You never have to guess what the Toucher & Rich crew think about their colleagues in the broadcast industry. The show will always be honest about who isn’t very good at their job. Monday morning, Rich Shertenlieb had a lot to say about Mark Jones’s performance on ESPN.
Jones called the action in the Philadelphia 76ers’ thrilling overtime win against the Boston Celtics. Shertenlieb was largely unimpressed with what he heard though. He called the broadcast cringe-worthy but noted that it had nothing to do with Doris Burke, who was handling color commentary.
Instead, Rich Shertenlieb pointed to references to lines from Jay-Z and Drake coming from Jones. He said they did not sound timely. They made the broadcaster sound old.
“Listen, he’s down with all the kids,” Shertenlieb joked. “It sounds like when my dad used to put on a rock shirt and go ‘I’m cool, bro, right? Rock n’ roll!’”
Mark Jones has always been divisive for fans. While many have complaints similar to what was said on Toucher & Rich, plenty of others appreciate the loser broadcast style. Working in rap and other pop culture references is a more fun approach to calling games.
“He might be the worst,” Shertenlieb said of Jones. “There are all these different websites and stuff that have him throwing out all these really bad hip hop things, but its like hip hop that everybody knows. It’s Syracuse boys hip hop. You could literally have no access to any kind of streaming service and you would know those songs that he quotes.”
So who is the best according to Rich Shertenlieb? He has his favorites, but he isn’t even looking for the best voices to be on a broadcast when the Celtics are playing. He just doesn’t want someone that makes him so consistently uncomfortable.
“If it’s a Harlan game, I’m totally all about it. That sounds fantastic to me. I love Ian Eagle, of course. When Ian Eagle’s on, it’s fantastic. I don’t even want you to have to be anything special, just, you know, if you call the game, just don’t do this.”
