The Celtics Broadcaster

[SichtingLives]

Posting regularly on RealGm as a Celtic fan, we have to tolerate barrages of ridiculous anti-celtic garbage on a daily basis. It's only fair that those same people who are anything but objective about our team be exposed to that same level of bias in the opposite direction. To hear those people complain about it is both ironic and hypocritical.

That's why I had to laugh my *** off at that thread last night, it's like people don't even see the irony because they themselves are every bit as biased as Tommy is, only they don't know 1/100 as much about the game of basketball as he does. Oh well, tough cookies, hope it ruined their night.

Keeping it real now, I love Tommy, and Mike Gorman is absolutely one of the best announcers in the game today, but it does get a little old sometimes listening to Tommy wail about bad calls that aren't bad calls at all. Then again, that's the point where you have to just laugh at the homerism and not take it seriously. It's been my contention for years that it's not so much homerism as much as it is that Tommy just really, really hates the refs and it goes back longer than many of us have been alive. Tommy is so conditioned to thinking the refs are FOS and out to get him that it's all he can see anymore, but again this is part of the appeal.

[wigglestrue]

Chuck Swirsky was a GREAT raps broadcaster and of course he got a lot more excited when the Raps did well, as he should, but if there was a foul on the Raps, he would acknowledge it

Heinsohn acknowledges it too, just not as much. And sometimes only after seeing the replay.

[Fencer reregistered]

This is a recurring theme. Maybe the board should have a FAQ sticky, with much of the answers devoted to Tommy.

Here's the deal:
* Yes Tommy is biased.
* Being biased is not automatically a bad thing. (See Johnny Most, who made Tommy look like Chick Hearn.)
* Tommy's basketball resume speaks for itself. He's the only guy who could get into the hall of fame as a player, coach, OR broadcaster.
* Tommy knows as much about the game as anyone in the world. As a coach he took the smallest team in the league and won two titles in three years.
* If you pay attention to his discussion of the nuances of the game instead of what he's saying about the refs, you'll learn a lot.
* If you take everything he says about calls seriously, you've had a sense-of-humor-ectomy.
* Tommy is treasured in this region.

Finally: You don't like him? We don't care.

Please. Write a 10 Things About Tommy Heinsohn, and then let's sticky it for the first round of the playoffs every year.

You could add that Tommy rarely makes incorrect comments about particular calls. Rather, he just chooses to confine his criticism of bad calls to the bad calls that happen to go against the Celtics, rather than for them.

He IS stronger on nuances of the game that haven't changed since the 1970s than he is on more recent developments.

[U2larkin04]

When you remain as faithful to one organization for over 50 years as he did... he can come to the games dressed as a leprechaun and call the game in an irish accent for all I care... Tommy Heinsohn is probably more of a Celtic than anyone that's been involved in the organization.

[Fencer reregistered]

To repeat, Tommy is usually right about the bad calls.

His bias isn't in what he judges to be a good or bad call. Really. Rather, it's in that:

He screams about bad calls against the Celts.

He is very quiet in his acknowledgment when he recognizes from a replay that what he thought was a bad call was actually good. (By "very quiet" I mean "no librarian could object to his noise level".)

He rarely comments at all about bad calls that favor the Celts, unless it's in a broader context of criticizing the overall officiating.

[Kefa461]

Besides the C's winning last night.........my night was made and my day is being made basketball wise by Tommy pissing off all of the posters who were irked by his calling of the game. Nice one Tommy.....You get a Tommy Point.......

[Percules]

Yes, I enjoy his commentary. That's because we're rooting for the same team. However I must say that my favorite commentator is Hubie Brown. He really knows what he's talking about and is always objective in his analysis.

PS. Marc Jackson is awful with his usual "mama, there goes that man" phrase. Reggie Miller too.

[wigglestrue]

He really knows what he's talking about and is always objective in his analysis.

He sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but half the time it seems he's just using platitudes that don't apply to the player or team he's talking about. He is objective, though. And boring. Marc Jackson is terrible in every way. I like Reggie Miller. JVG knows more than Hubie, and he's entertaining.

[tombattor]

I can see how Tommy could get on you, if you're a fan of another team. However, as a Celtics fan, I LOVE HIM! The day he retires will be a sad sad day for me.

[Darth Celtic]

hubie brown is not objective when it comes to c's games. Listen real close, the guy actually cheers for the other team when they are doing it right and says what they need to do to win, never about what the celtics need to do to win. Marc jackson is probably worst "star" homer of all time fluffing them all during the game, slurp slurp, slurp.

JVG is probably the best national announcer i have heard.

[Celts17Pride]

I love Tommy! Tommy Heinsohn is the best!

[Gold Chain]

Celts are one of my least favourite teams of all time.

That said, I think it is awesome that you guys have an announcer that only cares about your team and actually has a real passion for the team he is calling.

Yes, it sucked to listen to Tommy as an outsider the other night, but if he was homering up my team in an elimination game, I'd be right fine with it.

Plus, I've been to Boston and bars during Red Sox games and it did help my understand the lunacy of the Boston sports fan. You guys are a strange, but passionate crew.

[Scalamental]

Petey, you remember when you trolled on here 3/4 through the regular season, saying how the raptors were about to sneak up on the celts? Now that your back, what happened?

[GreenPiece]

I think you guys are imagining things when it comes to Hubie. He verbally fellates Rondo and Perkins whenever I hear him.

[BlamePitino]

Tommy is usually correct....he's the only guy not afraid to call out the officials for their OBVIOUS bad calls....sometimes he gets carried away though....Perk did NOT try to elbow that guy in the head--he was trying to break free from the other player's grasp----but everyone only mentions Perk's elbow coming up.....grrrr.

Ok, but I'm not speaking from one specific example of one play. I've watched enough Celtics games with Tommy, and it's an absolute joke how biased he is.

I'm shocked at the responses so far saying that Tommy is usually correct and isn't afraid to call officials out. I guess you fans, with all due respect, are so biased that you actually agree??? with most of what Tommy says.

Later in the game(for example), I see Wade drive get hit twice(once in the head by Sheed), they call a foul. And a minute later Tommy's yapping about a guy like Wade drives they try to give him a foul even if he didn't get a foul. A couple minutes later, they call a moving screen on Big Baby(I think it was Big baby). They show the replay, it was CLEARLY a moving screen, I think to myself, ok Tommy will shutup now. NOOO!!!! He starts talking about how it was a horrible call!!!

I'm sorry C's fans, Tommy is ridiculous, and not someone that can be taken seriously at all. It's OK to cheer for your team, and want your team to win as a broadcaster. But when it affects your judgment to the point that Paul Pierce could probably punch someone out, knock them unconscious, and Tommy would be crying about a foul on Pierce, then something's wrong.

Hey, you know what else is ridiculous and an absolute joke? [deleted] like you who ask people what the deal is with something...then come right back and TELL people what the deal is.

DD: I don't think the poster has crossed the line of baiting/trollig, while this name calling clearly does. Please keep it in check.

Well, re-read the thread and think again?

[sully00]

Celts are one of my least favourite teams of all time.

That said, I think it is awesome that you guys have an announcer that only cares about your team and actually has a real passion for the team he is calling.

Yes, it sucked to listen to Tommy as an outsider the other night, but if he was homering up my team in an elimination game, I'd be right fine with it.

Plus, I've been to Boston and bars during Red Sox games and it did help my understand the lunacy of the Boston sports fan. You guys are a strange, but passionate crew.

Your getting more to what is up. The Boston Celtics, and you will not hear it explained this way often but this actually came from Heinsohn, in a way are like a street gang. Their greatness is only matched by their infamy. A 1950's version of the Oakland/LA Raiders and their fandom. Not only dominant but also the defiant, innovative, and totally unique in their sport. The NBA on all levels is full of vagabonds the Celtics and the city and region are one.

In Boston or Massachusetts as a whole Red Sox fans and Bruins fans are essentially defined by their hatred of their rival the Yankees or the Canadians and their greatness. The Celtics and their fans really don't have that rivalry we are hated by everyone.

What Tommy is doing is tradition and that is what is lost in translation. The Celtics are defined by Auerbach the greatest head chef and chief bottle washer of all time. He would hold every position in the company and do it at the same time. So Red would do radio and tv broadcasts and would berate officials and even leave the booth to fight and argue with officials on the court while Heinsohn was coaching the team. Johnny Most was more infamous as a radio broadcaster painting a picture that could only be seen with green tinted glasses.

No one else has a place in a franchise's history like Tommy, HOF player with a fistful of rings, 2 time Championship Head Coach, and essentially the only TV color commentator the team has ever had. He was a long time national tv broadcaster and a good one, and the other night he knew the broadcast was going national and it may well be the last one he ever does (and I mean that), and it was a little over the top, but it was the playoffs, the Celtics, and whoever replaces Tommy isn't going to be of that same cut of cloth, it isn't going to be life and death or a street gang to them, he only gets away with it because of his age and accomplishment. Understand he was the exact same way of all 82 games when we won 17 and 24 games. 60 some odd years of tradition winding down and perhaps coming to an end.

So for all of you who don't have the honor, for a game you got a chance to know what it is all about, to be a Celtic fan.

[irie]

I'm a life long Celtics fan although people on this forum referred to me as otherwise when I posted a similar thread to this...

I can't stand Tommy's bias. The replay is right in front of him and it's a clear foul yet he's still screaming about some ridiculousness.. who knows.. he's calmed down a lot he used to be worse when they Celtics were bad.

[Darth Celtic]

people site the baby offensive foul. ON replay u see him come up, set the screen, and roll backwards to the basket as he should, a heat player was behind him, at that pt he was no longer setting a screen, but moving backwards towards the hoop to get position in the paint. All a legal play. And he wasn't called for the offensive foul on the first screen that he ran forward and stopped to set, he was called for moving backwards towards the hole.

the refs seemed to feel he was doing it to open a lane for the offensive player, which is odd since he wasn't driving to the hoop. Basically the refs misunderstood and made a mistake. It wasn't a ref giving bias, star calls, keeping games close or having an agenda. Just a wrong call. Tommy was upset because that combined with some questionable calls that could be considered one of those first things upset him about the way the game was being callled.

The only one that was even close that he got mad at was when perk swung an elbow and missed, just brushing sideways on the guy and was called for a tech. Sure in tommy's day that was what u were supposed to do when a guy had u wrapped up. Today it's a tech if u swing and miss. That's the rules. Dumb, but that's the rules.

But...if they called the heat player for the lose ball foul holding on, fixed.

How about when chalmers squezzed his arm and armpit around kg's hand then ran with it yanking kg's arm with him, and KG being called for the foul? Maybe it was "bad call, didn't see it right", but maybe it was refs keeping game close, maybe getting a game 6, and more money for the league.

Is he a homer, yes, but he came from an era where men played the game not these peacocks strutting around showing there feathers and getting away with it getting every touch foul.

Did finley really foul wade when he blew by him for the layup? nope, he just got beat and watched him go by and got a foul for it. Another time in the game, same thing, 3 guys swung arms at the ball as he hopped and skipped between all 3 for a layup, and a foul again was called.

Man, the heat didn't even commit a foul in the first quarter. Isn't that...odd? considering the c's were leading in pts in the paint.

[Fencer reregistered]

I'm a life long Celtics fan although people on this forum referred to me as otherwise when I posted a similar thread to this...

I can't stand Tommy's bias. The replay is right in front of him and it's a clear foul yet he's still screaming about some ridiculousness.. who knows.. he's calmed down a lot he used to be worse when they Celtics were bad.

When Tommy REALLY is wrong, Mike calms him down quickly.

I repeat -- Tommy is usually correct in his criticism of particular calls. He's just homerriffic in which calls he chooses to comment on, and in the conclusions he draws about the overall pattern of officiating in any particular game.

[SeizeCoup]

I am happy to see the support. Sometimes there are those in the Celtics family who do not "get" Tommy, and it saddens me. He was, is, and always will be about the Celtics. If you don't love the old man then you don't love this basketball team from Boston.

p.s. JVG is a good announcer too. real talk.