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The Lead

NBA Play-By-Play Goes Underground

The Lead

Wondery

Cfb, Uefa, Mls, Ncaa, Daily News, Olympics, The Athletic, Sports New, Sports, Sports News, Nfl, Nba, Tokyo2020, Wnba, Fifa, Nhl, Cbb, Mlb, News

3.92.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For the last few weeks, Kevin Harlan has been hard at work calling NBA games for TNT, with one notable exception. Rather than call these games from the arena, he’s been doing play-by-play from his basement in Kansas. The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch recently got a virtual tour of Harlan’s underground broadcast studio, and today he joins us to break down the setup — and consider whether this is the future of televised sports. 

Read Richard Deitsch’s story about Kevin Harlan’s basement studio: https://theathletic.com/2290109/2020/12/29/kevin-harlan-basement-nba-broadcast-studio/?source=theleadpodcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the lead, add free on Amazon Music.

0:04.9

Download the app today.

0:07.4

The British Royal family might be one of the most powerful institutions on Earth, but even

0:12.0

they have got a weakness, divorce.

0:14.4

With Wallace Simpson and Camilla Parker bowls, they may have met their match, and in our new

0:18.6

series, Royal Scandal from Wallace to Camilla, we'll tell you all about it.

0:22.8

Listen to even the rich on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:41.1

For the past few weeks, Kevin Harlan has been doing what Kevin Harlan does, calling NBA

0:45.4

games and getting fired up.

0:54.6

But what many fans might not realize is that he isn't calling these games while sitting

0:58.8

courtside or up in the press box.

1:01.2

He's calling them from his basement in Kansas.

1:12.4

The athletics Richard Dyche recently got a virtual tour of Harlan's studio, and he joins

1:17.0

us today to talk about exactly how it works, what it's like for the veteran to call games

1:21.5

from his basement, and whether or not this is the future of sports broadcasting.

1:26.8

Whether it's a home studio, or whether it's broadcasters calling games from some kind of

1:31.1

studio set up, away from the game that they're calling.

1:35.6

This is going to be the future for sure, and the immediate future.

1:40.9

I'm Wondering on the Athletic, I'm Kavita Davidson.

1:43.7

And I'm Anders Kelto, it's Wednesday, January 6th, and this is The Lead.

1:47.9

Oh, there's a fuck to the chicken group.

1:53.0

It felt like something great was happening.

...

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