ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy is one of the more experienced basketball announcers in the game. However, nothing could have prepared him for the vocal exercises of Ryan Ruocco.
During an appearance on The Michael Kay Show Wednesday, Van Gundy was asked about Ruocco’s warmup routine. He said he was dumbfounded the first time he experienced it.
“I gotta say, the first time I worked with Ryan — it might have been an exhibition game, because I don’t think it was an NBA city — and for some reason, I had a rental car. I was driving us to the airport to try to catch our flight out,” Van Gundy began. “He goes ‘Do you mind if I do my vocal exercises?’, I had no idea what he’s talking about. We might be in the same business, but he’s young, I’m old. I have no idea what he’s talking about. I say ‘Sure’.
“And he starts…I go ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’ and this was going on for four or five minutes. He’s drinking hot tea, and gargling, and giving himself a throat massage. I wanted to choke him by the end of that car ride,” the former Knicks and Rockets coach admitted. “I was going to go at him. When he starts to warm up now, I leave the room. I’ve learned that.”
Earlier this week, the show discussed Ruocco’s warmup routine. Kay played a clip from a movie starring Jack Lemon, mimicking what Ruocco does. “It’s worse than that,” Kay said. “What Ryan does is worse than that.” Peter Rosenberg said “I love Ryan, but he’s an odd guy.”
