Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🗣️ Pablo Torre is threatening a lawsuit in his continued reporting into Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick if the University of North Carolina doesn’t respond to his FOIA requests.

🏌️With some LIV Golf contracts expiring soon, the tour reportedly won’t dish out massive signing bonuses to keep its original stars on board. Can the PGA Tour wait out LIV and welcome back players to avoid a merger?

🏀 The viral encounter between Brian Windhorst and individuals in New York after the Knicks beat the Celtics could have gone a lot worse and been way more serious.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

The NBA on ESPN is off the pace

There has been a considerable historical gap between the way NBA fans hold ESPN’s coverage of the sport versus TNT. But as the NBA on TNT says goodbye, it seems like ESPN is still struggling to find its true identity before starting a new contract cycle next year.

Let’s start with the studio where ESPN has waved the white flag and is bringing in Inside the NBA in a licensing deal for its top studio show next year. Little has changed with ESPN’s studio coverage this year, as it still lags far behind TNT. That’s partly due to the personalities where Kenny, Chuck, and Shaq run laps around Stephen A. Smith, Bob Myers, and Kendrick Perkins. But it’s also due to the production where ESPN lobs as many commercials as they ca,n and the halftime show is as disjointed as the last two minutes of a close game.

But throughout the years, ESPN’s lead trio of Mike Breen, Mark Jackson, and Jeff Van Gundy was always a strength. Breen is a legend, JVG was one of the best, and even if Jackson wasn’t your favorite analyst, the threesome had remarkable chemistry and energy together.

This year, ESPN is on their third choice lead trio in the last year with Mike Breen and Doris Burke joined by Richard Jefferson. Jefferson replaced JJ Redick who replaced Doc Rivers. But compared to the years with Breen, Jackson, and Van Gundy, the lack of chemistry this year is startling and beginning to be noticed.

It’s not like the booth is actively bad by any means. But something is definitely not clicking (see the awkward conversation around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being a free-throw merchant). And if it feels like the ESPN broadcast team was thrown together at the last minute, that’s because it was!

However, go even further, and it’s hard to say exactly where ESPN outshines TNT when it comes to NBA coverage. From the announcers to the studio to the graphics to the replays to the music, TNT seems to be the favored choice, creating an overwhelming consensus. And let’s not even get into ESPN’s daily coverage, where every day is a new GOAT debate, and the network is experimenting with the Morris twins to anchor their studio analysis during the conference finals.

ESPN is in its 23rd consecutive year of broadcasting the NBA Finals this season. They should have this figured out by now! But instead of moving forward, it seems like the NBA on ESPN is moving backward. With all of their experience and all of their resources, it’s just mesmerizing that ESPN isn’t better at this.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

An AHL announcer was hit with a chair by a fan while calling a playoff game. Amazingly, he kept working right through it and even got in some trash talk.

Perhaps Charles Barkley is correct that the “face of the NBA” mantle is something that should be claimed by a superstar rather than awarded by ESPN.

How much longer is it until we can give Lane Kiffin and Paul Finebaum their own permanent show together?

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

Channing Crowder apologized to Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick for comments he made about Belichick’s interview on The Pivot. However, Ryan Clark also pulled back the curtain, revealing some fascinating insights into what happened behind the scenes with both Hudson and Belichick, which may lead to even more questions.

🏄 _{CHANNEL SURFING} 🌊 

🏌️ The PGA Tour has listened to fans who have asked for more golf shots on telecasts, and ratings have responded positively. Who would have thunk it! [Sports Business Journal]

🏀 Is the NBA entering a new era of parity? It seems like the league is intentionally trying to follow the NFL model to raise interest… just in time for the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the next five titles. [New York Times]

🐝 In what may be the most discouraging news of the week, not even the Spelling Bee is immune from being a victim of the culture wars. [The Guardian]

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, LeBron, Steph...they all were family men. They all were married with kids.” - Kendrick Perkins with one of the wildest, and most factually questionable, takes on the “Face of the NBA” debate.

“We just came off a trade deadline that I think was the craziest of all-time. I think this offseason might be the most craziest ever.” - Shams Charania predicted a wild NBA offseason on The Pat McAfee Show.

"It should not be Michelle Beadle's place to affect millions and millions of dollars for a man I don't know." - Michelle Beadle has a unique reason for giving up her NBA awards votes.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Apocalypse Soon?

College football seems to be hanging on by a thread.

Whether it’s the ongoing debate around figuring out NIL, the stop-start White House commission, or the never-ending musical chairs of conference realignment, it feels like we are one or two straws away from finally breaking the camel’s back.

And that could come in the form of upcoming changes to the College Football Playoff. The Big Ten proposal to give both themselves and the SEC four automatic bids is nonsensical. It would completely dilute the regular season, eliminate the need for marquee non-conference games, and reward mediocrity as long as you’re in the right conference. But it would consolidate the Power 2’s positions at the top of the sport.

As you listen to public comments from the powers that be, it becomes increasingly apparent that it’s the Big Ten and SEC versus the rest of the world. And now that congressmen are threatening investigations regarding collusion between the Power 2, we’re approaching an impending crisis for the sport.

If the conferences can’t come to an agreement, or the balance of power is tipped too much in favor of one side or the other, the entire thing could fall apart. And any failed CFP negotiations around expansion or auto bids may be the impetus needed for the Big Ten and SEC to break away and stage their own playoff, which is the ultimate nuclear scenario.

At this point, though, those conferences hold all the cards and all the TV dollars. And the only thing keeping everything together is their altruistic desire for the good of the sport. How much longer can they hold out against the money and power they continue to amass? Unfortunately, it might not be long.