Is Bill Walton the worst Sports Commentator ever? Poll!

[zinfamous]

Watching the UCLA-Oregon game right now. I mean, what the holy shit--is ESPN trolling the sports-watching people of the world, or what?

His never-vague UCLA bias aside, making this a terrible call for this game, and his long history in the NBA and those great battles between himself and Snapper, here are some choice comments from tonight:

"These guys won the genetic lottery! Who are you, scrawny little ref, to blow that whistle? Let them play!"

Referring to the dude that founded Nike: "This is the most important person in the history of all sports!"

"Are they ever going to blow the whistle when [favored UCLA player] is near the basket?!??!?"
"They will blow the whistle when there's a foul, Bill."

"Pritchard, who they basically blamed for the Georgetown loss, was benched the next game!"
"They didn't blame anyone for a loss, Bill--they rotated in a new starter."

(This is the first half ONLY)

LoL, they always pair Bill with someone that just will not tolerate his shit.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Worse than Joe Buck? That would take some doing.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

It would be fun to put Bill Walton, Joe Buck, and John Madden in a room and see who could out suck who.

 

[lxskllr]

Everything surrounding sports is banal. Shit's simplistic. A game can be summed up in less than a minute, but they're paid to make noise for hours. It's like writing a doctoral thesis on a dick and jane book. You're stretching making it a paragraph long. Everything after that is bullshit.

 

[lupi]

Other than the odd playoff game, about only time I'd watch an NBA game was because of Walton.

 

[vi edit]

I dunno...Dick Vitale is pretty horribad and just grates my soul when he announces. And Marc Jackson.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

It would be fun to put Bill Walton, Joe Buck, and John Madden in a room and see who could out suck who.

IDK. I'd replace Madden with Vitale and Marc Jackson as Vi Edit said above. Madden spewed stupid s**t out of his mouth, but I was always entertained with him. Walton, Buck, Vitale and Jackson though, my goodness.

 

[Thebobo]

Watching the UCLA-Oregon game right now. I mean, what the holy shit--is ESPN trolling the sports-watching people of the world, or what?

His never-vague UCLA bias aside, making this a terrible call for this game, and his long history in the NBA and those great battles between himself and Snapper, here are some choice comments from tonight:

"These guys won the genetic lottery! Who are you, scrawny little ref, to blow that whistle? Let them play!"

Referring to the dude that founded Nike: "This is the most important person in the history of all sports!"

"Are they ever going to blow the whistle when [favored UCLA player] is near the basket?!??!?"
"They will blow the whistle when there's a foul, Bill."

"Pritchard, who they basically blamed for the Georgetown loss, was benched the next game!"
"They didn't blame anyone for a loss, Bill--they rotated in a new starter."

(This is the first half ONLY)

LoL, they always pair Bill with someone that just will not tolerate his shit.

He is probably stoned after all he's a huge Dead Head

 

[smitbret]

IDK. I'd replace Madden with Vitale and Marc Jackson as Vi Edit said above. Madden spewed stupid s**t out of his mouth, but I was always entertained with him. Walton, Buck, Vitale and Jackson though, my goodness.

Madden was entertaining the first.... maybe second time he did a game. After that, it is the same s**t out of his mouth over and over again. He's the Chris Farley of sports announcers with the same three jokes (we get it, you are fat and like food). Bill Walton should stick to beach volleyball and nothing else. Joe Buck is at least knowledgeable and adds something to the broadcast. Vitale used to be good until he discovered that he could just be the cute, crazy old man on the show and stop preparing.

 

[Homerboy]

Walton and Phil Sims are easily the worst two. People bitch about Joe Buck all the time, but he is LIGHT YEARS ahead of Sims when calling football. Sims is CONSTANTLY wrong and CONSISTENTLY makes no sense.

Honorable Mention: Chris Berman of ESPN. The man never finishes a sentence.

 

[ManyBeers]

no Bill(mushmouth) Russell was.

 

[dainthomas]

I fail to see how anyone could be worse than Collinsworth or Aikman. As soon as I see either of their stupid faces I'll turn on the radio broadcast.

 

[Drako]

No. No he is not.

 

[NutBucket]

Joe Buck still takes the cake. I thought Walton's generic lottery comment was actually rather amusing.

 

[woodman1999]

Phil Sims and Dan Fouts have to be in consideration.

 

[Zanovar]

this was a shitty post nvm

 

[Blackjack200]

Bad announcers should be measured in fractions of a Joe Morgan. No announcer should be able to achieve 1 Joe Morgan, it's like a theoretical limit, with somewhere around .088 JM being a maximum Joe Morgan that any living announcer has attained.

 

[KeithTalent]

Joe Buck is the worst with Phil Sims a close second. Boourns to both of them.

KT

 

[Balt]

Bill Walton sounds bad, but then I never have to listen to him call anything.

Phil Simms, however, is freaking terrible and inescapable. He calls 1-2 premiere NFL games a week (when CBS has a TNF game, e.g.), and is always in the booth when CBS has the Super Bowl. Ugh.

 

[Gibsons]

Bill Walton sounds bad, but then I never have to listen to him call anything.

Phil Simms, however, is freaking terrible and inescapable. He calls 1-2 premiere NFL games a week (when CBS has a TNF game, e.g.), and is always in the booth when CBS has the Super Bowl. Ugh.

We talked about this. And when we talked about it, we talked about talking about it.

 

[zinfamous]

Some of these comments are spot-on, some are outright perplexing.

John Madden is a lovable fool--how can you not like that guy?
Joe Buck, never bothered me, but I get the hate.
Really, Dan Fouts and Aikmen? Fouts is AWESOME because he's the only announcer that I am aware of with any sense of intentional humor. I hate the Cowboys and those Aikman years are a special source of agony, but I think he is the current top of disembodied voices when it comes to NFL broadcasts. I think you guys just hate him because he sits next to Joe Buck. I actually like Collinsworth more an more--he's sort of the perpetually-drunk stand-in for Pat Sumerall.

Agree with Phil Simms. What a maroon.

Bill Walton is not only a hack behind the mic, he's a lifelong no-talent assclown when it comes to his supposed profession. The bulk of his career defined by injury, his only real claim to fame was being posterized by the infinitely more talented David Thompson in 1974:

Before that game last night (yes, I agree the stupid Deadhead was probably stoned--and I say this as a deadhead and one of many that has long disowned this sonofabitch from the club), Bill proclaims that "THIS IS THE GREATEST GAME THAT I HAVE EVER BEEN A PART OF IN MY LIFE!"

Really, Bill? the 13th game in a season between #2 and #21 in a bullshit conference that will fade into obscurity and relevance well before tournament season 3 months from now? Pleaseeeeee. Oh, and what about those undefeated seasons and national championships you were a part of? None of those were significant? Weird, you'd never think it hearing that fuckclown talk about his "singular history!" at the greatest whatever where he went to school. I forget where that was....

Lol--the idiot spent the end of that game fuming over the student body rushing the court in the final 0.8 seconds after that awesome 3-ball that killed his beloved UCLA team and demanded that Oregon pay! The guy refused to understand that the rule tied to "ball in play" and even after it was over, he called the whole spectacle of students on the court "shameful"

This game last night was the first I had heard from Bill in like, a decade--as I had assumed he had long been shitcanned by the NBA because of his idiocy. But it looks like ESPN likes to bring him out for the occasional troll and, quite possibly, only for UCLA games where he can set his engines to Full Blow. I guess that shock, and the beer, is what fueled this thread.

 

[KeithTalent]

Michaels and Collinsworth are the only two I really listen to, otherwise I mute the broadcast (unless I am watching RedZone).

KT

 

[Blackjack200]

0.9 Joe Morgans would require the announcer to ramble incoherently about the Jews controlling the media

Michaels and Collinsworth are the only two I really listen to, otherwise I mute the broadcast (unless I am watching RedZone).

I really wish they would provide an audio channel that is just the ambient sound and the field mikes.

 

[momeNt]

Worse than Joe Buck? That would take some doing.

Joe Buck will go down as probably the best and most famous sports announcer in history. His calls of the Cubs world series run was perfect. Knowing when to speak and knowing when to let the moment speak for itself is truly an art, and I think that maybe only he and Vin Scully have perfected it.

 

[NoTine42]

0.9 Joe Morgans would require the announcer to ramble incoherently about the Jews controlling the media


I really wish they would provide an audio channel that is just the ambient sound and the field mikes.

I've heard of people turning down the center channel and turning up the surrounds to kind of get that effect.

It's one thing if an announcer is an enthusiastic homer. But Walton is an insufferable elitist homer, insulting the fans of the other team as much as possible. Like "Eugene Oregon with its 150k population wouldn't even Make the map in California."