So, the wife and I finished hanging the Christmas ornaments early enough for me to get settled on the couch with some mail in front of some ACC Basketball with Fox’s first Sunday Night broadcast of the 2004-2005 season (Southern California @ UNC-CH) .
Lord have mercy, how could I have forgotten how Fox Sports has chosen to market Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball to the masses? Oh, forgive me….it is not ACC Basketball on Fox…..it is Sunday Night “Hoops” – an appropriate shortcut and slang for the product that Fox tries to package to the rest of the country — “Hoops” as opposed to the artful, tradition-rich game of “Basketball.” At least it is accurate.
If you missed the opening of the 30-minute pregame show, then you missed an “artist” whose mother lost her dictionary and forgot the last name of her baby’s daddy when “Fabolus” performed a rap titled, “Tit 4 Tat.”
“Tit 4 Tat” What the hell is that? and what does it “movin like dis and movin like dat” have to do with Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball?
For the record….I am 33 years old, speak what I consider acceptable English, and can’t friggin stand the continued “thugadization” of ACC Basketball by Fox Sports. I also am employed, don’t have attention deficit disorder and actually have the ability to remember what is marketed to me on television. I can’t imagine that I am that much in the minority of the demographic that both watches ACC Basketball and whom marketers want to reach. Have I gotten so far out of the mainstream that other people of my age and my background like this junk?
While I am in the midst of my complaining about Fox and less than Fabulos…..let me not forget how ole’ Fabolus wore jerseys of different ACC teams in his opening, but seemed to never done a State or Wake Forest jersey. The UNC-CH jersey was easily most prominent throughout the piece, which is acceptable as long as Fox provides equal play to each ACC team on the nights that they are featured on Sunday Night “Hoops.” In addition, the Duke jersey was unrecognizable and I can’t remember a Virginia jersey. (Forgive me for not being able to stomach watching the piece in more detail.)
Oh well, I guess I have to count my blessings that Kenny Smith doesn’t commentate anymore, don’t I?
