Keith Olbermann, having been air-dropped back to ESPN after obliterating the Bristol Bridge he once crossed, Friday shook himself off, calling for a change-up. Instead of his usual pitch — about himself — he selected the Knicks.
To illustrate how long it has been since the Knicks have been worth anyone’s time and money, Olbermann narrated clips from a 1986 Bulls-Knicks game.
When Michael Jordan was seen slamming over Chris McNealy, who did his best to stop Jordan or draw an offensive foul, Olbermann cracked, “See ya, Chris McNealy,” then, with slow, sarcastic emphasis, said, “whoever you used to be — because after this, you weren’t, anymore.”
Wham! He slapped Chris McNealy as a nothing. Tough guy, that Olbermann. Cutting edge, too.
But on closer inspection, this was just a cheap, gratuitous, bully-boy kick; a smug, un-clever wise-guy put-down — the kind that now passes as studio-slick sportscasting, especially as popularized by ESPN, and, in Olbermann’s case, high-brow commentary.
Had Olbermann shown the wisdom he believes he fills every room he enters, he’d have saved it. McNealy, after all, spent three seasons in the NBA, the highest stop in pursuit of basketball achievement, where few in such pursuit ever spend three minutes.
McNealy, 6-foot-7 from San Jose State and the 38th pick in the 1983 draft, played his three NBA years for the Knicks. He started 22 of his 108 games, played 1,864 NBA minutes, scored 466 points. With 160 offensive rebounds, he played hard — and, unlike Olbermann, played well with others.
He then made his living starring for teams in Italy and Spain. He gave them their money’s worth.
This summer he served as a mentor to internationals at a tryout event in Vegas, and has been a global scout for the Warriors and Pelicans and a conduit for U.S. players looking for gigs in Europe.
And Friday, Olbermann mocked him on national TV, as a nothing — both as a matter of sports and Olbermann’s sense of sport. Perhaps McNealy’s son, Chris, who plays for UC Irvine, was watching when Olbermann declared his father a nothing. Or maybe the kid’s friends told him.
Unlike Olbermann, however, there is no evidence the elder McNealy mistreated co-workers or arrived at so many of his workplaces with such a hideously inflated sense of self-entitlement employers eventually deemed him insufferable.
Doc Emrick takes shot at NBA sked
Sure seemed as if Doc Emrick, of all souls, took a shot at the NBA on Wednesday during NBCSN’s Penguins-Rangers: “For over 40 years, NHL teams have not played on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day.”
What brought that up? Well, the NBA, Christmas Day, will play five games, all televised by ESPN or ESPN/ABC.
It seems as if the NHL regards Christmas as an all- stay-home, family holiday. The NBA regards it as a stay-home day that should be exploited for TV ratings and ad revenue.
Meanwhile, like the NFL, which now plays three networks’ money worth of games on Thanksgiving, the NBA forces thousands of low-wage, per-diem arena and game-specific workers — not to mention 10 teams — from their homes on Christmas Day.
The Knicks, as again seen Saturday in an eight-point home loss to a last-place team, the Grizzlies — the Rangers lost at home to the last-place Islanders, the night before — are a pro forma Jimmy Dolan team: Overpaid, mismanaged, disorganized.
Also standard is there’s little hope the next Knicks and/or Rangers “fix” under Dolan will be any more effective than the previous dozens. As “five-year plans” go, next season starts the fifth.
As Eastchester’s Gregg Hartnett emails: “Billy Joel is the only Garden franchise who can play.”
Not so, fast Gregg. He might suddenly forget — or pull a hamstring.
Rutgers, the football and basketball teams loosely affiliated with a state university by the same name, continues to trip over its own head trip. Jersey’s Star-Ledger reports that for its Pinstripe Bowl vs. Notre Dame, RU sold over 14,000 tickets — from its allotment of 10,444.
Giants DB Will Hill arrested? Again?! What about all those “I’m a changed man” stories?
Beltran going Hall in with sixth team
Somewhere, a grandfather speaks to his grandsons: “Well, Phoenix, Harley, and Karson, there was a time when the best players played for only one, maybe two teams.”
Carlos Beltran, likely Hall of Famer, as per urine test results, is now the standard among candidates: Despite stardom through which he’s approaching $200 million in career salary, the Yankees are his sixth team.
Sunday’s Browns-Jets game opened with a video of Santonio Holmes doing a me-bit after catching a pass. Had anyone there paid attention to what was going on with the Jets?
No excuses, short of a blackout or sabotage, for CBS to be unable to tell the whole story of the roughing-the-quarterback call against Jet Sheldon Richardson — not on a third-and-likely-pass from the 4. Browns, that series, had seven straight goal-to-go plays — the first from the 8, the rest from the 4 or closer — and scored no points.
Many thanks to ESPN’s director for making Saturday’s tight Davidson-North Carolina game tough to watch. Why cut from a clear view of late free throws to an obstructed view, leaving us to guess what’s happening?
Doc Emrick, on the fly and as easy as pie during Pens-Rangers, said forward Harry Zolnierczyk is “the guy whose name in scrabble would bring tons of points.” Only if proper names are allowed, Doc!
Fox’s Tony Siragusa, during Giants-Lions, recalled pocketing cash, as a kid, Christmas caroling. Really? Perhaps he was paid to stop.
NBC fools no one. Its pregame, packed with 21-year-old video designed to sell Wednesday’s Pens-Rangers “rivalry” as a stay-tuned-for-blood! was aimed at fools, an insult to those who know better and apparently met with the NHL’s approval.
No-shame ESPN’s Saturday a.m. SportsCenter began with video of a high school kid slam-dunking and a come-on to hear where ESPN experts rank him.
Hey, Ian Eagle! Don’t go for that faux-hip gibberish! Friday during YES’s Nets-Sixers: “Nets have numbers if they hurry, here — three-on-two!” Nets have numbers? Why not just, “Three-on-two”? or “Fast break”? Or, given that it’s TV, why say anything?
California reader David Distefano writes that until Jon Gruden, Mike Mayock and a few others, a “bubble screen” was what you saw when you watched Lawrence Welk.