Shaq Congratulated Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups On Turning Around The Detroit Pistons

Mannnnnnn, coverage of the NBA used to be so much better in the 90s! Nowadays you have guys who don't care about the quality of what people are watching and instead just fire off takes based on box scores or what they think will get the most engagement. I miss the good ol' days where broadcasters put in real work and actually watched the games! Matt Goukas and Peter Vecsey must be shaking their heads at the state of the NBA (media). Ahmad Rashad would never!!!

You see what I did there? I acted like all the old NBA players that spend almost all their time ripping today's game despite the league being filled with superfreaks that would've caused peoples' heads to explode if they played during the rock fight game during the late 90s and the 2000s. I have nothing but respect for Shaq's greatness and the rings he constantly reminds everybody he won. But if he is going to talk about teams, can he at least watch them or know who the head coach is?

Maybe I'm just a fossil who remembers the glory days of the 90s that these guys always wax poetic about, but I am pretty much done with all the awful NBA coverage we get shoved down our throats. I don't need to hear Stephen A's manufactured takes to try to get people to care about ESPN before a game that tips off 20 minutes after its scheduled to or Reggie Miller talking about Kodak moments when digital cameras aren't even a thing for normal people anymore. Give me Ernie, Kenny, and Chuck doing what they do because they are legitimately entertaining and then give me people who actually watch the games and care about the NBA.

I'm not looking for a bunch of all ball knowing nerds that reference stats with a bunch of letters in it. Just give me people who actually follow the league like the Zach Lowes of the world along with people like Jeff Teague who played and are entertaining but also still watch the games over people who are too busy advertising every brand under the sun instead of following the players and the games.

Also as a Knicks fan that does follow the rest of the NBA, albeit much less than I used to as a young'n, I have to admit that I am kinda scared of the Pistons because they are a scrappy team that won their last two matchups against us, Cade Cunningham has blossomed into an All-NBA player, and Beef Stew is a legitimate crazy person that will definitely try to injure half the Knicks roster. Ironically the way Thibs outcoached Bickerstaff in the Cavs series two years ago is one of the things I am counting on being in the Knicks' favor along with playoff experience. But if the Pistons get Chauncey and his wealth of postseason experience on the bench in April, all bets are off.