Marcos Breton: With every game on TV, expect thrills and shills

#1
sacbee

Kings 2004 preview: Marcos Breton: With every game on TV, expect thrills and shills



By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, November 2, 2004


Being on sabbatical from column writing for the last six weeks due to paternity leave has proved one thing: Sports are best watched on TV with a comfortable chair and a functioning mute button on your remote control.



That way, you avoid the crowds, the price gouging inside stadiums everywhere and - thanks to the mute button - the insufferable monster that has become sports media.

We mean the endless pre-and postgame babble, the lame graphics and gimmicks, the shameless pandering to our base instincts and the vile pimping of questionable men with athletic skills.


For all this, we have one word: mute.

Which brings us to the oncoming Kings regular season, the first that will be entirely televised, thanks to the Kings' new regional television network.

This is a great development, particularly for the growing legions of Kings fans priced out of Arco Arena by the almost yearly gouging of Kings ticket prices.

Indeed, for many passionate Kings fans out there, TV is the only way to see the team.

That's because success in the win column has led to an increase in ticket prices that make Kings tickets among the most expensive in the NBA.

This is part of an evolution spawning a fan base united in loyalty to the purple haze but divided by economics. Yes, Arco Arena has come to resemble George W. Bush's joking description of his political base - the haves and the have-mores.

So Kings TV is democratic, its games are for everyone who has a TV - as long as you have the right cable package.

At press time, it was still unclear whether the myriad cable and satellite providers would all kneel before the lords of North Natomas and buy a piece of the action for their viewers.

Some viewers might get shut out, some might have to switch cable providers, while others are really mad about the whole thing.

If you're stuck in this trap, all we can say is, that's America.

This space will not moralize about the realities of capitalism. You want to watch the Kings? OK, you know what to do - either do it or find another way to spend your time and money.

You probably watch too much TV anyway, like me and the rest of the population.

The Kings and other NBA teams know this - that's why team-based TV networks are all the rage in the NBA.

That all Kings games will be televised is a good thing at homes across our region - except for one or two niggling issues we can all ponder when the Kings tip off the season in Dallas tonight.

To begin with, you can't help but wonder if our thirst for Kings games will prove as satisfying as an ice cold beer on a hot Sacramento day - or as nasty as those Arco Arena brews that stick in your throat because they cost so much.

You wonder if maybe this Kings network is a couple of years too late because this town and this team and the relationship

between the two has changed - and not in a good way.

The bloom is off the rose, the feel-good love affair has taken several jagged detours since reaching its zenith in that gripping Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002.

Meanwhile, the title window is shutting fast because Vlade Divac is gone, Peja Stojakovic wants out, Doug Christie is hobbling, Jimmy Jackson was too expensive, Bobby Jackson is praying to stay healthy, fan favorites Scot Pollard and Jon Barry are long gone - and because of the limitless goodwill directed at Chris Webber.

In other words, this ain't the Kings team Sacramento fell in love with.

What's it going to look like on television a couple of times a week - without fail - until April? Will it be must-see TV? A horror show? Or will we look back on this season and realize that the fall of the Kings was fully televised?

Hopefully not, because the fans in this town deserve better for their loyalty - loyalty that will undoubtedly be tested by a local version of the obnoxious shilling you see on ESPN and Fox during their marquee games. When that happens, you know what to do: mute.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
If that's the best column he could up with after six weeks I'm thinking maybe he should go back on sabbatical.

As an aside, has anybody figured out exactly waht it was that the Maloof brothers did to Breton? Did he walk in on them having a threesome with his wife or something? In his bitterness he actually reminds me a bit of the former totally unlamented Kings beat writer R.E. Graswich.
 
#3
Bricklayer said:
If that's the best column he could up with after six weeks I'm thinking maybe he should go back on sabbatical.

As an aside, has anybody figured out exactly waht it was that the Maloof brothers did to Breton? Did he walk in on them having a threesome with his wife or something? In his bitterness he actually reminds me a bit of the former totally unlamented Kings beat writer R.E. Graswich.
Breton does remind me of Graswich...You should hear them both on the radio. They are pretty similiar in that they are very jaded and burned out and need to find a different job. although, Graswich the whole pro sports world and Breton with mainly the evil empire that is the Maloofs and Kings.

Explains why Vioson isn't her hatchet Webber, Adelman hating self.....Breton's turn....