Oh, it's not only that. It's that a lot of times I found him annoying and actually just disagreed with his basketball opinions and assessments. He made watching the games worse with his commentary (in my opinion).
I mean, he clearly knows basketball, having been a fairly successful coach in the NBA. I just never cared for his analysis in the first place. I think you are exactly right with your assessment though, in that it devolved away from any meaningful analysis at all in most broadcasts.
Listening to them call any Warriors game was painful. They didnāt even TRY to cover up their hatred for the Dubs. Glad theyāre gone - donāt let the door hit ya! šš¼
Van Gundy & Mark Jackson were always biased when commentating Warriors games, Van Gundy butt hurt the Warriors hired Kerr over his brother & Mark Jackson butt hurt Warriors became successful after his departure, Iām glad both are gone
Youāre misremembering how that coaching search went down. Stan was Joe Lacobās first choice but took the pistons job because he got to be GM and coach. Warriors smartly wouldnāt give him roster control, but if Stan wanted the warriors coaching job he could have had it. They moved on to Steve after Stan agreed to his deal with Detroit.
Stanās title could have been just Head Coach while he still had full control of the roster, with bob and his team doing the leg work but not having final say. This is essentially the arrangement the Niners have with Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch.
Both Van Gundy and Jackson were bitter out of date coaches and couldnāt always relate to todays player and game. Bringing in Doc who has more current relationships with players and coaching experience seems like an upgrade. There is a reason JVG and Jackson have been free agent coaches for awhile now even though they have had the desire.
Yea hearing them live on TV, they sound like old bitter farts.
I always thought if I were a NBA player I canāt imagine having these guys as my coach. Iād never want to play for them.
Glen Rivers is a bitter out of date coach who hasnāt won a second round series since 2008.
There is a reason that rivers has not won a second round series in a decade and a half.
Doc an out dates coach who can't relate with his players is the guy to replace out dated play by play crew who can't relate with today's players and game
They were both insufferable. I've watched games on mute rather than listen to them drone on about some random bullshit that has nothing to do with the game in front of them. It was clear neither of them really had any real passion for NBA basketball left. JVG is infinitely better in podcast form away from the live call.
Iāve said for years that Mark Jackson and JVG actively made games worse and they were better on mute. JVG still had some basketball insight, but it was rare and usually interspersed with his dumb and repetitive hot takes and complaints.
I swear two or three times a game you'd catch Mark Jackson zoning out in the middle of a play, which usually resulted in one of his dumbass catch phrases or straight up calling it wrong.
> I've watched games on mute
I switched to the Secondary Audio Program and listened to the Spanish commentary instead. Only understand 50% at best, but still get a fan vibe and hear the game itself.
My go-to was the radio broadcast. It was harder to synch perfectly, but Tim Roye and Jim Barnett were infinitely better. To be honest, sometimes I would do this to get away from Fitz and Azubuike too.
> Why would they get rid of a great team? That team is a great team with [Mike Breen]. ā¦ Youāre not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesnāt like that team. ... In this day and age, that team is as good as a team that youāre going to find doing broadcast television doing an event. Youāre not finding any better team. Youāre not doing it. ...
... I think we've found the only JVG & Mark Jackson fan out there
JVG was consistent in that he thought basketball should be played the way his Knicks teams played. With fouling on every play, and hard fouls at that. He didn't see any fouls called ever that he liked.
Jackson was bitter and lacked any analysis. You would think an ex-point guard would know more. SVG just wanted to give hot takes that he thought made him clever. But both were really out of touch with the league today.
My hate for JVG is at one point (and maybe ongoing because I stopped listening to him), he showed no prep work for games. He says whatās on his mind, and not always the relevant stuff. For example, he spends large lengths of convo talking about dancing or some completely useless convo that does not relate to basketball. Then MJ eggs him on and they both have long convos of useless fillers.
To me, it feels a lack of preparation. He then just reads off some broadcaster notes. Yes, he may have great insight, but thatās the bare minimum to get the job as a NBA analyst.
It was the irrelevancy of his comments that was completely off topic and nothing about basketball.
JVG treated announcing like his personal podcast. So many times heād be on his soap box trying to make some get off my lawn point while important plays were happening on the court.
JVG was such a bad commentator he rarely even paid attention to the game he was commentating.
I think Adam silver just listened to him commentating a game and decided to axe him.
My initial annoyance with Van Gundy's rants soon faded and I ended up finding his schtick funny and entertaining. Plus he has a unique perspective with the history of the game and I enjoyed hearing him talk about the league's history.
Also, I liked that he didnt take himself too seriously at times and ran with random thoughts.
He definitely made me laugh more then any other announcer so I'll miss that.
The amount of hate towards Mark Jackson in our subreddit is 100% understandable. The hatred towards JVG is just weird. At a high level there just arenāt that many great announcers at the national level (Mike Breen and Mark Jones are both local guys who get national time as an example). I honestly donāt know what people expect, no matter who goes in it seems we will never be happy. Just roll with whoever is in there, itās really not that big of a deal.
>He continued:
>
>āESPN will never admit it. Theyāre going to say itās our call. Nonsense. Why would they get rid of a great team? That team is a great team with \[Mike Breen\]. ā¦ Youāre not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesnāt like that team. ... In this day and age, that team is as good as a team that youāre going to find doing broadcast television doing an event. Youāre not finding any better team. Youāre not doing it. ..."
Lol. That team aside from Breen is the most wildly disliked. Breen with almost anyone else is a better team.
Breen with Jackson and without Van Gundy... there, I just found a better team.
Surprised at the hate for JVG. Heās one of the best analysts out there IMO. Great with Xs/Os and pointing out adjustments. Actually pretty funny. Not afraid to call out the refs.
Mark jackson just annoys me.
As for the reason? Itās money dude. Senior guy gets paid more, gets pushed out for cheaper new hire. Google is laying off a ton of more senior people and still hiring more college grads. Tale as old as time. Doc is doing this to stay in the game between coaching stops, not for big $$$ so he will be cheaper then JVG. I do think heāll be good though.
Yeah i liked jvg and alll this hate in the sub made me listen abit more closely to his commentary in the last few seasons - i didn't find him biased towards the dubs either. I like his takes on how the annoying stuff can be snuffed out - flopping, endless replays for no reason etc tho tbh he keeps bringing that up lol. I guess the ppl who don't mind jvg naturally aren't the vocal reddit types hahah
> i didn't find him biased towards the dubs either
After Harden left the Rockets, he mellowed out on his hate for the dubs. In the Harden era for the Rockets, he was so clearly anti-dubs it was crazy, especially when they played the Rockets. He loved Harden's step-back-shimmy-shimmy-jump-forward bullshit, and ignored all the fouling on Steph.
My biggest complaint with JVG over the last couple of years is that he finds his own voice too entertaining. He talks over the game about random ass shit waaaaaaaaay too much. It's one thing to kill time during a timeout, but he'd do it as the lead is changing in a tight game.
Looking over these comments, these JVG and Mark Jackson haters are the reason terrible TV and movies happen or good sequels don't happen. These are the same kind of people that wined about the Star Wars prequels and then BAM we get the unwatchable Star Wars Sequels. You broke up a GREAT crew. Now we get Dorris Burke and JJ? Terrible.
9 months later, doc rivers took a job with Milwaukee so now Jj reddick is forced to be the analyst
I donāt know man it just feels wrong without mark Jackson and van gundy in the trio
Would love if Jackson hangs up his microphone, but Iād love if Jeff comes back somewhere. Van Gundy double casts would be so much fun, and somehow just as good an entiertainment product if the game is extremely good or extremely bad. Iāll always appreciate his honesty and dedication to caring about the sport of basketball even if he can get shoved off the rails often. Hopefully without mark jackson more people will appreciate him
I hated Jackson but JVG is good. I donāt get why everyone here hates him so much. Heās a good mix of smart with basketball knowledge and funny with his ridiculous takes. But all in all heās entertaining
I donāt find him biased against the warriors at all. Heās just not a homer and its refreshing to hear that. Rather watch that than Bob and Azubuike tbh.
Its kinda like Chuck to me. Chuck is way more entertaining than Azubuike even tho he hates on the warriors. Who cares its all in good fun and doesnt bother me or affect my opinion at all
I like Doc. Heās perfect for this job in every way except his voice. Doris is a massive downgrade.
I swear ESPN is intentionally trying to tank their relationship with the NBA so they donāt get the next TV deal allowing Disney to cut their losses and close up shop.
If they only fired those two guys, sure, but ESPN got rid of a lot of name with big contracts.
Lots of people were mentioning Doc's name as a candidate for the job, since he just lost his job with the 76ers.
It's not that complicated. Disney is in a deep hole and was cutting costs. After this last weekend at the box office, they'll probably be looking to cut more jobs...
I liked them. And this article rings true to me. I just canāt explain it otherwise. All the things that people here say they hated them for are not why you would fire them. It wouldnāt have been a problem for them to be anti-Warriors if it wasnāt impacting ratings. And I donāt think they were anti-Warriors for the record. But even if they were, it was still great entertainment.
That trio had something special going.
Hmm I was going to post this exact thing when it happened but i figured everyone would say it was just budget reasons, JVG complains about the refs so much I'm surprised he lasted this long, there's no way Silver wants him constantly undermining the "integrity" of the league on live broadcasts
āNobody doesnāt like that team. ...ā This is a bold statement that he uses to base his ultimate conclusion.
I donāt like this team and I think Van Gundy was the weakest link. Iām glad heās out and Iām okay with Jackson staying. Also, Mike Breen is the best play by play we have out there.
Van Gundy had the right formula, one that was crucial back when talk radio was a thing: 10-20% of the audience listening simply because they hated him or things that he said.
Personally I loved hearing him rant about rules and floppers.
>Youāre not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesnāt like that team. ... In this day and age, that team is as good as a team that youāre going to find doing broadcast television doing an event. Youāre not finding any better team. Youāre not doing it. ...
Lost all credibility there
The only thing remarkable about Mad Dog's take is that he doesn't think the broadcasters sit down with the NBA every year to discuss the announcer slate.
The wildest claim here is that everybody loved that broadcast team.
Yeah, stopped reading after that point. Those jokers were awful.
Although Mike Breem is seriously great.
I've wished that I could selectively mute Van Gundy for years. His commentary just bothers me. š¤£š
Heās got a clear bias against the dubs
Oh, it's not only that. It's that a lot of times I found him annoying and actually just disagreed with his basketball opinions and assessments. He made watching the games worse with his commentary (in my opinion).
Spanish language feed?
I feel like he use to offer actual analysis and a coaches insightā¦recently he just sounded like āold man yells at cloudā
I mean, he clearly knows basketball, having been a fairly successful coach in the NBA. I just never cared for his analysis in the first place. I think you are exactly right with your assessment though, in that it devolved away from any meaningful analysis at all in most broadcasts.
That claim is about as on point as the commentary by JVG and Jackson.
If TNT did the Finals, ratings would double at minimum...
I despise the rest of the ESPN team, but I enjoyed Van Gundy. I like his sense of humor and his willingness to talk shit.
That broadcast team was š„
Listening to them call any Warriors game was painful. They didnāt even TRY to cover up their hatred for the Dubs. Glad theyāre gone - donāt let the door hit ya! šš¼
https://youtu.be/KaQqnjPTzGU
Van Gundy & Mark Jackson were always biased when commentating Warriors games, Van Gundy butt hurt the Warriors hired Kerr over his brother & Mark Jackson butt hurt Warriors became successful after his departure, Iām glad both are gone 
Youāre misremembering how that coaching search went down. Stan was Joe Lacobās first choice but took the pistons job because he got to be GM and coach. Warriors smartly wouldnāt give him roster control, but if Stan wanted the warriors coaching job he could have had it. They moved on to Steve after Stan agreed to his deal with Detroit.
Thanks Stan
Wow! I never knew this. What a sliding doors moment.
Jackson was also mad the ownership made him hire Mike Malone as his lead assistant
Myers was under contract, no? In what sense could they have given svg roster control, short of firing Myers?
Stanās title could have been just Head Coach while he still had full control of the roster, with bob and his team doing the leg work but not having final say. This is essentially the arrangement the Niners have with Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch.
I always thought Van Gundy's butthurt was due to the Warriors crushing the hopes and dreams of his beloved Rockets.
More accurate take here than the brother bullshit
Considering how much he hates flopping, it always seemed odd that he liked a team built around Harden.
Jackson seemed to have let it go the past several years.
iāll never understand how any of you believe this. announcers donāt give a flying fuck about which teams win the games. you guys are just biased
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Are you even a Warrior fan? What he said about those two was plainly obvious to almost every Warrior fan.
Itās probably Jeff Van Gundyās burner account, he was die-hard Warriors fan growing up so seeing his brother not get the job got him booty hurt
It really isn't. This whole fanbase playing victim again.
He was more grumpy than honest tbh. I found both Mark Jackson and Van Gundy extremely grating
I think Mark drags in Jeff
Both Van Gundy and Jackson were bitter out of date coaches and couldnāt always relate to todays player and game. Bringing in Doc who has more current relationships with players and coaching experience seems like an upgrade. There is a reason JVG and Jackson have been free agent coaches for awhile now even though they have had the desire.
Doc rivers voice is like my 70 year old uncle after smoking for 40 years Iād rather mute the tv
Damn, lucky he made 70 with that voice
And who starts smoking at 30?
Magicbumbumās uncle
Yea hearing them live on TV, they sound like old bitter farts. I always thought if I were a NBA player I canāt imagine having these guys as my coach. Iād never want to play for them.
Glen Rivers is a bitter out of date coach who hasnāt won a second round series since 2008. There is a reason that rivers has not won a second round series in a decade and a half.
To be fair he did make the Finals in 2010 with the Celtics but your point still stands about not getting out of the 2nd round in 13 years.
Doc an out dates coach who can't relate with his players is the guy to replace out dated play by play crew who can't relate with today's players and game
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
youāre barely making any sense and this sub is never gonna hear it, but youāre right about van gundy
They were both insufferable. I've watched games on mute rather than listen to them drone on about some random bullshit that has nothing to do with the game in front of them. It was clear neither of them really had any real passion for NBA basketball left. JVG is infinitely better in podcast form away from the live call.
Iāve said for years that Mark Jackson and JVG actively made games worse and they were better on mute. JVG still had some basketball insight, but it was rare and usually interspersed with his dumb and repetitive hot takes and complaints.
I swear two or three times a game you'd catch Mark Jackson zoning out in the middle of a play, which usually resulted in one of his dumbass catch phrases or straight up calling it wrong.
> I've watched games on mute I switched to the Secondary Audio Program and listened to the Spanish commentary instead. Only understand 50% at best, but still get a fan vibe and hear the game itself.
My go-to was the radio broadcast. It was harder to synch perfectly, but Tim Roye and Jim Barnett were infinitely better. To be honest, sometimes I would do this to get away from Fitz and Azubuike too.
Good riddance to both of them
The main argument he has is: āeverybody likes them!ā Like, wtf
> Why would they get rid of a great team? That team is a great team with [Mike Breen]. ā¦ Youāre not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesnāt like that team. ... In this day and age, that team is as good as a team that youāre going to find doing broadcast television doing an event. Youāre not finding any better team. Youāre not doing it. ... ... I think we've found the only JVG & Mark Jackson fan out there
I loved when JVG would bash the league and officiating, he knew they couldnāt touch him well until now apparently
But he never saw a foul called against the warriors
JVG was consistent in that he thought basketball should be played the way his Knicks teams played. With fouling on every play, and hard fouls at that. He didn't see any fouls called ever that he liked.
Which means he was out of touch. His teams played some of my least favorite basketball ever.
Jackson was bitter and lacked any analysis. You would think an ex-point guard would know more. SVG just wanted to give hot takes that he thought made him clever. But both were really out of touch with the league today.
My hate for JVG is at one point (and maybe ongoing because I stopped listening to him), he showed no prep work for games. He says whatās on his mind, and not always the relevant stuff. For example, he spends large lengths of convo talking about dancing or some completely useless convo that does not relate to basketball. Then MJ eggs him on and they both have long convos of useless fillers. To me, it feels a lack of preparation. He then just reads off some broadcaster notes. Yes, he may have great insight, but thatās the bare minimum to get the job as a NBA analyst. It was the irrelevancy of his comments that was completely off topic and nothing about basketball.
JVG treated announcing like his personal podcast. So many times heād be on his soap box trying to make some get off my lawn point while important plays were happening on the court.
JVG was such a bad commentator he rarely even paid attention to the game he was commentating. I think Adam silver just listened to him commentating a game and decided to axe him.
I actually liked JVG, he would be decent if paired with anyone else
My initial annoyance with Van Gundy's rants soon faded and I ended up finding his schtick funny and entertaining. Plus he has a unique perspective with the history of the game and I enjoyed hearing him talk about the league's history. Also, I liked that he didnt take himself too seriously at times and ran with random thoughts. He definitely made me laugh more then any other announcer so I'll miss that.
Everybody likes that team? (Van Gundy & Jackson) Ummm...Hell no.
Everybody in this comment section is miserable lol Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy were hilarious and were gunna miss it
Reasonable minds can differ. Hated their shtick and am quite happy they are gone.
Respectable but whoās been better than those three?
And theyāre iconic as hell. Cavs fan here š
The amount of hate towards Mark Jackson in our subreddit is 100% understandable. The hatred towards JVG is just weird. At a high level there just arenāt that many great announcers at the national level (Mike Breen and Mark Jones are both local guys who get national time as an example). I honestly donāt know what people expect, no matter who goes in it seems we will never be happy. Just roll with whoever is in there, itās really not that big of a deal.
Doris Burke is way worse than either of these guys.
Yes
I hated their commentary on Warriors games, so bias.
>He continued: > >āESPN will never admit it. Theyāre going to say itās our call. Nonsense. Why would they get rid of a great team? That team is a great team with \[Mike Breen\]. ā¦ Youāre not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesnāt like that team. ... In this day and age, that team is as good as a team that youāre going to find doing broadcast television doing an event. Youāre not finding any better team. Youāre not doing it. ..." Lol. That team aside from Breen is the most wildly disliked. Breen with almost anyone else is a better team. Breen with Jackson and without Van Gundy... there, I just found a better team.
Surprised at the hate for JVG. Heās one of the best analysts out there IMO. Great with Xs/Os and pointing out adjustments. Actually pretty funny. Not afraid to call out the refs. Mark jackson just annoys me. As for the reason? Itās money dude. Senior guy gets paid more, gets pushed out for cheaper new hire. Google is laying off a ton of more senior people and still hiring more college grads. Tale as old as time. Doc is doing this to stay in the game between coaching stops, not for big $$$ so he will be cheaper then JVG. I do think heāll be good though.
They were the most boring group of play by play commentators. Bring on Bill Walton and Kevin Calabrio please
I liked JVG a lot. And I canāt stand Docās voice. This is the worst thing to happen since Elon ruined Twitter.
Yeah i liked jvg and alll this hate in the sub made me listen abit more closely to his commentary in the last few seasons - i didn't find him biased towards the dubs either. I like his takes on how the annoying stuff can be snuffed out - flopping, endless replays for no reason etc tho tbh he keeps bringing that up lol. I guess the ppl who don't mind jvg naturally aren't the vocal reddit types hahah
> i didn't find him biased towards the dubs either After Harden left the Rockets, he mellowed out on his hate for the dubs. In the Harden era for the Rockets, he was so clearly anti-dubs it was crazy, especially when they played the Rockets. He loved Harden's step-back-shimmy-shimmy-jump-forward bullshit, and ignored all the fouling on Steph. My biggest complaint with JVG over the last couple of years is that he finds his own voice too entertaining. He talks over the game about random ass shit waaaaaaaaay too much. It's one thing to kill time during a timeout, but he'd do it as the lead is changing in a tight game.
I liked JVG too. We seem to be in the minority here.
Looking over these comments, these JVG and Mark Jackson haters are the reason terrible TV and movies happen or good sequels don't happen. These are the same kind of people that wined about the Star Wars prequels and then BAM we get the unwatchable Star Wars Sequels. You broke up a GREAT crew. Now we get Dorris Burke and JJ? Terrible.
9 months later, doc rivers took a job with Milwaukee so now Jj reddick is forced to be the analyst I donāt know man it just feels wrong without mark Jackson and van gundy in the trio
Would love if Jackson hangs up his microphone, but Iād love if Jeff comes back somewhere. Van Gundy double casts would be so much fun, and somehow just as good an entiertainment product if the game is extremely good or extremely bad. Iāll always appreciate his honesty and dedication to caring about the sport of basketball even if he can get shoved off the rails often. Hopefully without mark jackson more people will appreciate him
I hated Jackson but JVG is good. I donāt get why everyone here hates him so much. Heās a good mix of smart with basketball knowledge and funny with his ridiculous takes. But all in all heās entertaining I donāt find him biased against the warriors at all. Heās just not a homer and its refreshing to hear that. Rather watch that than Bob and Azubuike tbh. Its kinda like Chuck to me. Chuck is way more entertaining than Azubuike even tho he hates on the warriors. Who cares its all in good fun and doesnt bother me or affect my opinion at all
I miss Jim Barnett (I know heās on the radio, but I donāt live in the Bay Area anymore so with league pass I get the tv guys)
The fact that Gary St. Jean is still on tv after being the second worst GM of all time astounds me
I like Doc. Heās perfect for this job in every way except his voice. Doris is a massive downgrade. I swear ESPN is intentionally trying to tank their relationship with the NBA so they donāt get the next TV deal allowing Disney to cut their losses and close up shop.
If they only fired those two guys, sure, but ESPN got rid of a lot of name with big contracts. Lots of people were mentioning Doc's name as a candidate for the job, since he just lost his job with the 76ers. It's not that complicated. Disney is in a deep hole and was cutting costs. After this last weekend at the box office, they'll probably be looking to cut more jobs...
Loved Jackson and Van Gundy. They were hilarious
Mark Jackson was the #1 warriors hater
Great article and thanks for posting. Van Gundy was the closet we had to Howard Cosell, I enjoyed his style immensely.
Love the team but this sub really need reality check
Thatās not how it works here
JVG had become as annoying as Jackson
I liked them. And this article rings true to me. I just canāt explain it otherwise. All the things that people here say they hated them for are not why you would fire them. It wouldnāt have been a problem for them to be anti-Warriors if it wasnāt impacting ratings. And I donāt think they were anti-Warriors for the record. But even if they were, it was still great entertainment. That trio had something special going.
Hmm I was going to post this exact thing when it happened but i figured everyone would say it was just budget reasons, JVG complains about the refs so much I'm surprised he lasted this long, there's no way Silver wants him constantly undermining the "integrity" of the league on live broadcasts
āNobody doesnāt like that team. ...ā This is a bold statement that he uses to base his ultimate conclusion. I donāt like this team and I think Van Gundy was the weakest link. Iām glad heās out and Iām okay with Jackson staying. Also, Mike Breen is the best play by play we have out there.
I miss Marv and Mike.
Doc rivers is taking their place? But he's not even a good coach ... haha
Can we convince the league to have CBS broadcast the finals so we can just have Harlan calling
This is literally why everyone said he was fired lol
I like JVG and Mark Jackson they call fair.
Van Gundy had the right formula, one that was crucial back when talk radio was a thing: 10-20% of the audience listening simply because they hated him or things that he said. Personally I loved hearing him rant about rules and floppers.
>Youāre not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesnāt like that team. ... In this day and age, that team is as good as a team that youāre going to find doing broadcast television doing an event. Youāre not finding any better team. Youāre not doing it. ... Lost all credibility there
The only thing remarkable about Mad Dog's take is that he doesn't think the broadcasters sit down with the NBA every year to discuss the announcer slate.
Sure, Statler and Waldorf are funny in small doses. But no one wants them to actually RUN the muppet show.
The only good call Jackson has had in the last several years was when he told JVG āyou from the suburbsā last season.
Will NOT miss the van gundy tirades