Hoops

Locked: New Woodville Announcer

Let me guess, JOhn will now respond saying "thanks for those who respect and love me"

what a suck!!!

John, I am sorry but you are part of the neutral team - part of the refs , scorers and are not actualy part of the crew who play the game......

ok you have put yourself out there now John, surely there are rules to anouncing - The 36ers guy get's excited but he is not permitted to barack for his team...... he must be reasonably neutral.

For example he is not permitted to say "Let's bring the 36ers home!!!!" but he can say "come on Dome, bring your team home!!!"

Woodville vs West game??? both teams know I would go for home team... and they both accept that it isn't a bias thing, it is just announcing.

Well, "Anonymous", when the entire playing team, coaches, and bench crew consider you and respect you as a member of the TEAM, if your team is lucky enough to win an ABA Championship, you get to share in the spoils... and I have won 2 ABA Championships, not 1... please let me know when you are involved in a ABA Championship winning team, and not just a spectator... then you can talk the talk!

thank you for the advice, big but. If I did have the opportunity during the game, I would have raised it with the referees. And if a coach gets vulgar with me during a game i am refereeing, he cops the technical, with a warning that if he wants to continue his abuse of me, he will be removed from the stadium.

John you have stated you are a level one ref. how would you react if a coach was personally vulgar to you as a ref.

would you "throw it back in his face with interest" or would you rise above it???

I think your enthusiasm is fantastic but believe you should never loose your cool towards coaches.

Perhaps better to advise the umpires you have a issue with the coaches comments.

I will not say in quote what he said, but i will just say that I can and do take in neutral comments and suggestions by other coaches, but I will take a stand against a coach who wants to be personally vulgar towards me.

Thanks Tony.

I didn't abuse him... I told him to shut up if he couldn't be respectful, that's all. If he doesn't like it... then he shouldn't be the coach.

Thanks to everyone for the positive support. And to Tony Blair for his neutral, but honest feedback.

When I was in arguement with the referee, it was in regards to part of my announcing, which i was unaware, until Sunday night, was against the rules of announcing in the ABA... something I was never told of in Sydney... and has been fixed out of my announcing program for the next round. And when a coach gets personally vulgar to me, just like any other normal person, I will stand my ground, and get back in his face. There was no need for what he said, and if he said it 100 more times in the future, I would get back in his face and put it straight back at him 100 times with interest added on top. He might be the player's father, and his team could have been winning by 30 or losing by 40, but to me, that means ABSOLUTELY ZIP!!! to me... I have done exactly the same for a visiting player's 6th foul, and have been told by the ABA that it is perfectly legal, as long as the content of what i am saying is clean of language, which it is.

thanks to the people who are trying to support me. I know I am new to the Adelaide scene, but actually have 2 Waratah (NSW) ABA championships under my belt from my time @ Sydney Comets (2004 - 2005), and have announced @ NBL with the Kings and Pirates. A lot of people who really know their basketball, including one NCAA coach, say that although my style is different, there is nothing wrong with it. Yes, my style is arrogant, cocky and sounds almost totally one-sided, but it is also clean, and therefore there is nothing wrong with it, and that has been backed up by a member of the ABA technical evaluating crew in Sydney last year. It took me a little while to get into the swing as an announcer, and it doesn't help when you don't have the greatest music around... but i do try to do the best with what I have got... and I am trying to find better equipment and music to improve on the quality of my performance, looking for a laptop computer so I can download better music or a better DVD player, and will have better response times than the equipment I currently use.

To those people who have decided to be negative about me, i respect your feedback, but i do ask that you actually try being a new announcer in an area where you have never announced before, before making comment about somebody you don't even know. It is never easy learning the style of a new area... and is something you don't learn in a couple of days or weeks... it actually takes a lot longer than that. It took me about 2 months to get my announcing right in Sydney with Sutherland Sharks, but in the end, it worked out okay, with positive responses from current and ex-NBL players, including Stephen Whitehead and David Barlow, and coaches (Brad Rosen and Brad Dalton), coming over the 3 years that I worked with Sutherland and then Sydney Comets. My 2 years with Sydney Comets developed the "Vortex" (Alexandria Stadium) as a place to be truly fearful of entering, having only lost twice during my time there, and one of those was a double OT classic last season by 1 point. Hopefully, I will be able to replicate those efforts, and reward those few faithful supporters who come to the Warriors and Bearcats matches to a performance worthy of positive comment.

John W Lawrence
Courtside Announcer
Woodville Warriors
West Adelaide Bearcats