I had some time to watch a bit of my favorite sport on television last night--basketball. While I don't get the chance to do this often enough, I still decided to punish myself and view the halftime show from a journalistic perspective for this class. Chris Webber and Kenny Smith, two former players themselves, need some work. While Smith is entertaining and can be serious, he is egged on by Webber, who contributes nothing to the broadcast. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying at all, and he followed everything he said with a cackle of nervous laughter.
Where is Charles Barkley when you need him? He and Smith worked well together and mixed humor and analysis to keep the viewer entertained and informed. The answer is that Barkley had quite the issue with a DUI arrest, and is nearing the end of a suspension from TNT for doing so. Without him, the program suffered. Smith spent an entire segment trying to make a trick shot while Webber and the host, Ernie Johnson, talked over him. Sigh. Say what you want about Barkley, but I would have been interested in what he had to say and do, unlike Webber.
On the bright side, the game itself was entertaining and good, but if TNT wants me to watch the halftime show in the future, they need to hire a babysitter for Barkley so he isn't cut out of the show anymore.
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