AA Q&A: Kevin Harlan

AA: What goes into your preparation for games in each of the different sports you cover, be it the NFL, NBA or college basketball?

KH: In the beginning of the week, you try to lay the groundwork a little bit on each of the broadcasts. So for instance, on Thursday for TNT I had Lakers at Golden State and then I flew back through Kansas City to pick up some clothes and then flew to Washington on Friday, and then after the game Saturday, I flew out to Denver.

So you work on a lot of the things you need, your basics, your information boards ready to go in the beginning of the week. Then as you get closer to each of the individual broadcasts, you kinda shut down on the other ones and you concentrate on the one that’s right in front of you. So from Wednesday through Thursday night, it was all TNT preparation for NBA, Lakers at Golden State. Then I got back to my hotel room in San Francisco after that TNT game. and immediately started working more on Villanova-Georgetown, because I had started, like I said, earlier in the week on all three games, but then just picked up my work after the TNT broadcast on Thursday night. So I worked Thursday night and all day Friday on the flights from the west coast to the east coast.

And then so by game time Saturday, I was ready to go and was working with Bill Raftery, who I just adore. There’s just not a better guy to be around in the business, both on or off the air. And did that. And when that game ended, I went back out to National Airport to catch my flight through Dallas to Denver and then finished up my preparation for the Broncos and the Steelers. So I guess the closer I get to the event, I then push everything else to the side and just focus on that game. Just kind of go game by game.

But when you’re earlier in the week, that’s pretty important. When you’re two, four, five days away, you kind of get all the groundwork laid so that when you do pick it up later in the week, you know exactly what’s ahead of you, what you’ve got to do and what workload you’ve got in front of you to finish off your preparation.

AA: You cover all these different sports on different networks, how do you juggle the different partners, color commentators and producers that you may cycle through during a given week?

KH: Well it’s really not that difficult because all the guys I’m working with are all just terrific. They’re prepared, obviously, but really that’s the least of my concerns. I’m far more concerned about my own performance and that I am there for them. That I am a good teammate for them. Am I fully prepared? Do I have all the focus that I need and all the things I need to have to make the broadcast as good as it can be and then make sure that I’m really supporting who I’m working with.

I know they’ll be prepared. On Sunday, I worked with Trent Green, who was filling in for Dan Fouts, and Trent was so prepared, obviously, for those teams. Bill Raftery sees all the different colleges in the Big East, so he was very much in tune with Villanova and Georgetown. So it’s a competition to make sure that I’m up to speed as much as they are.

Thursday I worked with Reggie Miller, and all he does is watch NBA basketball. So he knows those two teams and he lives in Los Angeles, so he knows the Lakers about as well as anybody. And obviously everybody’s following what Golden State’s doing.

So the real issue for me is not necessarily “am I prepared enough?” although I’m preparing up to the very last moment. It’s kind of an ongoing process. It never really ends, because there are so many different things that can change, so you want to make sure you’re on top of that. So it’s just making sure that I’ve got right mindset, that I’ve gone over my last broadcast and made the necessary corrections, or tweaks or whatever I want to do. So I’m more concerned if I’m going to be up and running and going full speed in terms of performance. Preparation isn’t necessarily the issue, but it’s just making sure of my performance, because it was cramming a lot. It was three games in four days in San Francisco, then Washington, then Denver.

So you’ve gotta make sure that you’re getting your sleep and you’re drinking a lot of water and making sure that you’re taking care of yourself, because that’s an important part of the whole process too.

AA: I listened to part of the Denver-Pittsburgh game on the radio with you and Trent Green on the call, and I noticed a difference on radio when you try to talk quickly and get in as much information as possible into your broadcast. Do you call TV and radio differently, and if you so, what does that entail?

KH: Well for TV football for CBS, it is much more of a conversation and certainly not the verbiage, just because they can see the picture. And really in essence, truth be told, especially because people know the NFL so well, the play-by-play guy is pretty far down the list of priorities for that broadcast.

First of all it’s the picture, because that’s what everyone’s seeing. And a very close second, if not 1B, would be the analyst, because he’s explaining, deciphering, he is leading you down different ways of looking at a play, or a player or forming opinions and on and on. So that’s just invaluable.

For CBS, I work with Rich Gannon, who is as prepared as any analyst I’ve ever worked with. He watches countless hours of tape, he’s making phone calls, he’s always reading. He’s just so immersed in our broadcast and knows so much information, plus he played for 17 years and was the MVP of the league, I couldn’t have a better partner in football because he knows so much. So I’m almost there accenting the picture, identifying players, setting him up, playing off graphics. It’s a completely different role.

When you’re doing radio, radio to me is the purest form of broadcasting because it’s all incumbent on voice. It’s incumbent on your inflection, your word usage, descriptive style, pacing, all of it. You’ve got to be the consummate reporter, you’ve gotta have a good feel for the ebb and flow of the broadcast. There’s just so much involved.

Whereas in television, you can lay out, you could just add a quick sentence and it would lead the graphics or the replays or the analyst, most importantly, to get on a tangent and explain a point or develop a point, massage something. So you’re kind of almost like, they use this term, a traffic cop — I would not want to demean the profession in that way — but you are managing that broadcast. You’re managing a lot of things, which is a talent unto itself. But it probably isn’t this stressful, individual voice needed that radio does.

So I have such great admiration for the guys of decades ago, without the benefit of television — that so many of us have now obviously — like the Red Barbers, they were such great wordsmiths. They would come up with ways of describing baseball stadiums in an afternoon, or the configuration of an outfield, or the way the infield was playing in or playing deep, or shifted over. Or the way a quarterback threw, or the a guy caught the ball, or a guy shot a jump-shot from where on the floor.

That to me is the most challenging of anything in broadcasting, because it is totally on your words and on your eyes. And your words and reporting skills and all these different things that are involved. Television, you’ve got such a crutch. You can lay out and not say a word. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, there’s not much to say.

So I guess that’s the way I kind of look at it. That television is more of a conversation, but doing national radio — in my own opinion doing it the right way — is describing everything you see because if you were watching on TV or sitting in the stands, that’s what you would see. You would look at Roethlisberger and see eye black under his eyes. You would see the full beard. You would see hot dog wrappers blowing across the field because the wind is so pronounced. And picking up those little things, to me, that creates the picture for the person who’s in a car or can’t get to a TV set. And sometimes, actually, that can be more powerful than seeing it with your own eyes. It’s letting your mind develop that picture.

I think it’s an artform. I’m constantly challenging myself to be better at it. I’m pouring over my work, I’m incredibly critical, I’m never satisfied— as most guys in this business are not satisfied— and they’re constantly striving to be better. But I just think radio has a set of challenges that are very, very different than television. And they’re pretty much solely based on you. You’re not affected by a decision in the truck or a shot that’s taken. In radio, you’re responsible for everything. I love that challenge. I don’t know if I’ve met the challenge. I’ve tried and will continue to try. I think it will be continually evolving.

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