Chip Shot: “These guys are good!”
February 27, 2021 at 3:07 a.m.
Chip Shot: “These guys are good!”
By Chip Davenport-
are good!”
“These guys are good!”
Sound familiar? It is a tag line for Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) commercials used since 1997. The ad replays a pro golfer’s highlight-worthy shot followed by the tag line, “These guys are good.”
Today, however, let’s borrow the PGA’s tag line and plop it into one of my favorite postgame panel shows among all sports, TNT’s “Inside The NBA.”
Thursday night’s show was worth the sleep deprivation because… THESE guys are good!
I wake up a little before midnight frequently Thursday nights to wait for the weekly televised late NBA game to end so I may watch cohesive and combatant banter among Ernie Johnson, the show’s anchor for 30 years, and former NBA player analysts Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles “Chuck” Barkley while they run though the evening’s game highlights from around “The Association.”
Last Thursday’s nugget (some foreshadowing there *wink*) worthy of lost sleep showcased the panel’s ability to break down a play without getting too technical, genuinely argue about the topic like three guys in a living room would handle it, but still teach the viewer a lesson learned from a bad basketball play.
The Denver Nuggets were down by two points, and after grabbing a rebound and heading out on a fast break in the game’s final seconds, Jamal Murray, a high scoring point guard I love to watch, and three of his fellow Nuggets get a four-on-one fast break.
All four players stop at the three-point line!
Murray found Michael Porter open, and he missed a three-point shot when there was time, and an airport runway’s width in space for a game-tyin layup. Nuggets lose by two.
Pass the hemlock!
Spoiler alert! I passed on the hemlock thanks to one of my flaws that frequently gives me life-affirming joy: schadenfreude! This German term connotes the joy one feels from someone else’s sadness or misfortune.
I feel even more joy when I see millionaires do stupid things, as four very good NBA players did in this case.
I truly think an ESPN panel, where journalists tend to fail in their attempts to entertain when they do make that choice, would have agreed the game-ending decision was poor, then moved on to the next game’s highlights.
However, the “Inside the NBA” quartet demonstrated why they deserve rights to the tag line, “These guys are good!”
They spent five wonderful minutes, 12:31 a.m. to 12:36 a.m. arguing why this play was a poor decision, and whether one, perhaps three, or maybe all four Denver Nuggets players were wrong. They all agreed the game-ending decision was poor, and analysts of lesser caliber would have agreed and moved on but argued about in what way it was a bad play.
Johnson even knew where to start: the unapologetically brutal frankness of Barkley.
I did not paraphrase his vernacular so you could hear Sir Charles as if you were there.
“You down two. You got a fast break. You got a four-on-one. And this is what you get? Are you kidding me? Dumber than rocks, America! You got a four-on-one, and you stop and shoot a three!”
Smith argued that as a point guard you keep pushing the ball in. He faulted Jamal Murray for stopping at the three-point line, citing all four of them were wrong because each player should continue toward the basket. This was his rejoinder to Shaq’s remark that he would have kept running to the basket instead of Porter’s choice to stop at the three-point line.
Shaq then shifted gears to give the shooter benefit of the doubt, suggesting Porter went for the win.
“We not,” Barkley said in his vernacular, “gonna celebrate dumbness ‘round here!”
If you haven’t seen this postgame panel show before, they’re on TNT every Thursday night during halftime and following an NBA televised doubleheader.
There are four weekly one-hour segments titled “The Inside Story” starting Thursday March 4th” celebrating the show’s 30th anniversary on TNT. It’s not “The Last Dance”, the best sports documentary ever, but it will familiarize you with the gang from its past to its very entertaining present.
To use another decades-old tag line from an Alka Seltzer commercial, “Tryyyyy it! You’ll liiiiiike it!”
are good!”
“These guys are good!”
Sound familiar? It is a tag line for Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) commercials used since 1997. The ad replays a pro golfer’s highlight-worthy shot followed by the tag line, “These guys are good.”
Today, however, let’s borrow the PGA’s tag line and plop it into one of my favorite postgame panel shows among all sports, TNT’s “Inside The NBA.”
Thursday night’s show was worth the sleep deprivation because… THESE guys are good!
I wake up a little before midnight frequently Thursday nights to wait for the weekly televised late NBA game to end so I may watch cohesive and combatant banter among Ernie Johnson, the show’s anchor for 30 years, and former NBA player analysts Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles “Chuck” Barkley while they run though the evening’s game highlights from around “The Association.”
Last Thursday’s nugget (some foreshadowing there *wink*) worthy of lost sleep showcased the panel’s ability to break down a play without getting too technical, genuinely argue about the topic like three guys in a living room would handle it, but still teach the viewer a lesson learned from a bad basketball play.
The Denver Nuggets were down by two points, and after grabbing a rebound and heading out on a fast break in the game’s final seconds, Jamal Murray, a high scoring point guard I love to watch, and three of his fellow Nuggets get a four-on-one fast break.
All four players stop at the three-point line!
Murray found Michael Porter open, and he missed a three-point shot when there was time, and an airport runway’s width in space for a game-tyin layup. Nuggets lose by two.
Pass the hemlock!
Spoiler alert! I passed on the hemlock thanks to one of my flaws that frequently gives me life-affirming joy: schadenfreude! This German term connotes the joy one feels from someone else’s sadness or misfortune.
I feel even more joy when I see millionaires do stupid things, as four very good NBA players did in this case.
I truly think an ESPN panel, where journalists tend to fail in their attempts to entertain when they do make that choice, would have agreed the game-ending decision was poor, then moved on to the next game’s highlights.
However, the “Inside the NBA” quartet demonstrated why they deserve rights to the tag line, “These guys are good!”
They spent five wonderful minutes, 12:31 a.m. to 12:36 a.m. arguing why this play was a poor decision, and whether one, perhaps three, or maybe all four Denver Nuggets players were wrong. They all agreed the game-ending decision was poor, and analysts of lesser caliber would have agreed and moved on but argued about in what way it was a bad play.
Johnson even knew where to start: the unapologetically brutal frankness of Barkley.
I did not paraphrase his vernacular so you could hear Sir Charles as if you were there.
“You down two. You got a fast break. You got a four-on-one. And this is what you get? Are you kidding me? Dumber than rocks, America! You got a four-on-one, and you stop and shoot a three!”
Smith argued that as a point guard you keep pushing the ball in. He faulted Jamal Murray for stopping at the three-point line, citing all four of them were wrong because each player should continue toward the basket. This was his rejoinder to Shaq’s remark that he would have kept running to the basket instead of Porter’s choice to stop at the three-point line.
Shaq then shifted gears to give the shooter benefit of the doubt, suggesting Porter went for the win.
“We not,” Barkley said in his vernacular, “gonna celebrate dumbness ‘round here!”
If you haven’t seen this postgame panel show before, they’re on TNT every Thursday night during halftime and following an NBA televised doubleheader.
There are four weekly one-hour segments titled “The Inside Story” starting Thursday March 4th” celebrating the show’s 30th anniversary on TNT. It’s not “The Last Dance”, the best sports documentary ever, but it will familiarize you with the gang from its past to its very entertaining present.
To use another decades-old tag line from an Alka Seltzer commercial, “Tryyyyy it! You’ll liiiiiike it!”
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