Since Patrick Beverley is not available to provide in-game smack talk for every-game of the NBA 2K Players Tournament, I decided to offer up 5 cool ways to dramatically improve the viewing experience for the public.
1) Get Charles Barkley, Shaq, and The Rest of The TNT Team Out of Early Retirement
I think there is defiantly time for a short 15-minute pregame, halftime and post-game shows. Watching Charles Barkley, Shaq and Kenny “The Jet” Smith attempt to comment on video games would be priceless. Plus it would give the rest of America much needed practice in trying to decode Shaq’s mumbling humor. It took me years to figure out what Shaq was saying and I hate to fall out of practice because of the coronavirus pandemic.
2) MTV “Cribs” Style Home Preview
During the pregame show, I would like to see an MTV Cribs style tour of each player’s gamer cave and other parts of their homes. Who doesn’t want to see how Kevin Durant’s, DeMarcus Cousins and other NBA players live? Don’t you want to know if Patrick Beverley really has a Red Kia and a Rolls Royce hanging out in the same garage?
3) Use Live Broadcasters
I recommend Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller who are both certainly available to call games. Trust me Kevin Harlan can make anything sound exciting. I bet he can even turn a trip to a grocery store into an Emmy Award-winning play-by-play performance – you can just tell that Marsha is clearly an MVP caliber shopper. Just watch as she enters the frozen food section, she carefully stalks her prey and comes out the other end in just under 28 seconds. Not only is Marsha a fast shopper, but she is also an agile as one of those high-wire performers from Cirque du Soleil.
4) Sideline Reporter – Everyone Loves Doris
Doris Burke who recently recovered from the coronavirus would be a perfect virtual sideline reporter. During timeouts, Burke could do streaming videos with players and coaches. Watching Doris interview Gregg Popovich or LeBron James about Patrick Beverley’s video game skills would certainly deliver a memorable viewing experience.
5) Limit Smack Talk Between Players
Look I love the smack talk between players when it is actually smack talk. But I heard way too much “how’s it going,” followed by the unwitty response of “good man.” The solution is simple – overlay live broadcasters and drop-in player smack talk before and after timeouts.
The Bottom-Line
I do love the concept of players-playing-players in an NBA 2K Tournament, and trust me I was happy to see something live that resembles sports during the strange days of social distancing. However, I do think the NBA and it’s broadcast partners could get together quickly with 2K Sports, and really turn this player’s tournament concept into a must-watch broadcast event for sports fans around the globe.
Turns out the NBA can learn a lot from watching how iRacing works. By the way that’s a statement, I thought I would never make. The NBA can learn from iRacing? For example, on March 29th, NASCAR held an iRacing Series from Texas Motor Speedway which had nearly 1.4 million viewers watching on Fox/FS1. The way iRacing incorporates drivers with broadcasters makes it almost seem like a real race.
In my opinion, all the NBA needs to do is treat these virtual games as real broadcasts. I bet their ratings would go through the roof. Seriously, if we can get Charles Barkley and Shaq off their couches and commenting about Patrick Beverley’s in-game video smack talk – well that would be a win for all of us, even if we can’t understand what Shaq is saying.
