Kings hire Jim Gray for sideline reporting next season

Whether or not you'll miss Kayte(and for the most part I will, she really knew the basketball side of things and she was hot too), this is a good sign for the organization. A guy like Jim Gray doesn't come cheap, dude's a big name and that most likely means things are looking a little better financially for us.
 
BMiller52 said:
Whether or not you'll miss Kayte(and for the most part I will, she really knew the basketball side of things and she was hot too), this is a good sign for the organization. A guy like Jim Gray doesn't come cheap, dude's a big name and that most likely means things are looking a little better financially for us.
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That's true, but this reeks of Maloof meddling, a la the gold jerseys and 6th Man statues, that comes from good intentions but completely whiffs on what the fans really want/need.

I can just hear them go, "Hey, let's double our broadcast budget and get Jim Gray, the fans will really love a guy like that who's been on ABC and everything!" Of course, it seems like most fans here were just fine, if not very happy, with Katye, and that extra expense could have been better spent elsewhere (like maybe reducing ticket prices more?).
 
Gonna miss those lonnnng legs for sure. :o

It was a combo of her intelligence and... those legggs.

Haha ok, sorry. I'm done.
 
Maybe the addition of Jim Gray is meant to make the telecast less enjoyable so we all go to more games at the arena? I'll just be putting on my conspiracy tinfoil hat now. :p
 
Jim Gray is a joke. Did anyone watch him when he did the Raider's games with Napear? It was embarrassing! Gray is the least talented broadcaster I've ever seen. He may be a good interviewer, but who cares? Since when do I watch a Kings games for interviews? The Maloofs continue to make absurd decisions in areas they know nothing about!
 
gmcfly said:
Jim Gray is a joke. Did anyone watch him when he did the Raider's games with Napear? It was embarrassing! Gray is the least talented broadcaster I've ever seen. He may be a good interviewer, but who cares? Since when do I watch a Kings games for interviews? The Maloofs continue to make absurd decisions in areas they know nothing about!
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Can you really tell which one is which of these clowns:eek:
 

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I can't get too worked up. Its a whole 20 games. It's sideline reporting (and "special events"), which I don't care about. It's not like he's packing up and moving the Sacramento for a major position with the team.
 
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kennadog said:
I can't get too worked up. Its a whole 20 games. It's sideline reporting (and "special events", which I don't care about. It's not like he's packing up and moving the Sacramento for a major position with the team.
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I agree. I think this is getting blown out of proportion. We should be happy Kayte gets a chance to move on to bigger and better things, if everyone actually cares about her talent. If it's strictly about her looks, well yes, I would rather look at her than Grey.

It just seems that no matter what, some here will always complain.
 
Jim Gray is getting "gray" in a mostly young man media game. He's past 50 years of age and looking for consistent work at this point. No doubt his connections to Maloof's got him this little gig but also it may be the "in" he wants to secure a longer, bigger contract from the Kings organization.

I think many here see him for what he is, mediocre talent, big time Kobe fan (he's lavishly and repeatedly praised him before and after Colorado incident), another outsider with zero allegiance to OUR TEAM (like NY homer Napear), and just the fact that he takes out Kayte who had and was developing a huge Kings fan base as OUR analyst.
 
Even assuming she can get a national job, which is a huge unsubstantiated assumption, it’s not clear the present or future money is “moving onto better things.” More exposure – well maybe. That would depend on her role with either NCAA or WNBA coverage. More money. Probably not short term or long term. On the same contract, Katie was working 82 days for radio with 41 TV dates. There are only 30 of those jobs. She probably wasn’t making a ton because she was “entry level” but the pay can be very good. It’s a pretty nice track to be on.

Conversely, a WNBA studio job is about once or twice week for a much shorter season. Same is true for ladies NCAA. Thus from the outset, not as much money. I know for a fact that entry level ESPNews anchors often make less than their counterpart sports anchors in mid-sized markets. They can pay them less, because the person who takes that kind of job wants the national exposure. ESPNews is programming that makes money. Not the case with the WNBA and what a sport draws affects what they pay. The pay between John Miller on Sunday Night Baseball and whoever calls bowling is not equivalent. Thus, even assuming she lands the gig, she’s still going to have to scrap for some local work to supplement the WNBA gig. (Koz style.) This means paying for lots of travel to and place in glorius Bristol. Pay and lifestyle are a huge reason a lot of good talent says no to the worldwide least. At least right now, neither the pay or lifestyle will be as good. Long term, the NBA road probably pays better as well.


What about Kara? Well, Kara couldn’t do a full NBA season because she was still playing. So it’s certainly not apples to apples.
 
No no no, Kayte is a girl, don't you understand? Therefore she can only understand and analyze girl's basketball, and we are well rid of her before she points out that shotblocking is in fact useful or opines that Beno may not make the All Star game next year or something else silly like that.


P.S. As an aside, late in the year league pass had on a Kings broadcast and Kayte did a brief halftime thing with Tyreke as he was coming off the court ala the national pests, and at the end of it Tyreke just seemed to turn away and leave rather rudely. Not seeing all the local telecasts was that sort of thing common?
 
Brick with another great point. Taking the sideline work off the table, her NBA radio work makes a color job or at least better work a shot down the road. It will happen at some point, but it's not going to be a cross over from the WNBA or college. That woman will work her way up the NBA media chain like everyboyd else. The better gigs are real money. You can say "it's an NBA player in those jobs." But nothing lasts forever. For example, Katie on pre/post game TV here.

On the other hand, there is no money in WNBA or women's NCAA hoops studio and/or color gig.
 
Bricklayer said:
No no no, Kayte is a girl, don't you understand? Therefore she can only understand and analyze girl's basketball, and we are well rid of her before she points out that shotblocking is in fact useful or opines that Beno may not make the All Star game next year or something else silly like that.


P.S. As an aside, late in the year league pass had on a Kings broadcast and Kayte did a brief halftime thing with Tyreke as he was coming off the court ala the national pests, and at the end of it Tyreke just seemed to turn away and leave rather rudely. Not seeing all the local telecasts was that sort of thing common?
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I think Tyreke may have been the same with all reporters. Memory is fuzzy, but I don't remember him being much more than abrupt and to the point with anyone.

I will miss Kayte. I still miss Kara. BTW, Playing in the WNBA did not really keep Kara from participating in Kings broadcasts. Seasons don't coincide, unless the Kings go to the post season. However, Kara did pick up more national exposure covering the women's college playoffs and work with ESPN.
 
Kara and WBNA seasons did not overlap, but most of those women play overseas in the winter. Pretty sure that’s the reason she could occasionally show up in the spring (which was also here college hoops window.) If you look into that, I’m sure you’ll see several seasons where she was not capable of doing all 82.


To me, the biggest problem with dropping Katie isn’t TV … (about 3-5 min) it’s the fact that she’s probably gone from the radio post game and she’ll be probably replaced by Henry Turner, who will continue his attack on the English language. I don’t know English did to Henry, but his efforts to exact revenge by murdering it has gone on for years.
 
Larry David said:
To me, the biggest problem with dropping Katie isn’t TV … (about 3-5 min) it’s the fact that she’s probably gone from the radio post game and she’ll be probably replaced by Henry Turner, who will continue his attack on the English language. I don’t know English did to Henry, but his efforts to exact revenge by murdering it has gone on for years.
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Larry David has gained overness from this segment.
 
Larry David said:
To me, the biggest problem with dropping Katie isn’t TV … (about 3-5 min) it’s the fact that she’s probably gone from the radio post game and she’ll be probably replaced by Henry Turner, who will continue his attack on the English language. I don’t know English did to Henry, but his efforts to exact revenge by murdering it has gone on for years.
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I would agree with that. It's hard to even repect Turner's opinion when he has such a tough time putting together a sentence without screwing it up. Ex-athlete or not, learn how to speak english. Even Reggie Miller came around.
 
From the little I have seen the whole exercise is stupid. Neither Henry Turner nor Tank Thompson nor Fat Lever nor any of the other ex-jocks they have thrown up there is remotely qualified to analyze NBA games. Their big career qualification is "ex-jock". Let's ponder that for a moment. Is there as a general rule a dumber, less educated group of individuals than jocks? And hey, they may be great at being jocks, and certainly are better at it than I am or was. But that means roughly jack and squat when it comes to being smart enough and eloquent enough to not only analyze a game, but then to be able to express that analysis to a listening public. Its ridiculous. If those guys didn't have "played in the NBA 20 years ago" next to their resume they would be working in KMart. That goes for a large portion fo the national idiots like Jalen Rose et al as well. Mark Jackson gets omitted from that shot, because he is proof that while many idiots are jocks, not every jock is an idiot.

Kayte knows the game far better than any of those fools, as did Kara before her. Kayte in particualr has far more eloquence and charisma (of various sorts) than any of them. The biggest thing holding them back from immediate analytical stardom is being unfortunate enough to be born with ovaries and thus be ineligible for promotion up the old boy network. Well that and being more sophisticated than a significant percentage of their listening audience who wouldn't know good basketball analysis if it hit them on the head.
 
Section 101 said:
If it was Craig Sager I would be happy.
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He's already had his Kings shot. Sager (of the all-time worst toupee team) got his start in NBA as play-by-play announcer for Kansas City Kings. I will agree he's a better roving reporter and knows NBA better than Jim Gray.
 
anyone who thinks Kayte knows more about the NBA than Henry Turner, Fat Lever, or Tank Thompson is an idiot. Thompson is an assistant coach for Larry Brown. Fat was an all star and Turner is an avid follower of the NBA game. I like Kayte, but please, let's not make idiotic comments!
 
I believe you have missed the point. Knowledge of the NBA game is only a part of one’s ability to be an effective broadcaster. See, Tim Hardaway. Also, Isaiah Thomas and Magic Johnson (who were head coaches). Moreover, if being an “avid follower of the NBA game” is the standard, then I vote for Brick. If your only reply is “but he wasn’t an NBA player” the logical extension of your argument is that Jake Tsakalidis would be a better broadcaster than Brick. That can’t be what you are saying. Then perhaps, the point is a good broadcaster is both knowledgeable, a good communicator, and comfortable on TV. If only somebody had made that argument … oh …
 
gmcfly said:
anyone who thinks Kayte knows more about the NBA than Henry Turner, Fat Lever, or Tank Thompson is an idiot. Thompson is an assistant coach for Larry Brown. Fat was an all star and Turner is an avid follower of the NBA game. I like Kayte, but please, let's not make idiotic comments!
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I rarely make idiotic comments. Just ask me. :p And to be clear in case you misunderstood the argument, Kayte absolutely knows more basketball than these dufuses, and can certianly express that knowledge in a way none of the three stooges has a prayer of doing. Now more NBA depends on what is meant by that. NBA as basketball? Oh yeah. NBA as a culture, a profession? No, probably not. But then again that is a very minor at best area for an analyst to cover.

And I think people the most in awe of a jock talking basketball are precisely the people who know the least about the sport. Being good at bouncing a ball is not equal to having the brains to analyze it. You could put any one of those dunces on this site right now, you could give them extra coaching from Jalen Rose or Charles Barkley, and unless they have been seriously holding out on the world I flipping guarantee you I could trounce them at any number of tests of basketball knowledge (not all mind you, Tank would probably have a better feel for footwork inthe post than I do etc.).. As could a number of us. And we don't even have the advantage of being former professional ballers like Kayte does. The jocks areas of special/restricted knowledge? Behind the scenes stuff. Where they go out to eat, what they do on the plane, exercise routines, whatever. They would know their own teammates games from back in the day/coaches' styles etc.. The rest is just basketball. And basketball ain't that hard.

As an aside how many games of NBA basketball do you think Pete Carril played? You thin when he showed up in the NBA that any of these dips knew more basketball than he did? How many NBA games did Sam Presti play in? You think any of the dips under discussion here has a better basketball mind than he does? Knowing basketball has very little to do wiht your skill bouncing a ball, and nothing at all to do with your reproductive organs. Its got quite a lot to do with the grey matter upstairs, an often quite neglected area of the body by many (but not all) jocks.
 
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The funniest one of all time is when Jim went up to Webbers former head coach thinking it was his father. Wish there was a video of that. Oh and who could ever forget the infamous phone call from Allen Iverson at the trade deadline? Jim said that iversons name showed up on his cell phone, then claimed that Iverson told him how excited he was to be joining Kevin Garnett and the Timberwolves. Minutes later, i believe it was at halftime, Jim comes out and admits that it was 'an Imposter' and he had been bamboozled' .

That was the last time i saw Jim Grey on the air, and one can only hope he keeps the laughs coming.
 
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