Excerpt from the interview with Eric Collins:

First off, forever grateful to Hornets fans because they didn’t run me out of town. I had a run out in L.A. and I really enjoyed doing Major League Baseball, but I don’t think people were quite ready for kind of what I was doing. And so I was fully committed to who I wanted to be as a broadcaster and what I wanted to sound like. And I remember when I interviewed for the Hornets’ job, I said, ‘Hey, it’s not your traditional sound, the way I do games. Are you guys OK with that? Is that something that you want? It’s going to be quirky, it’s going to be unpredictable, it’s going to be fearless.’ And they all signed off on it.

15 comments

  3. Eric Collins and Kon Kneuppel are the two reasons that converted me to a full time fan who tunes into every game

  4. EC is probably my favorite sports broadcaster. He loves the game, he isn’t a total homer, and beyond getting hyped for basketball, I ALWAYS learn something from games he calls. I can think of no one else who is as good at it.

  5. I think it helps that we had Big Pat as a PA announcer for so long (RIP). Eric’s style sounds like if Big Pat was in th booth. Both guys have this exaggerated delivery that sounds kinda like a used car lot salesmen from the 70’s-90’s. The corny phrases and high pitched inflections idk, it just works in a city like Charlotte. It wouldn’t work in a major city where people are afraid to smile and in general take themselves too seriously. I met Eric last summer and my message was just to Never Change!! He’s the goat

  6. I’d part with anyone on the roster before Eric Collins. He’s made watching some terrible teams enjoyable.

    The catch phrases and humor gets most of the national attention, but he is also a treasure trove of basketball history and is extremely knowledgeable about the players on the court. Love that guy.

  9. The fact that Lamelo ended up on EC’s team might be prof of the existence of a greater power:)

  10. I see clips all the time on r/nba featuring other teams local broadcast guys and there is no one doing it like EC. He along with Dell have the most unique voice in sports broadcasting right now.

  11. Honestly hated Eric at first simply because Steve Martin was was damn good but Eric grew on me and now he’s as important to the team as Steve was during his time here.

    Him not having enough words to describe Kon is funny though.

  12. Love Eric, and I love Dell along with him. Dell  plays with him and has even adopted some of Eric’s slang

  13. He would have loved the Jazz game. Their commentators sounded so depressed. Not just “We’re down by 40 and it sucks” depressed, like live, laugh toaster bath kind of depressed.

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