March Madness is almost here and already things are getting crazy, only it’s happening off the court and in the TV studio. Charles Barkely, a guy you have to love just because he never holds punches and always speaks from the heart; is talking smack again, this time at Billy Packer.
Billy Packer is a well respected broadcast analyst for college basketball and had called 34 consecutive Final Fours before retiring from his role in 2008. ESPN, the network that isn’t worried if there’s no football, failed to obtain the rights to the NCAA tournament this year and lost the bid to TNT and CBS.
Barkley, Steve Kerr and Reggie Miller will be called upon to call games and host studio shows, and Billy Packer felt the need to let it be known that he felt ESPN would have been a better equipped network to handle the games.
Truth be told, if you have ever seen ESPN’s coverage of college basketball compared to TNT`s and CBS, Packer was probably right. It`s questionable how much of an expert on college basketball Charles Barkley and the rest of his crew are, but really, who cares?
He knows the game and he’s pure entertainment, and that`s all that matters for TV. Barkley has already given us a taste of what we can expect from him and his reckless commentary as he took the time on a TNT broadcast to fire back at Billy Packer and call him a “jackass.”
In case you missed it.