Why is Billy Packer still employed?
April 2nd, 2007I’d prefer two hours of listening to my dog trying to yack up a hairball than to sit through a game listening to Billy Packer. The extent of his analysis — for which he’s paid gobs of money — is, “They’re really tired.”
In watching the Ohio State-Florida game tonight, that’s all I heard from Packer. “Oden’s really tired.” “Conley’s tired.” “Ohio State is really tired right now.” Blah, blah, blah.
To Packer, nobody ever simply gets beaten. Florida didn’t win because they were better than Ohio State. They won because they weren’t as tired as Ohio State.
Let me get this straight. These guys are 18-22 years old, in peak physical condition, and have played 40 minutes of basketball about 40 different times this year. They’re playing in the biggest game of their lives. And yet, they’re tired. What brilliant insight.
I’ll tell you who’s tired, Billy.
Me. Of you.
AMEN! Jim Nantz I like. Billy Packer needs to go. There are so many analysts who are superior to Packer. I have no clue why CBS does not show him the door.
Right - tired. I seemed like he wore that one out.
What did you think of the “high class” Florida kid’s press convergence? All I heard was something about getting wild in Gainesville.
I totally agree. It’s like he has a list of his three favorite explanations of what’s happening, all wrong, but he will still choose one. Ugh.
I didn’ watch the game last night (sorry), but your post reminds me of Digger Phelps. When Tulsa University started finding itself on the basketball map back in the early 80s, we had made it to the NIT, and got all the way to the finals at Madison Square Garden. I think we played Syracuse. Digger could not find one good thing to say about our beloved Golden Hurricane, even though we soundly defeated our opponent. If Digger had shown his face in Tulsa after that, they might have locked him up.
I still can’t stand him.
All night all I heard about was OSU. Even during the halftime show all they wanted to talk about was OSU even though UF was up by double digits. I will admit up front that I am a big UF fan, and a homer. That being said, as I watched lasts nights game I could not help but think that everyone, including the refs, wanted to see Oden score 100 and win the championship by himself. And Tim, I will give Packer a break this time. It was really hard for him to see the game with his head all the way… never mind.
Go Gators.
Paul, isn’t it funny how the announcers never seem to be on the side of *our* team? I feel that way every time I watch the Georgia-Florida game in the fall, except its all about Florida. And when a Georgia player does manage to do something good, its treated almost like an accident or fluke.
But I guess that comes with only winning a rivalry game once every seven or eight years since the late 1980’s …
Go Dawgs.
Did anyone else notice the way he said “Billy Dunavin” instead of “Donovan”? Almost irked me as much as Majerus’s “o-fence” instead of “offense”.
We should pair Billy Packer with Joe Morgan and let them cover frog wrestling in Borneo or somewhere like that.
I’m glad someone else noticed the way he said Dunavin … That bothered me the whole final four.
Did you know that Billy Packer has provided coverage for every final four and championship game since 1975? Packer is a sour of an old man who never admits he is wrong, see MVC rant last year, and never seems to think the coaches are doing the right thing…This is a man who defended Gerald Henderson after he gave the flying elbow to Tyler Hansborough…If you are not living in Billy’s world you are wrong and he is not afraid to tell you about it, I would take the blatently obvious quotes of John Madden or Joe Morgan any day.
While we are on the subject of mispronuncation - -
Rick Majerus –
http://youtube.com/watch?v=N7W3Lqd1b_A –
Dad and I watched the game last night and both commented on how the game has passed by Billy. Billy was so bad we actually found ourselves talking more about Billy’s mistakes than the game itself. Jim Nantz must have been going nuts trying to figure out which mistakes were worth correcting and which should just be overlooked.
I searched through the house for a radio so we could maybe mute the TV and listen to Westwood One ’s coverage instead of bear through Billy, but alas, the only radio I could find was my clock alarm radio that would have required moving my big dresser to unplug it, which would have woken up my wife, so we decided to suffer through Billy.
We were graciously spared the torture (of listening to Packer AND witnessing the horrible shooting of OSU) by falling asleep…
Amen! The other problem with Packer (and many other analysts such as Joe Thiesmann) is that he sounds like he’s omniscient!
Nathan,
When was that? You know a UGA player doing something “good.”
The Dunavin thing was driving me nuts! And someone once said that Billy Packer could take the joy out of sex.
That said, he does know how to break down the strategies of the game well. He was prescient in saying that Florida could work the high screen all night. They ended up freeing Green and Humphrey on those and they combined for 7-10 from 3 pointers.
I’ll still take Raftery, but I thought Packer did all right.
If you really wish Billy to be terminated, check out his homophobic remarks on the Charlie Rose show, Friday, 3/30. These are worthy of Tim Hardaway or John Rocker.
That’s a colossal reach, Sari. I suggest you check out the definition for “fag.”
But Tim, John Amaechi’s never heard that word used that way…and he’s British! (see here)
Seriously, Packer is 67 years old, Amaechi is 37. There’s 30 years of life experience that Amaechi doesn’t have. I’d be willing to bet we’ve all heard our parents or grandparents use a term that makes us cringe, just because it didn’t have the same connotation (or denotation, for that matter) when they were younger. I agree Tim, that’s a colossal reach.
Actually, I’ve always kind of liked Packer, and I like Joe Morgan, too. When I was a kid and actually liked NBA (I loved the 76ers in the early 80’s–Dr. J, Moses Malone, Mo Cheeks, oh yeah!) I liked Dick Stockton too. Joe Buck is the one I can barely stand to listen to and I’ve been a Cardinals fan since birth.
Normally, I’m able to tune out Billy Packer. This year, perhaps because I was rooting for Florida from the opening tip of the tournament, Packer really grated on my nerves during the Gators’ last two games.
First of all, he claimed that Joakim Noah was being “lackSadaisical” — mispronouncing the word AND giving unfair criticism to one of the most intense players on the floor. Then with the “Dunavin” thing … and I noticed that Jim Nance was countering with the proper pronunciation almost every time Packer said it wrong.
Finally, Packer could not hide his obvious adoration of Greg Oden — who, yes, played a very good game (his first and only really good game of the tournament, much of which he spent on the bench for several key minutes), but also had some glaring misses and didn’t impress me all that much at the defensive end. Then Packer had the nerve to say Oden would be the M.O.P. of the Final Four, despite playing on the losing team — never mind the fact that the honor could have easily gone to three or four of the Florida players! (I believe Corey Brewer was a great choice for the honor.)
Anyhoo, sorry for the extended rant, but I had to chime in.
As for the “fag out” comment: It’s all about context. Packer wasn’t using the word “fag” as any kind of homophobic slur; he apparently meant it as “tired” or “worn out.”
As in, “Ohio State lost the game because their players were fagged out.”
; )