What does Alvin Williams bring to the Raptors broadcasts?

[DutchCanuck]

Lifetime Raptors fan here listened to many different talents but I'm failing to see what Alvin brings to the table in terms of entertainment for the fan good or bad from an entertainment perspective. I understand he was a great Raptors guard but that has zero value added to the actual product on T.V

-Constant cliches
-Constantly hypes up any small thing a Raptor does and never criticizes anything bad
-Maybe 1 interesting story every 15-20 games unlike Jack or Vince or Sam or Leo
-No spur of the moment comments or random banter that makes the product more interesting (I know he's trying to stick to basketball but variety is the spice of the life)
-Generally makes me turn off the game sooner rather then later versus keeping it on the T.V because it was atleast be an entertaining listen versus 10,000 cliches and obvious Raptors Bias.

Maybe it's tougher because the team sucks but part of a good product is an interesting broadcast team.

Loyal raps Fan since my mighty mouse waffle fridge magnet just had to see if my opinion was shared with the rest of the viewers.

[Thaddy]

Diversity. He's a big time waffler though.

[Psubs]

He is just as bad as Tom Brady.

[DelAbbot]

Blue collar old school mentality

[DutchCanuck]

Diversity

We have Kayla, Kia, Sam, Vince. A population group that makes up 3 percent of the Canadian Population is already very well represented. If anything there should be more Asian and Indian Canadian representation and I'm a big fan of hiring the best talent regardless of ethnic background.

[TorontoBarneys]

He exists to reinforce the fact that we take care of our own. Someone who played for us can have a gig with us down the road, as a boon for playing with us.

When you're a frozen shithole in another country, you need to do -something- to entice players to play for you.

[Realkeeper]

It's quid pro quo: He gave the Raptors his knees; the Raptors gave him a broadcasting gig.

[LoveMyRaps]

I honestly don't mind his play-by-play.

Personally I'm not tuning into Raptors games because I want to be entertained by the commentators. That's the players jobs.

Every commentary team has a guy like Alvin, who's responsible for providing in-game analysis.


Matt and Jack on the other hand are just cracking jokes half the time but again, I don't mind it because I could care less about the commentary.

[Westside Gunn]

I haven't enjoyed a game broadcasting wise since the Swirsky days. I believe his last games were in 2008. So entertaining. This is no knock on Matt Devlin but Swirsk just brought a whole level of enthusiasm and excitement to the games.

As for Alvin I think his personality will develop as more time goes on. He's still relatively new and I think he's doing fine. This job is not easy and isn't for everyone. Its very difficult to be coherent and articulate on your feet without a script with no chance to correct yourself.

As a Raptor employee he will have to be a homer. The average fan needs to be engaged. They can't be too technical. They need to keep the audience engaged. Cliches go a long way amongst the average joes.The players prolly watch their footage for game prep and strategy.

[Indeed]

You just want to hear what you want to hear?
It is probably not meant for the analyst to provide personal or fans opinion. He is doing his job correctly, although, he has a lot of room to improve, learning how to explain technical details in a way people can understand easier. Maybe listen to other teams commentators on how they explain the game to fans.

[Zeno]

He needs to be more concise. He tends to ramble on and then sometimes even manages to contradict the original point he was making in his run on sentence. I want to say something nice so I’ll just say that he is way better at his job than Sherm Hamilton or Paul Jones.

[webeye]

For my money, John Saunders was the best. Then Chuck Swirsky, a steep drop, then Matt Devlin.

I just don’t care for any of the others we’ve ever had. But I’d take them all over what’s-their-names from the Knicks and Celtics.

[mdenny]

I think he does occasionally provide good technical insights. Naturally, often involving guard-play. He's just not a very good or comfortable speaker. Which is fine. It might annoy me if he did EVERY game but he's generally fine imo.

[PoundTown]

I honestly don't mind his play-by-play.

Personally I'm not tuning into Raptors games because I want to be entertained by the commentators. That's the players jobs.

Every commentary team has a guy like Alvin, who's responsible for providing in-game analysis.


Matt and Jack on the other hand are just cracking jokes half the time but again, I don't mind it because I could care less about the commentary.

You got the right attitude, I'm with you on this one. I prefer Jack, but Alvin has gotten a whole lot better since he started out and doesn't bother me listening to him at all. Like you, though, I tune in because of the game.

[Kingsway_fan]

Nothing. Raptors broadcast crew easily the worst in the NBA.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Blue collar old school mentality

Legend has it, Alvin can be seen eating a sandwich out of his lunchbox during halftime of raptors games.

[Kobe Anunoby]

Alvin is so awful. He’s so boring and robotic that I mute the board casts. I heard he’s a jerk in person too.Would like to see more charisma on the broad cast instead of a washed up bum. Would also take smitch over him any day. Big jack fan though.
If I could choose though I’d be bringing back chuck for the joy of basketball and the one liners.

[treerollins]

he’s not terrible but not particularly good either. just reinforcing the tsn superiority (better app, better ads, better broadcast team)

[pilkoids]

It's quid pro quo: He gave the Raptors his knees; the Raptors gave him a broadcasting gig.

If i remember correctly, he missed a lot of time towards the end of his career because of his knees and it was attributed to him playing on a lot of concrete surfaces in his youth.

[CPT]

I want to like him, but he's not very good.

I don't think he detracts too much from the broadcast, but he certainly doesn't add to it.

I'll also say, I never really warmed up to Devlin, but acknowledge that he's a technically competent broadcaster.