When Matt Devlin came to the Raptors, Raptors fans had reason to be excited.
While Chuck had been a very popular broadcaster and was a first class representative for the Raptors organization. Matt Devlin came with NBA broadcasting experience that gave Raptors fans confidence they were in good hands.
But since his arrival, Matt has fallen into a role of color commentator / play-by-play announcer.
Instead of the former high level play-by-play announcing Raptors fans may remember from Devlin’s days at TNT and NBA-TV, Raptors fans have become subject to an increasing amount of superfluous trivia about other teams, coaches, celebrities, the NBA and college history.
Combined with Jack or Leo’s color commentary, the actual live action on the court is often forgotten about in its entirety.
And this apparent lack of interest in describing the live action on the court does have an impact on the fans watching the game.
In the recent game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, many fans were interpreting what they were hearing (or were not hearing) as a lack of effort on the part of the Raptors.
Even though the Raptors had made runs following Bosh’s injury and were in the game throughout, the play-by-play calling suggested that there was nothing worthy of note happening on the floor.
By half, it appeared Matt had lost all interest in the game and wasn’t even calling any plays – it was like he was in a bar somewhere glancing up at the TV occasionally to see if something had happened.
In a game that was never out-of-hand, it felt like it was over when the Raps were down by 2 at the half.
I liked Matt Devlin on TNT and NBA-TV during past playoffs. But the longer he has been the Raptors play-by-play announcer, the quicker he has appeared to lose interest in games and the easier it has been for him to kill any excitement left in a broadcast.
Having watched Devlin’s play-by-play calling in the past, I know he can do better. And with the Raptors still in the playoff hunt, this is the time to do it.
Following the Raptors-Cavaliers game, I watched the Bucks-Bulls play on a Chicago station. The Bulls announcers called the play on the court. The color commentator was focused on providing additional descriptions about what was occurring in the game.
Even though the Bulls were losing, the Chicago announcers never lost focus on the game and kept one engaged in the action on the floor.
Is that too much to ask for?
Good blog.
This is the reason I do not like Devlin. He just gets lost in something so off topic from the game. He tends to get excited at none exciting moments and down plays the exciting ones. He does not keep the audience engaged when the Raptors are winning or losing. And he seems to get the most excited when the other team makes a run on the Raptors. My biggest issue with him is that he cannot finish his thoughts. He’ll be telling some sort of story and then all the sudden hop into some play-by-play. And everyone has heard this before, it just becomes a jumble of words and nothing makes sense.
Thanks.
I asked Devlin about this earlier this year.
He mumbled something about trying to keep the game interesting. He just didn’t seem to want to acknowledge that the game is interesting and its the game viewers tuned in to see.
To be fair, all that “trivia” stuff and the like comes directly from the producers.
Unfortunately that’s probably true.
Too bad Devlin doesn’t know when to call the game and when to insert the boring crap the producers give him.
Matt makes me miss Chuck.
I think I would even listen to *gasp* Doug Smith over Matt.
I can’t believe I am saying this but, I miss Chuck VS Leo.
Agreed.
Good observation, I’ve noticed the same thing– in fact Devlin is slowly turning into a Swirsky clone… this leads me to believe that its the producers behind the scenes/raptors management that want a specific type of broadcast, i.e. always light, dont call out your team, make repetitive jokes etc… I think they’re the ones that just clown around and have very little knowledge of basketball so they rely on gimmicks and trivia to attract a Canadian audience.
obviously this is pure speculation, but regardless , the Raptors games broadcasts are a joke… they never show highlights at the right time, they frequently switch to camera angles that are hard to follow during critical moments in the game, etc…
But somehow Devlin isn’t funny.
At least most fans got a laugh out of the Chuckisms.
And the TV production side has always been BAD.
I just want to watch the game and hear the plays being called…….
I entirely agree with your article. When I was watching the Raps game against OKC, listening to matt that day, I felt I was watching a Thunder broadcast. Whenever raptors play one of the “elite” teams, Matt spends more time glorifying those teams about how good their team is, their management, their coaching, scouting and very little time on anything involving the raps. I find his style of commentating disrespecful to the Raptors organization and a disservice to the fans. He makes me sick. He’s boring and i get disinterested listening to his off beat rants. He needs to go!
Things do need to change!
The most frustrating part, is when the camera focuses on Devlin & Jack (or some coach /player they’re discussing), all the while play is going on.
At times, we miss those steals / blocks / dunks etc., that can be the more exciting parts to a game.
Really pisses me off.
I’ve sent in numerous emails to the Raptors complaining about the same thing.
Nothing seems to help.
What I can’t stand is when he says, leading into the commercials:
“[insert opposing team] up by seven!!”
Dude, whose side are you on? You’re supposed be calling the raptors game. terrible.