Sports

It’s OK to incite, just not fight — according to announcers

Every time a scandalous brawl erupts on a football field or a basketball court, the TV analysts line up to make “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” then to add, “There’s no place for this in the game.”

But right up until the brink of such matters, the same analysts can be heard blessing the buildup as good for the game, part of a strategy, something fun and wonderful, something to stay tuned to in order to enjoy – even if they don’t believe it themselves.

It’s like all the football guys who joyously holler at the sight and sound of an excessively brutal hit, then, when one of the head-clashers stays down, motionless, somberly remind us that “This puts everything into perspective” — a perspective that lasts until the next game, at most.

In October, Notre Dame linebacker Carlo Calabrese was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. With the Irish down, 14-0, he laid out a USC receiver then stood over him gesturing wildly, savagely.

On NBC, analyst Mike Mayock knocked the call, claiming that Calabrese was guilty only of demonstrating “exuberance.” Nauseating.

In April, the Knicks’ Iman Shumpert was hit with a technical for taunting after a slam-dunk. Several games earlier, Shumpert had done the same — and was hit with a technical — in a close game the Knicks lost.

But on this day, Jeff Van Gundy, working for ABC/ESPN, claimed that Shumpert didn’t deserve the T because, ugh, “That’s basketball.”

It is? Since when? Since TV’s panderers decided to tell us that bad is good — until the brawls, as a matter of course, erupt. Then they make shame-shame.

Odd, this was the same Jeff Van Gundy who, as Knicks’ coach, was seen hanging on for dear life — clutching at ankles — at the bottom of a taunt-driven brawl in the 1998 playoffs. That’s basketball!

Thursday night on TNT, another case. With the Thunder up four in the second quarter, down 2-0 in games to the Spurs, the Thunder’s James Harden was hit with a coulda-gone-either-way offensive foul.

The Thunder next did their best to make matters worse — all with the approval of analyst Reggie Miller.

Kevin Durant flew off the bench and onto the court to protest. Technical foul. Harden then was seen on tape purposely bumping into an unsuspecting Stephen Jackson in what appeared to be an invitation to fight. Then Harden was seen in a bad-dude stare-down of Tiago Splitter, who walked away.

And Miller told a national TV audience that he liked what he saw — not the restraint of the Spurs, but the behavior of the Thunder!

“The Thunder starting to show some emotion,” said Miller, “something we hadn’t seen in Game 1 and 2.”

Harden’s post-whistle blind-side bump on Jackson? Miller: “And I like this emotion off the bench by Harden.”

Harden’s stare-down of Splitter? “I like it. These young guys needed to come out and get this crowd behind them.”

What? What! The crowd was delirious from the start. Their Thunder had the lead. So how did Durant’s technical — the Spurs made the free-throw — and Harden’s risk of a technical foul, if not an ejection, benefit the Thunder?

The Thunder, at that point in a playoff series, needed extra, artificial additives for motivation and stimulation?

For crying out loud, with everything going the home team’s way, Durant lost it and Harden seemed intent on starting a brawl. And on TNT, Reggie Miller endorsed every bit of it.

Will NBC ignore high interest in horse owner?

Now that we know that I’ll Have Another’s trainer Doug O’Neill has a rotten record for suspicious and illegal ingredients found in his horses, will NBC, in its Belmont prerace coverage on Saturday, address the colt’s owner’s dubious track record as a mortgage broker and financier?

According to Bloomberg News, J. Paul Reddam’s business methods have met with the disapproval of authorities in West Virginia and Maryland, which have accused him of usury. Bloomberg reported that Maryland has “a pending $5.7 million fine” against Reddam’s company, CashCall, as seen on the silks worn by Mario Gutierrez, I’ll Have Another’s jockey.

Bloomberg also reported that Reddam’s company specializes in small loans with annual interest rates as high as 184 percent.

CashCall once featured the late Gary Coleman in TV ads obviously aimed at the desperate and vulnerable. Coleman advertised CashCall’s $1,000-$5,000 “no-collateral-needed” loans. “No one else would even loan me money,” Coleman declared, “not even my relatives.”

Yeah, one of those companies.

* There is no one and nothing that ABC/ESPN won’t exploit for cross-promotion.

Thursday on ESPN, as a 10-year-old was eliminated from the National Spelling Bee after misspelling “grundriss” — of German origin, a comprehensive outline — the hosts found it highly noteworthy that the kid is a fan of ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” show.

Yep, he likes to unwind to it after a morning spent re-reading the dictionary — before heading off for school.

Lewin getting better

New Mets’ radiocaster Josh Lewin, after an awkward start, has meshed well with Howie Rose. They seem to enjoy each other’s company, swapping stories while keeping listeners’ “eyes” on the game. For the most part, a good two-man listen.

Yet, Lewin remains eager to make reach-too-far wisecracks, including a recent one about Andres Torres’ ADHD.

It’s unsurprising that his 10 years calling Texas Rangers games were marked by both popular appeal and one knock: He tried too hard, too often to be too clever.

* Bill Chase, Albany, N.Y., has a good question: “Can you tell me if a player [in any sport] has ever actually had the flu, or do they always just have ‘flu-like symptoms,’ which we’re always told they have?” That depends, Bill. Are we talking about X-rays or “precautionary X-rays”?

* When did total “hits” become a meaningful NHL statistic? How about “missed hits” or “hits avoided”? Do penalized hits count? How many “hits” after the opponent made a good pass to create a scoring opportunity? One can play a terrific positional defensive game yet deliver zero hits.

* To hear ex-Phillie, Penn-grad and underutilized ESPN analyst Doug Glanville talk baseball on ESPN Radio-NY is a pleasure. He’s thoughtful, intelligent and more eager to make a point than a splash.

* Ya know how you see teams like Butler in the NCAA basketball tournament and wonder how they ever lost games in their mid-major conferences? Same with the L.A. Kings throughout the playoffs. How did they ever finish mid-pack in the West?