LA's play by play duo will be Bill Macdonald & John Ireland

i miss joel meyers to be honest. i just dont see myself being a fan of billy mac but it could be worse. paul sunderland could still be the play by play man

love listening to stu on the other hand, he clearly shows he's chick's protege in that he's in no ways a homer and points out when the lakers play like crap

billy mac doesnt even know the score

John Ireland as the clock winds down in the win against Boston (first game after Dr. Buss passes):

"I guess you could say... this is just what the doctor ordered."

What a nerd.

he stole it from a tweet, but said so up front

Come on now John's cool.

Haha I'd say John Ireland is cheesy.

But so is Stu.

You kind of have to be cheesy if you're a team play-by-play/color guy. Gotta be a homer. Gotta be able to relate to fans, casual & hardcore.

John's a bright guy and he's funny I think. It's kind of unique in that he's employed to do play by play on radio for the games but also has his talk show career on the radio. And he calls em as he sees them about the team. Props to him. He was saying Thursday some of the same stuff we wonder about when we see Dwight's actions up to that point. A good fan like us too.

I know there's already a tv announcer thread but I can't find it. Mods feel free to merge if need be.

Anyway I was thinking... John Ireland does an INCREDIBLE job calling the games on the radio. So much so that I often times feel the urge to mute the TV and listen to John call the play by play. This hasn't happened to me since good ol Chick was calling the games on the radio during a national televised game.

Ireland has really become the voice of the Lakers. His radio show with Steve Mason is gold if you want to get Lakers news from an insider that not only has access to the locker room, but also travels with the team. There is no one else out there that has their hand on the Lakers nation pulse the way Ireland does.

Obviously, Stu will stay on TV. No effin way they demote him to the radio since Stu has been a staple of Laker games since the days of Chick Hearn.

I've had enough of Billy Mac and there's no use in keeping him on the telecasts when we have a better option in Ireland.

*edit* I found the announcer thread It was on the third page. Do'h!

I don't care for either Billy Mac or Ireland as announcers. They're sideline reporters.

Thread merged. I wasn't aware that Ireland WAS taking over as TV announcer at some point. I assumed we would eventually find someone better to take over permanently. I like Ireland, but is prefer he stay on radio and we replace Billy Mac with a better choice.

revgen wrote:I don't care for either Billy Mac or Ireland as announcers. They're sideline reporters.

That may be true. Maybe I'm just so sick of Billy Mac sucking that he's making John look better than he really is.

Weezy wrote:Thread merged. I wasn't aware that Ireland WAS taking over as TV announcer at some point. I assumed we would eventually find someone better to take over permanently. I like Ireland, but is prefer he stay on radio and we replace Billy Mac with a better choice.

Thanks for merging Weezy.

I don't think it was ever planned for Ireland to take over as TV announcer. But what other options are out there?

I think it would be good to have a home grown Laker announcer.

I honestly don't know what options there are, personally I loved Sunderland and I really liked Joel. I guess Ireland wouldn't be the worst choice, he's good on the radio, I just think there had to be somebody out there better, even if we have to steal them from another team.

can we steal HOT ROD Hundley from the Jazz?? hes a laker for life

Weezy wrote:I honestly don't know what options there are, personally I loved Sunderland and I really liked Joel. I guess Ireland wouldn't be the worst choice, he's good on the radio, I just think there had to be somebody out there better, even if we have to steal them from another team.

Haha yea.. It'd be awesome if we can get a Marv Albert caliber announcer or that "with no regards for human life" guy (his name escapes me at the moment).

Now that I think about it, most teams out there have announcers that are 100X worse than Billy Mac. Maybe I should be grateful for what we have here.

DarthRekal wrote:can we steal HOT ROD Hundley from the Jazz?? hes a laker for life

Didn't he do like a string of 5 games a couple of seasons back?

From what I remember he wasn't really that great.

steal back dedes! i really thought he was the second coming of chick :)
how come they didn't offer him radio and TV...

kenshi1023 wrote:steal back dedes! i really thought he was the second coming of chick :)
how come they didn't offer him radio and TV...

They did, but he chose a preferable offer

According to the L.A. Daily News, the Lakers lost Dedes to the New York Knicks, where he will serve as their TV play-by-play announcer and be given the flexibility to continue doing College Basketball and NFL broadcasts.

The Lakers apparently wanted him to be exclusively a Lakers announcer, he wanted to do that and other gigs, so they parted ways.

"It's going to go out to Jodie Meeks who has that jump with two feet dunk." - Bill MacDonald



sadly these are actual quotes

I don't have any problem with Ireland calling the radio.

But I'm not huge on Macdonald for the television broadcasts.

I don't mind Billy Mac, but I don't know why they ever let go of Sunderland, he was awesome.

There was some talk that Joel lobbied behind Sunderland's back to take over the play by play. I liked Sundy too the best to that point post Chick. Would have loved Spiro and I grew used to liking Joel. Now WTF I don't even mind MacDonald. I think Billy has even polished his skills some. Our guys are SOOOO much better than most of teams' announcers.

And I am a big fan of Ireland's. I like his team knowledge, quick wit and sense of humor. Definitely not a big head, and unafraid to call things as he sees them on his radio show. I might try listening to him while watching telecast but there's always such a time delay one way or the other. Effs it up for me.

GoldenKnight wrote:I don't mind Billy Mac, but I don't know why they ever let go of Sunderland, he was awesome.

Sunderland was great. I love the emotion he showed in those clips.

Also, I just noticed that the player guarding Kobe on the game winner vs Denver was none other than Jon Barry. No wonder he seems to have an anti Kobe agenda. He's still mad Kobe faked him out of his shoes on that game winner

^^^ it's not just that with Jon Barry, he was a Laker in '97/'98 when Kobe was a cocky young kid, I'm pretty sure he owned him in practice then too and that's where the hate started.

Weezy wrote:^^^ it's not just that with Jon Barry, he was a Laker in '97/'98 when Kobe was a cocky young kid, I'm pretty sure he owned him in practice then too and that's where the hate started.

Oh wow. I had no idea he was ever a Laker. I was more of a casual fan until the late 90's when I became a little more interested. I don't remember much about those days but yea I see your point. Being owned constantly by Kobe will definitely trigger some hard feelings.