I blame Elfi Schlegel.

I blame Elfi Schlegel.

whoops, sorry about that double post.

USA v. Lithuania hoops right now - amazing game.

States down by 3, with the ball, and 26 secs left.

Richard Jefferson is hitting threes.

He shot, he missed.

Now there's 5 secs left.

Oh well. We'll have to beat Angola to get into the next round.

Man, I couldn't agree more. NBC coverage blows big time. What's worse is they're the only U.S. networks besides maybe ESPN that does ANY coverage on gymnastics (to my knowledge). But I agree with all those point.

They could at least give the viewer something of a technical look into the sport, but all they do is talk about bullsh*t and make it like the landing on the dismount is the most important part of a routine next to not getting a fall.

The most technical points I've ever heard said by the commentators was Tim Daggot pointing out an Azarian, saying the guy shouldn't have bent his arms on a Stutz (by the way, he is in fact saying these names) and explaining what an intermediate swing is (sort of). Now that's from several different meets. Pretty sad, huh?

I mean, they could tell you why such and such is a deduction, such as crooked lines on High Bar, or telling you what some skills are. Hell, they don't even explain the difficulty system involved and why athletes do certain skills.

I understand that some viewers may not understand the sport as gymnastics is a very technical sport and one which very few people can relate to even a little, but it's just ridiculous. I still find it hard to believe they wouldn't even explain the new vault. The reason for that in case any of you don't know is that the new vault is designed to be safer. I believe that it was designed mostly to make round-off entry vaults (the type where the gymnast does a round off onto the springboard) safer. It's wider and slightly curved upwards (from the front where the gymnast first contacts it to the back where he/she flies off). It's a very recent change. In fact, I think only 2 years ago was it officially allowed to be used in competitions.

As far as a solution to the problem, it's pretty simple: make the commentators actually EXPLAIN stuff. However, those people may be acting on instructions from the network and not doing that just because they suck at their job.

I would also like to add that the coverage sucks because not only do they spend too much time on one athlete (Did you watch the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials? It was basically a Blaine Wilson interview with some spurts of meet coverage, and, surprise, mostly on Blaine Wilson's routines.) but also because there are 6 people doing routines all the time and you can only put the camera on one, so you only end up with about 1/6 of all that's out there, if even that. They could improve the situation by extending airtime and more quickly shifting the camera from athlete to athlete, but they won't be able to catch everything 100% unless they wanna show a 6 hour gymnastics meet airing.