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With the NBA Playoffs underway, television channels and the public are plagued by one first-round streak in particular: the Portland Trail Blazers vs. the Los Angeles Lakers, with Damian Lillard the most prominent player since the reboot of the NBA, against LeBron James, the best basketball player of this generation.
The match, which starts tonight on TNT, will naturally be broadcast during prime time. But if the showdown is a boon to ratings, there’s a good chance it could be a pain in the neck for networks as well – at least for those who handle the audio work for them.
In the absence of crowd noise, networks have had to rely much more on production tactics to ensure that foul language does not slip through the cracks of the shows. This consisted of reducing the volume of the microphones in the field and around the rim, or completely muting the audio for three seconds at a time. People responsible for producing clear sound during TV shows are likely to practice this week: The Blazers have one of the best in the NBA. swearing in the field to Carmelo Anthony.
An analysis of the Blazers’ four TNT broadcasts since the reboot shows just how much more pressure Anthony and his teammates put on TV producers to scramble to find the dump button. In these competitions, the ones Portland had to win to bolster its chances of reaching the playoffs, there were at least 57 instances in which the audio is dropped, partially or completely, presumably to cover foul language.
While it’s almost impossible to find out who exactly is cursing since the sound is usually muted, we can still make some inferences. TNT’s audio dropped once every three minutes – or 16 times every 48 minutes – when Anthony was in the field, versus once every five minutes (9.6 times every 48 minutes) when Anthony was on. apart. Perhaps most tellingly, when Anthony was in the field, he was directly involved in almost 28% of the rooms where the audio was dropped.
None of this would come as a surprise to Portland, who quickly got used to Anthony’s colorful language – especially when he searches for boards and wants his teammates to empty so he can grab them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbm3cPAhAXI
When Blazers coach Terry Stotts was asked about Anthony’s vocal style on the glass and the extra goalie work he creates for the networks, he responded by asking, “Are you talking about FOH? an acronym that means get lost. The coach said he didn’t see Anthony’s vocal nature – or his fiery element – as so unusual, saying Hall of Fame member Gary Payton he was coaching as an assistant in Seattle , was also very talkative.
We don’t mean to suggest that Anthony and the Blazers necessarily have the grossest mouths. In fact, there is reason to believe that at least some of the swearing in Portland games has actually come from opponents who find themselves breathless. trying to defend Lillard, whose firing range was found to be essentially unlimited. (In at least three instances, TNT audio dropped after a Lillard jumper made.)
Making apple-to-apple comparisons to get a sense of where the Blazers stand relative to the rest of the league is complicated for a number of reasons. For starters, TNT is apparently much more liberal with its mute than ESPN. (And because the Blazers were chasing the last playoff spot in the West, they were shown on national shows much more often than most other teams in the bubble.) Another challenge: some games – like the Mavs-Clippers match on August 6, which featured 14 full mutes with the sound dropping completely for a few seconds at a time, featured a much louder sound on the court, making it easier to tell when the network was going down momentarily sound to cover something up.
Still, in a sample of four games on TNT that didn’t include Portland, we found that audio was dropped a little less often – 47 times in total, or about 12 times every 48 minutes – than during Blazers games. .
Regardless of where Portland might rank as a club in the on-pitch swearing, there isn’t much doubt about Anthony’s reputation. “He’s leading the NBA in ‘I got it,'” TNT’s Ian Eagle said after Anthony screamed during a rebound, and his voice carried into one of the microphones attached to the back panel.
For his part, Anthony – who redeemed himself in Portland after a sharp exit from Houston, including hitting a number of clutch triplets late since the restart – said his boarding of bad words was mostly a way of getting out of hand. hoist.
“For a long time these guys who were bouncing at a high level did it with a style, or type of fashion, that they were loud with, and they were in command with,” said Anthony. “So that’s what I do, I’m just trying to have fun and let people know I’ve got it.”
If Anthony is active on the glass tonight and in this first round of playoffs, don’t be surprised if TNT is just as active using the dump button. Based on what we’ve seen and heard so far since the NBA restarted, that would be normal for the course.
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