The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

I’m done.

I’m finished with them.

I’m distrusting the process.

I am OFFICIALLY off the 76ers’ bandwagon!

I’ve tried…for YEARS…to believe in the “new way” the Philadelphia 76ers were trying to build a dynasty.

I understood that they had to be bad…HISTORICALLY BAD…for multiple seasons in order to get a series of top draft picks and have sustained success.

I defended their tanking each season–when they brought in the true dregs of the league (or sometimes, the developmental league)…putting together the worst of the worst, year after year…and if they started to win and certain players played well, then they were traded away for even worse players and/or duds with expiring contracts.

I looked the other way when all these dreadful seasons resulted in top draft picks, many of whom the Sixers either traded away outright or badly misjudged, making it painful to watch these “top players” underperform, then  get shipped out of town for well-below market value for these once-prized possessions.

I even tried to justify the fact that, after fielding some of the worst teams even to don a professional jersey, that the 76ers “rewarded” die-hard season ticket holders’ undying loyalty by RAISING ticket prices once the team started to turn the corner.

But this was supposed to be THE year.

The year when all that dreadful basketball was supposed to pay off in a team contending for a championship.  The team was “all-in” and, over the last few months, traded away a good chunk of their potential stars to mix with their existing talent (and I’m using that term begrudgingly) to supposedly reach new heights.

But all I saw was boring basketball … lethargy … horrible shooting … guys who looked liked they wanted to be elsewhere and, at best, incredibly inconsistent basketball.

And that was just Sunday’s game!

I love watching basketball.  I’ve loved it for years. But this 76ers team is not even close to being fun to watch.

This past winter, I tried to watch a Sixers game here and there and tried to convince myself that the players’ low-excitement level was tempered during the regular season because those games don’t mean as much as the playoff games do.

I attended the pre-season media event in which smug players walked around, nearly reciting the national media praise that was said about them with an arrogance that many players had not yet deserved to possess (they didn’t win anything last year, did they?)

I’ve listened to these high-priced prima donnas complain about their grueling travel conditions (they all travel first class on their own chartered plane), overloaded playing schedule (they “work”—at most—four nights a week for two hours at a time) and other excuses they’ve used over the last few weeks that belie the term “professional” basketball players.

And don’t take just my word for it.  Tom Moore, one of the most well-respected basketball writers around, was on our “SportsTalk” show before the playoffs even started.  He said he thought—even with all the top-level players brought in—the 76ers had the LEAST chance to win a championship of any of the four major Philadelphia sports teams…and given how bad the Flyers looked this past season, that’s no ringing endorsement of “the Process!”

I give credit to Jimmy Butler—a player who has been called out more than once on Philadelphia’s sports radio stations and by beat reporters this season for not hustling—for calling out his teammates after their horrendous play in Monday’s game four loss to the Raptors.

Butler was quoted as saying that some of his teammates are “just there to have a good time” and saying that certain players “need to play with aggressiveness.“ (Compare the team’s highest salaried players with the low statistical numbers from Monday’s loss—it’s not hard to figure out who he’s talking about).

Joel Embiid (who likes to “have fun” quite a bit if you follow him on social media) did have an excuse for his poor play Sunday…he had a head cold.

A HEAD COLD??????

Clearly Embiid does not know his NBA basketball history, when some of the greatest pro basketball moments came from players who were playing well-below 100% health.

I don’t “keep up with the Kardashians” so I’m not sure if Ben Simmons is still dating one of them, which was another excuse for his poor play earlier this year.  But for a kid who whined enough last year about not being taken seriously as one of the games’ top point guards, it would be nice if he finally learned how to shoot a basketball….something a TRUE point guard can do in their sleep.

I could go on talking about how bad this team has looked in two of its four second-round playoff games over the last week, but I’m not going to go there.  I’m done.

Even if the Sixers do find a way to win this series and advance (something they clearly should well be on their way to doing already), I’ve had it with following this overrated bunch of wanna-be superstars.

If they want to get respect, play with some guts!

The losing…the whining…the lack of effort.  They’re not worth my time anymore—win or lose.  I’ll go follow teams that actually try to win EACH and EVERY night and not just when the mood suits them.

Count me “processed out.”

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

The RCN Sports Staff has been enjoying the high school spring sports action thus far!

Through the season’s first month we have covered every sport at least once (not always easily this time of year if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate) and we’ve seen some very impressive performances from a number of student athletes from within the RCN coverage area.

• It’s likely that the Lehigh Valley will be well-represented in the PIAA track-and-field over the next few years. We’ve interviewed a number of underclassmen who already have posted some outstanding times/distances in their young high school careers and we should be seeing lots of goal at this summer’s championships.
• Speaking of young players, two of the hottest baseball teams in the Colonial League — Notre Dame and Palisades — are winning with key contributions from freshmen and sophomores. What’s more impressive than their on the field efforts is that when we’ve spoken with them for “SportsTalk,” they’ve always been very complimentary of their coaches and the seniors on a roster.  Talent is always great to have, but the more experienced teams usually find a way to win … and if these teams can continue to blend those qualities with a high baseball IQ, we should be seeing these teams quite a bit in the post-season.
• The girls softball season has been intriguing, with a number of teams looking great one moment, only to struggle for a stretch against squads you wouldn’t expect them to lose to, then bounce back with another big victory. Northampton, with a new coaching staff in place, has continued to be right at the top of my colleague Keith Groller’s “Morning Call” softball rankings all season long, and we’ll be interviewing them for next Thursday’s show.
• Another package coming up this Thursday…Emmaus and Southern Lehigh high school’s girls and boys lacrosse programs came together this past Saturday as part of a charity event to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Our “SportsTalk” cameras were on-hand to cover that event, and we will have more details on both the game as well as the pre-game fundraising activities.

If you missed our “RCN SportsTalk” features so far, you can see them through RCN On-Demand.

Plus, there’s a few weeks left of the scholastic spring sports season, so count on a few more local sports packages coming up in May for both our Pennsylvania and Washington DC markets!

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A few weeks back we had a listing of some of the recent nominations to the last sports season’s “All Star list” and just recently received one additional set of awards — the completed list for the Colonial League’s top wrestlers which we hope you will check out and acknowledge….

Wrestling All-League 2019

Thanks again to our local coaches, athletic directors and administrators to sending the student-athletes’ names to our attention.

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Last but not least, this week’s “SportsTalk” program will also feature an interview with Heisman Trophy winner/Former Denver Broncos’ starting Quarterback Tim Tebow.  In addition to funding a national charity organization and authoring seven books, Tebow stars on the reality/game show “Million Dollar Mile,” which was record this winter and is now airing on CBS.

Tebow is attempting to reach the Major Leagues and is currently one level away from his goal of playing in the Major Leagues—currently playing for the New York Mets’ Triple-A Affiliate.  Tune in to hear Tim talk about his attempt to reach the “Bigs,”  what it feels like to be currently playing on a roster with a number for former MLB players on it, and several other issues.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

It sometimes amazes me, with all the outlets for information that are out there, that there could also be so much MIS-information about…well, just about anything, nowadays.

Politics, weather, history…if you look enough places, you can pretty much find different versions of “facts” on many topics.

During this past “sports broadcast year” on RCN-TV, I became aware that this curious trend of misconceptions had made its way around to affecting me.

For example, within a few minutes two different people came up to me before a basketball game this past winter and had two completely opposing views on my broadcast career.  One person was kind enough to talk about the recent history of a particular school but did so because he believed the RCN Sports Department was “new to broadcasting in the area” (if you include previous owners, we’ve been covering local sports for over 40 years).

A couple minutes later, another sports fan came up to me and exclaimed that I specifically had “been around forever” (I’d like to think that I am somewhere in between “new” and “forever.”)

Granted, the Lehigh Valley viewing area is changing more than ever before with new people coming in and other people relocating and so forth, but I thought it might be a good time to set the record straight on a few things –at least about myself.

So if you think you know me…or if you want the truth, take this short quiz and see how well you do!

TRUE/FALSE:   I have been around television “forever”.

FALSE

I started working in radio and for local newspapers while I was in high school in the Lehigh Valley before moving to work in Philadelphia and New York for different radio stations.  My jobs including covering the Phillies (including one World Series), Eagles (one NFC Championship game) and other pro and collegiate sports teams for Sportsradio WIP in Philly, which was the top rated sports radio station in the country when I was there.  I migrated into more TV work before moving back to the Lehigh Valley to continue my career at RCN. 

While I have been here a few years now and have had the good fortune of meeting and becoming friends with a great group of people — some of them legends who have been around much longer than I…I would hardly would consider me as being around “forever”.

 
TRUE/FALSE: I am a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan

FALSE

This has come up a few times within the last year because our “SportsTalk” show co-host Keith Groller somehow has fallen under the delusion the I live/breathe/eat Eagles football—which anyone who’s watched the show since the beginning of the program should know is not the case.  (For the record, he is a die-hard fan of the Rams—the team that was supposed to show up for last year’ s Super Bowl).

I have been quite critical of the Birds over the years and would often square off against Keith’s predecessor, Joe Craig, who was clearly a passionate Eagles “homer.”  While I spent many years having to be the “anti-Eagles angle” for many of our arguments, Keith has been misleading our audience into thinking I only care about the Eagles, which now has people coming up to me to complain about “my Birds.”  Listen to any show or podcast we’ve done over the last decade and you’d be hard pressed to believe I have been anything but objective about this team.

In full disclosure, I DO root for the Phillies, who I became a die-hard fan about as far back as I can remember.  I have always tried to remain objective about every team that I have covered or may discuss in the various “sports talk” formats that I have worked in radio and television.  While it sometimes makes for more interesting show content for the teams in our coverage area to do well, I don’t throw myself into becoming an over-passionate fan of any specific team to success as some talk show hosts may do.

Because of my work covering the Phillies, I’ve had the tremendous great luck of meeting some really huge names in the business, which continues to help in more ways that I could have ever imagined.

I feel I have remained objective in my analysis over the years when discussing the Phillies, but it is the only team to which I have actively considered myself a “fan.”

 
TRUE/FALSE: Local media members only care about the “big sports” (ie., football, basketball and wrestling).

FALSE

Anyone who says that I don’t keep an eye on other sports has clearly never visited my office to see piles of papers with details on every sport (including polo!) conducted in our coverage area that I actively update on a regular basis.

Again, I would refer people to our “SportsTalk” programs for evidence to the contrary.  Our recent coverage includes features on ice skating, track (one of the sports I competed in while in high school), lacrosse, rifling, tennis, girls softball and others.  A few months back we even had a feature on street skating.  We try very hard to make sure we touch on EVERY sport during a given season.

TRUE/FALSE: I only broadcast the games of the teams that I like.

(I heard this comment this past fall after I announced a number of Bethlehem Catholic football games in consecutive weeks).

FALSE

First of all, I do not dictate which teams and which games we broadcast, so anyone who has ever thought I am “for” or “against” a team due to which game I happen to be announcing is completely wrong.

Secondly, I would say in the two decades that I have been broadcasting games — professional, collegiate, scholastic and amateur — there certainly have been teams/coaches/fan bases that I readily admit I was not a huge fan of.  It would be ridiculous for me (or anyone in this industry) to say that they have enjoyed, never had any issues and/or have had complete cooperation with every single sports personality that they have ever come in contact with.

To be perfectly honest, there are coaches who are much nicer and more accommodating in helping us prepare for our broadcasts than others.  There are members of certain teams who want media members to do and say specifically what they want you to say — something that I have NEVER done nor agreed to — which sometimes irritates people when they can’t control you. There are administrators who only want you to say things they want you to talk about (which nearly always are the things that make those same members of their  organization look good) and hold grudges when you bring up negatives that are proven points of fact that most people are not aware of (I have received a ton of “thank you” comments from our viewers over the last year because of this!).

Also, some of my most treasured bits of feedback come from people who had assumed I was “against” them or their team — often through misinformation — only to actually listen to one of my broadcasts and have them come back to me and apologize, while complimenting me on my objectivity and professionalism.

There was one coach in particular who thought that because a local paper had predicted his team to finish in last place, that EVERY media member had it out for them.  This same person was very adversarial when we came to broadcast his team early in the year … only to call me the next day — not only to thank us for coming but for not holding a grudge against him or his team for his misdirected frustrations toward us.

This brings up an interesting issue for broadcasters … and for me as well.

Unless you are directly working for an organization that pays your salary (ie., most professional sports teams, like the Redskins, Eagles, Sixers, et al either directly pay the announcers or have direct influence with their broadcast partners), you are really doing a disservice to your audience by “clouding” the truth and playing favorites to schools or groups—usually in exchange for getting something in return.

I have built a career on discussing the facts—both positive and negative—about whatever aspect of sports that I am covering.  I don’t know if it’s the changing media attitudes in society, people only hearing what they want to hear, or the fact that everyone now has the ability to edit communications through a simple click of a device.  But I think it’s been one of my strengths as a person and as a media member to try to be objective and fair in covering all angles of the subject matter, which includes covering as many teams as possible. 

Hope you enjoyed the “quiz!”   Thanks for reading, listening and for expressing your opinions (whether I agree with them or not) to me during the past sports broadcast year.  Feel free to keep the comments coming—I always enjoy hearing others’ viewpoints and look forward to continuing to share the information I can provide our customers!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Time to take our final look back at the 2019 standout players as decided by local Lehigh Valley coaches, athletic directors and administrators in the RCN viewing area.

Here is a rundown of “all league players” that were sent to our attention:

2019 EPC WR All-Stars (1)

2018-19 Colonial League Girls Basketball All-League Team

2018-19 Colonial League Boys Basketball All-League Team

2018-2019 EPC Girls Basketball All Star Team

2018-2019 EPC Boys Basketball All Star Team

If there are any other awards or honors that you would like us to mention, please email them to me at chris.michael@rcn.net so that we may recognize the outstanding accomplishments of our girls and boys student-athletes in the RCN viewing area!

Also, thanks to our local athletic directors and league administrators for forwarding the above names to my attention!

Quick programming update…

Coming up on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” program, our Skype guest will be Fox Sports’ Jermaine Ferrell, who covered the Virginia Men’s Basketball team’s National Championship run.

Ferrell said the atmosphere in the gym on the final night was as electric as any sports venue he was ever at.  He shared with me and will give us several interesting storylines surrounding the Cavs’ run that he plans on talking about on Thursday, in addition to giving us his thoughts on what the title means for the DMV region.

Jermaine also recently featured a story on the first-ever all-women announcing crew in professional sports, for the Red Sox minor-league affiliate, and will give us some details on the historic first broadcast that took place last week.

We’ll also be talking about local golf as well as recapping Tiger Wood’s tremendous comeback victory at the Master’s last weekend as well as last weekend’s big Blue-and-White game at Penn State with Morning Call College Football Beat Writer Mark Wogenrich.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

After a basketball season that started with controversy, (aka, the hearing involving Executive Education Academy allegedly taking players away from other Lehigh Valley high schools), the season itself was mixed with different opinions about the quality of play.

Clearly, there were some very strong teams across the state of Pennsylvania this winter…

This season marked one of the quickest “exits” for many Lehigh Valley boys teams in the PIAA playoffs—only three boys teams that RCN covers (Becahi, Wilson and Allen) made it to the second round of the state playoffs—with all three losing before the quarterfinals.

RCN-TV basketball analyst Tom Stoudt was in the studio the other day feeling a little disappointed by many of the regular season games he witnessed.  But he felt some of the playoff heroics and late season surges by a few teams made for interesting storylines.  You can hear more by checking out our “SportsTalk” podcast featuring Tom here on our website at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk

Whatever your thoughts are on the winter high school sports season, we’ll have our final winter season “SportsTalk” program—with the focus on scholastic wrestling– coming up this Thursday featuring the Morning Call’s wrestling writer Tom Housenick in-studio.

We’ll also be featuring boys and girls spring sports season packages on local teams on this week’s program.

And, check back at “The Shop” next week for our rundown of winter sports “All-Stars.”

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

Here are highlights of our state basketball games broadcast by RCN (all of our programming can be seen in their entirety “on-demand” for free for RCN customers.)

These contests include RCN-TV’s coverage of the PIAA post-season events…

As we head to the end of the winter sports season, we’d like to ask local coaches, athletic directors and administrators to pass along their “all-star” listings for leagues, district and statewide sports teams so that we can post them on a future edition of “The Shop.”

Please email those lists to chris.michael@rcn.net and thanks in advance for your submissions!

Coming up on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show, we’ll have the Morning Call’s  MLB writer Steve Gross in studio to give his thoughts on the Phillies, Nationals, Mets, Yankees and other teams within the RCN-TV viewing area.  Also, our old friend from the Bucks County Courier-Times (and now the Morning Call’s NFL & NBA Correspondent) Tom Moore will join us via Skype.

Plus, see our first round of spring sports features highlighting high school teams in our coverage area on this week’s program.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

This week we continue our rundown of highlights from recent playoff games and matches broadcast by RCN-TV (these contests can be seen in their entirety “on-demand” for free for RCN customers.)

Here are video recaps of all of our PIAA playoff coverage (the games are available through RCN On-Demand).

Also, you can purchase DVD copies of these games by calling 610-443-2909, Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm.

The regular season seemed to receive mixed emotions among basketball followers.  While some felt games were fiercely competitive and went down to the wire (including back-to-back Bethlehem Catholic boys basketball victories during the local playoffs), others thought there were too many blow-out games with a heavy dose of parody/mediocrity in the area.

The Lady Hawks from Bethlehem Catholic provided the best highlight of the winter season, culminating with their state championship victory in a game you saw last Saturday on Channel 97 on the RCN channel lineup.

We’ll be taking our final looks and reflections at this winter’s high school sports season both here at “The Shop” and on our “SportsTalk” television program over the following two weeks.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

The state post-season action is in full swing on RCN-TV and we hope you have been enjoying our coverage in both high school basketball and wrestling playoffs.

This Thursday on “SportsTalk” we’ll recap some of these and other games played featuring teams in the RCN viewing area.

Also, we’ll take our first look at the upcoming spring sports season by honoring some of last year’s high school championship teams by having them in-studio to talk about defending their titles and their outlook for the 2019 campaign.  Among the teams we’ll be hearing from this week include the Freedom baseball team (who captured their first District XI title in decades last spring) and the Parkland girls lacrosse team, who are three-time defending champs.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

This week we present highlights from some of our recent District XI playoff games and matches broadcast by RCN-TV (these contests can be seen in their entirety “on-demand” for free for RCN customers.)

Included in this week’s rundown are some of the top wrestlers in Pennsylvania, who received their PIAA metals last weekend.

We’ll be talking more about the high school basketball post-season on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show featuring guests breaking down this week’s games and previewing matchups on Friday and Saturday.

Check out the RCN-TV broadcast schedule to see which local boys and girls basketball teams will be featured over the next few days as the state tournament rolls on!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

In a season in which several teams had legitimate shots at winning a District XI 6A boys basketball title, one of the most improbable teams ended up capturing the crown last weekend.

Allen had started Nate Ellis, a ninth grader, at point guard all season.  They had another first year player, Alexis Adames, a transfer from Perth Amboy in New Jersey, starting in the backcourt with him.  They had only one returning starter (“Q” Adderley) from last year and lost one if its top players during the first half of the season.

Yet, the Canaries overcame an inconsistent first month of the season to defeat arguably the three best large school teams in the area to become gold medal winners last weekend.

Allen Head Coach Doug Snyder and his team will be on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show to talk about their rise to winning Saturday’s title.  When I had talked to him back in early December, he said that this team was “his biggest question mark” of any squad he’s coached in 22 seasons.  We’ll talk about what he, his coaching staff and his players did to right the ship and prove wrong the naysayers, who said the Canaries were at least a year away from being a championship contender.

Also, we’ll talk to the “Voice” of the University of Virginia’s men’s basketball team, Dave Koehn, via Skype.  Dave will talk about Monday’s record setting victory over Syracuse and give his insights on what the #2 ranked team in the nation needs to do to have success in the upcoming league playoffs and NCAA tournament.

Here are highlights of recent games broadcast on RCN-TV…

Also, as our state post-season coverage gets underway this week, make sure you bookmark the RCN High School Sports Schedule page here on the RCN-TV website.  Our broadcast schedule will be updated regularly with our coverage of your favorite teams though the PIAA state playoff season!