up the ball to Crawford who forwards it on to Q.......who OBVIOUSLY walks with the ball. He draws the foul which was almost a charge, and hits 2 FTs to put the Knicks up.

117-116 with 11.9 secs left.

11:41- David Lee fouls Mike Miller to use up the FTG. 5.7 seconds left.

The Memphis PA System Redeems itself from its early playing of Quad City DJs with Europe's Final Countdown.

Mike Miller misses a turnaround jumper, and the Isiah Thomas era begins with a win.

The Grizz rallied from a 19 point hole to send it into the first overtime. Good times.....We'll see how long this "new feature" lasts.

So there's a neat little rumor going around that Sean Salisbury has/was? been suspended for a week from the WWLeader. I hadn't really even noticed but it's slowly leaking, so if you have more info just let me know.

The title you ask? Oh.....well......that's just me hoping that the incident had something to do with an Outback Steakhouse (wink, wink)

See also: Pro Football Talk and/or Sports Column

So none of you bastards were going to tell me my RSS Feed was jacked up? Some friends I have. Just kidding.....that shiz is fixed now.....you can continue to nerd it up with me. I've updated my links as well with some new and old friends. Check out their sites.....they are good. You can trust me.

Also, we are going to have a new feature this Friday. Just a little tease, but we will have a guest writer to recap your week. You'll love love it.....trust me.

XOXO,

AA

P.S.- If I missed anyone in the links send me an email and I'll update it right away. Don't be shy....speak up!

P.P.S.- I somehow have an old Lita Ford Song (Kiss Me Deadly) in my head right now. Shoot me please.

(OR THE ESPN EDITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

DO YOU HEAR THAT!?!!?!?! HUH?!?!?! DO YOU HEAR THAT?!?!?!?!?!

That's Stephen A. Smith yelling at yo ass! And he will also do so to all 29 (sorry mis-counted yesterday) other personalities involved in their NBA programming this year. You doubt me that the number is 29??? Okay then, I'll give you the list up front.

In no particular order: Mark Jackson, Hubie Brown, Mike Breen, Mike Tirico, Lisa Salters, Stu Scott, Dan Patrick, Michael Wilbon, Bill Walton, Jon Barry, John Saunders, Greg Anthony, Tim Legler, Mark Jones, Tom Tolbert, Dave Pasch, Jim Gray, Doris Burke, Becky Hammon, Kara Lawson, Fred Hickman, Allan Houston, Kiki Vandeweghe, Jamal Mashburn, Dee Brown, Ric Bucher, Chris Broussard, Marc Stein, and Jackie MacMullen.

I'm refraining from flipping out now....counting backward.....10, 9....calm....8, 7, 6......oh screw it.

THAT IS JUST INSANE!!!!

Now that that's out of the way....let's delve into the monster......

What you know: You know that ABC/ESPN's programming has gotten more and more ridiculous every year. ABC's number one team of Mike Breen and Skeletor Hubie Brown is still in tact and they will be on Sundays. Tirico was bumped to second team duty and will still be paired with Bill Walton, but undoubtedly they will interchange throughout the year.

The rest is completely up in the air. There are so many combinations of people it's ridiculous, but tentatively this is what weekday ESPN games will look like:

1. Mike Tirico with Bill Walton and Jon Barry
2. Jon Saunders with Greg Anthony and Tim Legler
3. Mark Jones and Tom Tolbert

Guess which team I like the best......Yep, of course.....#3.

What you don't or may not know: Well there's a lot actually. Like I said before the sheer number of individual Announcers is astounding and any of them could fill in for one another at any time.

But even more confusing than that are the PreGame shows. From what I gather there are 2 pregame shows and 2 highlight shows.

First is KIA NBA Shootaround which is ESPN's pregame. The analysts are Greg Anthony, Tim Legler and S.A.S. Fred Hickman will replace John Saunders as host this year. There was a rumor that Dan Patrick Mikey Wilbon and Mark Jackson would replace them, but that isn't the case.

New to the mix of Shootaround are the "Rookies".....described as, "ESPN's rookie class of NBA analysts who have a combined 50 years of NBA game experience, plus Vandeweghe'’s five years in the Denver Nuggets' front office." That's right....in another genius move the Leader has hired MORE ex-players to yell at each other. The Rookie class is! (drum roll).....Allan Houston, Kiki Vandeweghe, Jon Barry and Jamal Mashburn! (That was anti-climatic wasn't it?)

Our other pregame show is NBA Sunday Countdown. (From Wikipedia) With ABC Sports' demise and rebranding as ESPN on ABC, ABC's NBA pregame show was given its fifth different name in as many years (NBA Shootaround, NBA Hangtime, NBA Game Time, and NBA Nation). Your hosts are Dan Patrick, Mark Jackson, and Michael Wilbon. Not a bad team...they should definitely be on ESPN as well.

Add to that NBA Fastbreak, NBA Coast-to-Coast, and The Toyota halftime show and you have one GIANT cluster F!

Your ESPN Haiku:
I can't even come up with one.....I've never been more confused. If you have one put it in the comments.

Why ESPN has it wrong: If you watched TNT's broadcast last night that will give you your first clue. Even in a blowout game Marv Albert and Steve Kerr did a great job staying with the game (I had so many damn trick-or-treaters though I could barely keep up myself).

ESPN's overall problem stems from one main problem. EGOS. Every person on that network has to be exactly right about their point and everyone else has to be wrong. Which leads to a half hour bitch session that most people don't watch. I'd much rather watch the local cable feed of the Wizards games, but this site forces me to watch the trainwreck.

Another complaint about ABC and ESPN televised games are that the camera angles appear too far away, and colors seem faded and dull compared to TNT's. Also, unlike NBC, which allowed crowd noise to sometimes drown out their announcers, ABC quiets crowd noise on their telecasts. This definitely takes the energy out of telecasts.

TNT's pregame and halftime shows take on a much more light-hearted approach. Even though they disagree it doesn't come off as one belittling the other. If Stephen A. Smith has 45 seconds he's going to tell (yell at) you why whoever next to him is wrong, and not even explain why he's right. Seriously, why are these people so angry? I wish I had the answer......but it makes me angry too. The NBA on ESPN starts tonight, so loosen up those vocal chords so you can yell back.

ESPN's Official Press Release (See if you can disseminate that crap!)

Update: I forgot to link the above paragraph to Wikipedia. (NBA on ABC)