Dumb Funk

[ZombieKevie]

is it just me, or is Neil Funk starting to grow on people. im almost starting to like all his dumb comments, in a tough loss its always nice to know that the biggest loser in the building is sitting next to stacy king. its taking 75 and a poopy mc-ing of a johnny red kerr ceremony to change my views on Funk. now instead of having a hatred for the man equivalent to to fred hating hinrich, its now just a very strong dislike of the man and everything that comes out of his mouth.

 

[dougthonus]

The ultimate in dumb-funk was when he called Red Kerr "Jerry" instead of "Johnny" during his speech once. It was an easy slip up because he had just announced Jerry CoAngelo which is why his words got criss crossed, but it was still funny given that Fred tells me right before it happens "he'll screw up Kerr's name", and we got a real good laugh out of it.

The more I listen to Funk the more I dislike him, what I really dislike is how he constantly rips on every player on the other team. The Bulls will be down by 10, and him and Stacey will go off on how horrible the other team is.

 

[JakeN7]

I do find myself laughing from time to time, more than I used to thats for sure. My expectations are pretty low now so that could have something to do with it. I absolutely love Kush's "Dumb Funk" rants though.

 

[collisrost]

I just can't believe the Bulls will keep this crew together long term. At least I hope not. They've gotta shake up the broadcast team this offseason. Wouldn't it be great if they could bring in Reinsdorf's buddy Doug Collins to pair with a decent play by play guy? Oh wait, that would cost too much.

 

[dougthonus]

No way could they steal Doug Collins to do local stuff, it'd cost WAY too much, but man would that be awesome.

Really, I'd settle for just getting Tom Dore or Wayne Larivee back. They were a little bland, but at least they called a fairly good game. Stacey's improved a lot from when they did the three man both, so I think he'd fit well with Dore/Larivee now.

Though the Bulls are patient, I doubt they jump the gun. They realize that all fans hate change from what they are used to. Tommy Edwards, the new PA guy, was a train wreck his first year back, but he's done a decent job since then and complaints about him have ceased (at least I don't remember the last time someone complained).

I think Funk/King will be similar in that after awhile they won't stand out for how bad they are, we'll just accept the parts of their games that stink and move on.

 

[CrouchinPaxson]

Bringing Doug Collins to Chicago is like asking Scottie Pippen to take Tedesachi's job. No, Doug Collins would want triple the salary of Ben Wallace.

I REALLY disliked Tommy, he has no emotion for the most part and actually seems more interested in advertising for Dunkin Donuts rather then the Bulls.


Wayne was my favorite announcer, after Johnny ofcourse. I believe Wayne now does College games for the BIGTEN.

 

[Fred]

I'd like to add Dumb Kashul to the list of moronic people who cover the Bulls. I don't get to hear his postgame show often, but there is rarely a time where I don't want to scream at the top of my lungs about what a complete idiot this guy is.

My all-time favorite story, was after the Orlando game, that I attended courtesy of the Great One, Kashul actually made the point that the weaker team had an advantage in a 7-game series. About 10 seconds after this statement is made, my cell phone rings, and it's Doug with, "Did you hear that?" It was hilarious. I wanted to call Kashul and ask him who has the advantage in an 82-game series.

 

[cool007]

I just hate the guy and I hate listening to him.

How many times do you see Gordon just make the shot from 15 foot by going one on one and when the team actually needs it, and then he will do it again and he would say, there was no pass and he shot it early in the clock or whatever.

He needs to look at the momemtum, if the guy is on fire or is feeling it or team was out of sync and he was trying to get an easy score or many other factors.

He does the same with Tyrus even though he had just made 1 about couple of possesions back.

Anyways, those are just some examples. I hate the guy and can't wait to see him gone.

 

[Kush77]

I'd like to do some more "Dumb Funk", but I took Doug's advice. I turn the volume down.

For the most part I watch the games on my DVR the next morning while I walk on my treadmill. But now I listen to my ipod instead of Neil and Stacey (the original king of comedy) King.

Someone posted a link to the game last night so I watched it at work, I didn get a kick out how Niel and Stacey were just bashing Roy Hibbert.

 

[dougthonus]

Fred wrote:

I'd like to add Dumb Kashul to the list of moronic people who cover the Bulls. I don't get to hear his postgame show often, but there is rarely a time where I don't want to scream at the top of my lungs about what a complete idiot this guy is.

My all-time favorite story, was after the Orlando game, that I attended courtesy of the Great One, Kashul actually made the point that the weaker team had an advantage in a 7-game series. About 10 seconds after this statement is made, my cell phone rings, and it's Doug with, "Did you hear that?" It was hilarious. I wanted to call Kashul and ask him who has the advantage in an 82-game series.

I don't hear Kashul too much either since I only hear him when I go to a Bulls game with a friend (typically I go with my wife who usually doesn't want to listen to the post game).

I'd describe Steve like this: He's generally there to promote the Bulls. He's typically trying to take a positive stance and trying to downplay the negative after a loss. He'll typically make excuses for most guys who aren't playing well or acknowledge they aren't playing well but try not to throw them under the bus.

His basketball knowledge and that specifically of the team seems to be at a relatively superficial level of what's required to do his job, but not of someone who's a die hard or real basketball guy.

I think from what I've heard Kashul is generally a pretty good guy for his position. He's mostly upbeat and friendly, he's nice to all his callers even when they are dumbasses, my guess is that he's doing what he's supposed to do.

That comment you quoted though was hilarious. I'm sure it was a mental flub on his part where he obviously didn't think about it long enough, and can't take it back. I've learned through a couple interviews not to be too harsh on live guys, because I've said some pretty stupid stuff live.

 

[Gene]

Funk is awful. I don't even know what the guy is watching half the time. Whenever a whistle is blown 9/10 times I see why it was blown, but Funk comes out of no where with the most stupid calls. He usually calls an offensive foul a 3 second call or something else. He's just really terrible. People might have thought he was good when he was on the radio, but that is only because you thought what he was calling was the truth and he got away with it.

 

[dougthonus]

Gene wrote:

Funk is awful. I don't even know what the guy is watching half the time. Whenever a whistle is blown 9/10 times I see why it was blown, but Funk comes out of no where with the most stupid calls. He usually calls an offensive foul a 3 second call or something else. He's just really terrible. People might have thought he was good when he was on the radio, but that is only because you thought what he was calling was the truth and he got away with it.

This is exactly how I feel about Funk.

 

[cool007]

Gene wrote:

Funk is awful. I don't even know what the guy is watching half the time. Whenever a whistle is blown 9/10 times I see why it was blown, but Funk comes out of no where with the most stupid calls. He usually calls an offensive foul a 3 second call or something else. He's just really terrible. People might have thought he was good when he was on the radio, but that is only because you thought what he was calling was the truth and he got away with it.

Well said. I think that is what I though too and kind of excited to see him on the TV but then quickly found out that he is a piece junk and how terrible he is.

I can't wait until he is gone and replaced by anyone with some knowledge.

 

[J-Mart]

He doesn't irritate me as much as he used to. The biggest thing that annoyed me was how much he ragged on Gordon but he has slowed down since Stacey has jumped on the Gordon bandwagon and now calls Gordon a "shot maker" haha. Obviously he makes tons of mistakes and bad calls and he has started to correct himself which he never used to do. I still wish we would get rid of him and pair someone else with King. King would be very good next to someone who was intelligent about basketball. His one liners make me lol every once and a while.

 

[st. park]

I've never been one to complain too much about announcers. Sure I favor certain guys over others, but rarely has an announcer actually detracted from my enjoyment of a sporting event. But Neil Funk proves to be the exception; I honestly think this guy is worse than Joe Morgan.

All I want is an announcer that provides unbiased play-by-play. I don't care if the guy is completely lacking of any personality (see Wayne Larivee), I don't care if the guy lacks basketball knowledge, I don't even mind mistakes or miscalls. At this point I'd be happy listening to anyone who even tries to provide objective play-by-play. It's all I want.

 

[pdenninggolden]

Neil Funk makes some of the silliest blunders; however, they never bother him. He is rather unique.

 

[Fred]

dougthonus wrote:

I think from what I've heard Kashul is generally a pretty good guy for his position. He's mostly upbeat and friendly, he's nice to all his callers even when they are dumbasses, my guess is that he's doing what he's supposed to do.

He's nice to the dumbasses, but when they are brilliant like me, he goes ballistic. In 2002 or 2003, I used to be the second caller on almost every postgame show with Carmen Delfaco, after some guy from Evanston. Kashul was a guest host on this particular show, and he started talking about how great freaking Trenton Hassell was.

I basically said, "Trenton Hassell wouldn't start for any other team in the league, and you're sitting here celebrating him. Do you think the opponents lose one minute of sleep over Trenton Hassell's defense? The guy is a disaster, and I'm sick of you defending this crap that Krause has put on the floor for the past few years. We suck, admit it, and start asking for someone to take responsibility for this disaster, like our General Manager Jerry Krause."

We basically started yelling at each other, a la me and Mark arguing about Gordon and Monte Ellis, and then he hung up on me. He bad-mouthed me the whole show, without giving me a chance to defend myself.

I'll have my revenge one day on Kashul.

 

[dougthonus]

Fred wrote:

He's nice to the dumbasses, but when they are brilliant like me, he goes ballistic. In 2002 or 2003, I used to be the second caller on almost every postgame show with Carmen Delfaco, after some guy from Evanston. Kashul was a guest host on this particular show, and he started talking about how great freaking Trenton Hassell was.

I basically said, "Trenton Hassell wouldn't start for any other team in the league, and you're sitting here celebrating him. Do you think the opponents lose one minute of sleep over Trenton Hassell's defense? The guy is a disaster, and I'm sick of you defending this crap that Krause has put on the floor for the past few years. We suck, admit it, and start asking for someone to take responsibility for this disaster, like our General Manager Jerry Krause."

We basically started yelling at each other, a la me and Mark arguing about Gordon and Monte Ellis, and then he hung up on me. He bad-mouthed me the whole show, without giving me a chance to defend myself.

I'll have my revenge one day on Kashul.

Your example just proves my point about why Kashul is doing his job. He's basically the light PR guy who's supposed to put a positive spin on everything to help protect and prop up the image of the organization. He's paid by the Bulls not as an unbiased guy.

When you call in to crap on the organization (even if they deserve it) he defends them as he's likely instructed to do.

I don't think Kashul is anything great per se, but I wouldn't necessarily rip the guy for handling his role.

 

[Rerisen]

It's rare that a announcer is despised by both his own team's fans AND opponent fans who tune in. But Funk has managed to accomplish this amazing feat despite not even providing lucid or accurate play-by-play half the time.

 

[??? ??????]

I really dislike Neil Funk as well. He isn't interesting to listen to and actually very annoying, he makes mistake after mistake, and his basketball knowledge isn't all that great either.

The things I dislike:

-His constant bashing of Ben Gordon. The one that gets me the most is when Ben Gordon drives to the basket, and really takes his man off the dribble and misses the shot either because a no-call foul or simply missing because of the shot blockers altering his shot, and then Funk will say, "Too much dribbling." It is not too much dribbling. The problem wasn't the dribbling at all. He took his man off the dribble and did a fine job at it. His problem was missing the shot.

-Similar bashing of Tyrus Thomas. Thomas will miss a jumpshot, and Funk will say, "He shouldn't be taking that." Thomas' jumpshot isn't all the way there yet, but I think he can be pretty consistent with another summer or two of practicing it. It goes in often enough that you know it's a skill that is developing for Thomas. If he's open, take the jumpshot. With enough practice, it will be going in often enough that it could be a Bulls deadly weapn.

-He constantly misidentifies players. The silliest one was when he thought Joakim Noah was Derrick Rose. How can you confuse the face of the franchise with a guy with clown hair?

-He constantly misidentifies plays. There have been times where he has thought a technical foul was called, when it was simply a personal foul. He will confuse blocking fouls with charging calls. I would hope by now, that he would have realized that the referees make certain signals for different kinds of fouls.

You don't really want to see anyone lose their job, but Neil Funk should cease to be a Bulls announcer. He's just not very good at the job. I would hope the Bulls would bring Wayne Larivee back.