https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/ny-nba-broadcasts-no-fan-noise-20200606-qbr5bwfjrzgjfmkbzgg5l6vnhi-story.html

Marv Albert understood at a young age, growing up in Brooklyn, that he wanted to be a sportscaster. So for training purposes, he’d watch a game with no volume and create his own play-by-play broadcast. Albert, now 78, even purchased records with crowd noise, hoping it’d make the simulation more realistic.

Marc Zumoff, another longtime NBA announcer, utilized a similar method as a youngster, with a twist. Zumoff tuned to channel 8, a static-only station in Philadelphia, and used the sound as background to a practice run in his living room.

“I was regulating the static, and I’d say, ‘Here’s entry pass down to Chamberlain, hook shot up, it’s good.’ And I would turn the static up so it sounded like the roar of fans,” Zumoff, 64, says. “That was probably the last time I’d done a game without fans.”

These long-ago exercises are now relevant for Albert and Zumoff, both of whom will call NBA games soon in relatively isolated environments. After months of America craving live sports, the demand for the NBA playoffs has never felt higher. And if the viewership for the Michael Jordan documentary is any indication, the league’s television partners are lining up for a ratings boost.

At the same time, the product will certainly have to be modified, and probably diminished. The sense is that most, if not all, of the regional sports networks — which own the rights to the seeding games and first round of the playoffs — will work remotely outside of the Orlando bubble. That means announcers like Zumoff, who does Sixers play-by-play for NBC Sports Philadelphia, will commentate off a feed in a studio. It’s unclear if the national networks — ESPN, ABC and TNT — will have to do the same.

“I have no idea is they’re going to do it on site or remote,” Jeff Van Gundy, a color commentator on ESPN and ABC, says. “My whole thing is whatever they decide, I know that every safeguard possible is going to be enacted to try to keep us safe. I’m not overly concerned, but us being at the game would be better for the fan, I believe.”

Van Gundy thinks the coronavirus-era NBA broadcasts will be weirder than anyone can imagine.

Although not ideal, calling a game off a monitor is hardly unprecedented. Ian Eagle, the Nets’ play-by-play voice on YES Network, did it for international basketball and the 2013 NBA Finals. Albert did it for the Olympics. Zumoff did it for soccer. The larger concern is the background noise, or lack thereof.

Play-by-play announcers, in particular, feed off the crowd’s energy, using it to gauge the level of enthusiasm in a particular call. Picture Mike Breen, for instance, shouting “Bang” after Ray Allen hit his 3-pointer with the Miami Heat. Does he scream that loud in an empty gym? Is it still an iconic call?

“Normally the crowd is your guide, and without them, your instincts are going to have to be your compass,” Eagle says. “And I think it’s also going to be a new experience for the announcers to understand how to use your voice, and when to push it, and when to pull it back. This is all new terrain. So even though I’ve done 26 years of the NBA, I’ve never done anything like this. It’s going to be a unique learning experience. And I’m as curious as everybody else to see how it’s going look, how it’s going to feel, how it’s going to sound.”

Visually, the NBA is considering innovative ways to include a digital and silent crowd into its broadcast. One option being discussed, according to a source, is projecting the faces of real fans — Zoom conference style — onto a giant green screen raised behind the court and in view of the broadcast. It could serve as a reward to season ticket holders. Whether a giant green screen becomes distracting to players would become an interesting experiment.

“All these questions are going to be debated, and there’s only bad answers,” Van Gundy adds. “And that’s the problem. I don’t care where you come down on it. Pump it in, and there’s going to be some criticisms. Don’t pump it in, there will be some criticisms. Whoever is making these decisions like Adam Silver, there’s nothing that’s going to leave you criticism-free. I guess my stance is, do whatever happens in a normal NBA game and nothing else. Whatever ambient noises they put in, whether it be putting in music or something. But it will be very interesting if there will be no noise, no fans — what does that do to the game, the intensity, the passion? All that. I’m so interested.”

The NBA and its broadcast partners are anticipating a period of trial-and-error, hopefully with more hits than misses. Regardless, success will require adjustment from everybody involved, including the viewers. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented broadcasts.