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cpfsf wrote:Not really too keen on overly giddy announcers. It's more of a gimmick than anything else. I don't necessarily want a boring guy for the sake of hiring a boring guy, but I'd prefer someone who can offer a lot of insight above anything else. IIRC, Ryan Gomes is still unemployed. Time for Kahn to give him a call.

I don't know enough about Benz to make a judgement, but my hope is that he isn't Shaq 2.0 when it comes basketball commentary.

cpfsf wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfJc72JeBZ8&feature=related[/youtube]

Not really too keen on overly giddy announcers. It's more of a gimmick than anything else. I don't necessarily want a boring guy for the sake of hiring a boring guy, but I'd prefer someone who can offer a lot of insight above anything else. IIRC, Ryan Gomes is still unemployed. Time for Kahn to give him a call.

I don't know enough about Benz to make a judgement, but my hope is that he isn't Shaq 2.0 when it comes basketball commentary.

WenningtonGuy wrote:Say what you will about Hanneman's awful puns, but compared to a lot of the other NBA team announcers, he was actually quite good. Miss him already.

Don't be surprised if the Timberwolves add Dave Benz from the San Francisco area to their broadcast team for the coming season.

FSN: What was it about this job with FSN and the Timberwolves that made it appealing to you?
BENZ: NBA play-by-play has always been what I've wanted to do, ever since that light bulb went off and I wanted to be a sportscaster. My dad's passion was baseball; my passion has always been basketball. I love baseball, don't get me wrong, but I've always loved basketball. It probably started with where I grew up, because I grew up in Syracuse. They have a great college basketball program. Watching all those guys go to the NBA, I continued watching them in the NBA.

I still love the college game, but you can't be any better than the NBA. I think they're the greatest athletes in the world, and the show that they put on on an almost nightly basis, it's unparalleled in the world of sports. It's just been the one thing that I've always, always dreamt of doing, doing NBA play-by-play. So when I found out there was an opening with the Timberwolves – obviously those jobs don't open very often for pretty good reasons – I pounced on it.

FSN: How do you prepare for a job like this one, when you move to a new team and will have to be talking about players and their games for several hours a night in a matter of weeks?
BENZ: Right now, I'm just trying to immerse myself in everything I can about the team. I'm trying to read all the news stories and watch as much video as I can. But really, I think the biggest thing is there's only so much you can learn from Google. I think the best thing is going out there and meeting the players and meeting the coaching staff and really meeting the fans. I'm really looking forward to connecting with the fans and hearing from them about what their great memories are. It's not only just current teams, because obviously there's a lot of new players, but they'll have memories about the franchise, the days of KG (Kevin Garnett) and (Sam) Cassell and (Latrell) Sprewell. I want to get their thoughts on what makes them so drawn to the franchise. I think that's going to be the best way for me to understand the history of the franchise and the passions.

As far as this year's crop of players and this year's coaches, getting to know them and getting to talk to them and getting to know what makes them tick, what are their stories – I want to (put) all that into the broadcasts every day.