PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - I will be very honored to receive the French Sports Commentator of the Year award next thursday at the French Sports Ministry.  This prestigious prize awarded by the Association of French Sports Writers has given me food for thought about my thirty years of sportscasting, notably the NBA, the Olympics and many FIBA international competitions.

In the beginning, I was still playing and coaching professionally in Paris when I had the excellent idea to propose my services to a new pay-tv channel that was starting up, Canal Plus, because they were going to show NBA games for the first time in France.  My teammates at Paris Racing Club told me to forget it because I wasn't a big star and the channel would choose someone else, but I sent in my resumé anyway.  It's my american side where you have to sell yourself and go out and actively try to get what you want.  The French would rather sit back and wait to be sollicited but if I did that, I never would have gotten the job and would still be waiting to this day!  This is something I tell to all the young people that say they're interested in this profession who ask for my advice.  Already as a player, I had been cut from my high school and college teams several times because of a lack of athletic talent (I have never dunked) before playing pro ball in France for 15 years.  Believe me, that takes persistance, a good outside shot and an undying love for the game of basketball!

As I was learning the ropes of journalism at Canal Plus from some top-notch professionals, I realized that, at the time, my job consisted essentially of informing and explaining and yes, selling the NBA to a new audience that was discovering the sport for the first time. 

In France when you said american basketball back then, people immediately thought of the Harlem Globetrotters! In 1985, there was very little information circulating in France concerning the NBA and we wore out the International Herald Tribune, Sports Illustrated and later on the USA Today to prepare our commentaries.  I would bring back from the states, each time I visited in the summer, the Guides and magazines that would help us prepare the games during the next season. 

People today find it hard to imagine that the first few seasons we showed games on tape delay which meant the games were played a week before we broadcasted them!  I would receive the tape, derush the game and then edit it before doing the commentary on air.  This meant that I saw the game several times before commentating it so I had to pretend that I didn't know the result!  The job was half journalism, half acting!

The advent of satellite TV and later on, the arrival of internet completely changed the profession. We went from showing one tape delay game a week to 4 or 5 live games over satellite each week!

To me, sports commentary is putting the right word on the right image at the right time and this is still true.  It's a question of preparation, timing and rythmn, just like playing. You are under pressure and concentrating like crazy for the duration of the match but you are also trying to smile and be charismatic!

Most fans think this is easy, but if you put them in front of a microphone then they realize the true difficulty of commentating because each sequence lasts about 7 seconds and then you have to move on to the next sequence so you better have what you want to say ready in your head because you don't really have time to consult your notes in front of you! 

The big difference in the internet age is that everyone has access to the same information and lots of it and considers himself an expert so now my job is about synthesizing and analyzing this vast ocean of information. This is why I now love writing or talking  about trends and historical evolutions in the game. After 30 years in the business, I have also realized that, similar to playing, you need a certain intrensic talent.  A talent for communicating is essential to be a good commentator. It's not just talking, you need to be a good listener too and have a feel for what the audience wants to hear. Another key quality in this job is being able to adapt to all these epic changes over time while constantly renewing your repertoire in order to avoid boring your audience because of redundance.

George Eddy

FIBA

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