The Sixers beat the Rockets 133-113 on Monday night. Houston stinks and they played without the suspended Christian Wood and Kevin Porter Jr.

Anyway, let’s talk about the broadcast. Tom McGinnis and Marc Jackson are filling in for Kate Scott and Alaa Abdelnaby because of COVID issues. They do a great job, don’t they? Tom has that rare ability to pull you into a game that isn’t very exciting or compelling. He “sells” the game, if that makes sense. It’s kind of like listening to a Kevin Harlan broadcast. Both guys can get me into a pedestrian regular season game because they seem to be into it themselves. There’s a certain juice in the way they operate, and calls like this one pop:

This is not an anti-Kate Scott take, so don’t make that assumption. I’m not gonna pass judgment on Kate until she’s given a full year to get acclimated and settle in. She walked into a REALLY tough situation, replacing a legend like Marc Zumoff. It’s like when a famous singer departs a band and you gotta bring in somebody else, i.e. Layne Staley dies and so Alice in Chains decides to go with William DuVall. DuVall is actually pretty darn good, and AIC has released bangers with him in the band, but all fans would talk about for the first five years is how he’s not Layne Staley.

Thing is, most people aren’t Layne Staley, and most people aren’t Marc Zumoff, so it is what it is. You can’t be constantly comparing the new person to the old person because it’s wasted energy. Plus, Philly is a parochial town. You know that. Los Angeles might take six months to warm up to something that requires 10 years in Phila. Tom is a known quantity here and has existing street cred while it’s going to take some time for Kate to build that.

One of the things that sucks is that Kate and Alaa have to call road games from the studio. You can’t call a great game off a TV monitor. You just aren’t engrossed in the atmosphere and you don’t see the entirety of the action. You have to artificially manufacture excitement because there’s no crowd to feed off of. Anybody calling games in this manner is hamstrung. And it’s an adjustment for Alaa as well, because he had worked with the same PBP person in Zoo for several years in a row. New team, new broadcast restrictions, COVID, etc – you add it up and there are hurdles to clear.


At the risk of burying the lede, the question is this –

Did Tom even want the TV job?

I’m not sure. I could call him and ask, but that’s probably not an on-the-record conversation anyway. I do know that Tom LOVES doing radio, and that involves a more up-tempo solo call on 97.5 the Fanatic, which is preferable for some broadcasters. You don’t have to be on camera at all and can make the broadcast your own, without having to work with a partner. If I had to guess, Tom was perfectly fine continuing in that role. I don’t even know if he was interested in the TV gig at all, and would honestly be surprised if he threw his name into the hat. This is all just speculation though, so I’ll ask around and see what I can find out. (edit – Tom did audition for the gig, that is confirmed)

Regardless, the backup pair is doing a nice job filling in on a temporary basis.