Dickie V: ‘I Didn’t Know My Cellphone Was on, Baby! My Bad With a Capital M!’
Uncategorized February 27th. 2007, 2:51pm
For the legions of sports fans who loathe and detest perpetually loud ESPN college basketball announcer Dick Vitale, you’ll definitely want to listen to this: Loser with Socks has audio from an embarrassing cell-phone faux paux by the vibrant Vitale.
While getting ready to conduct a radio interview, Vitale’s cell phone inadvertently picked up a conversation he was having at some restaurant, presumably with fans. Vitale, who is calling the Tennessee-Florida tonight, trashed the Gators and Joakim Noah, saying that Gators coach Billy Donovan told him NBA scouts would be ‘crazy’ to draft Noah ahead of teammate Al Horford. You’ve just got to hear it for yourself. Donovan has already come out and denied it all.
We actually enjoy Vitale. He’s passionate about the sport, and though we’ll get ripped for this, there are times when Duke (or any other team) is rolling, JJ Redick drops a triple, bedlam ensues, the opponent calls a timeout, Vitale bursts a blood vessel in his head screaming and ESPN cuts to commercial. At this moment, we’ve found ourselves, on more than one occasion, going to get a snack and saying to nobody in particular, ‘It’s awesome, baby!’ You bet we’re nerdy.
Bigger picture: What’s up with Florida? Vitale spends plenty of time talking to coaches and we totally believe Donovan said this. Are the Gators unraveling? Not only have they lost two of three, but Noah has struggled in recent weeks, and if he shits the bed tonight in Knoxville, the Gators No. 1 seed could be in jeopardy. We’ve always thought Florida was the favorite to repeat, but having watched the Gators recently, a couple players (Taurean Green, Joakim Noah) seem to be playing with the NBA on the mind. Imagine Noah’s horror – he was a lock to be the No. 1 pick had he come out last year, and now he’s, at best, the No. 4 pick (behind Durant, Oden, and UNC’s Brandan Wright).
We’ll shut up now and patiently await ESPN’s coverage of this one.
Dick Vitale Reveals Billy Donovan Comments … Oops and Oh Shit (Loser with Socks)
Dick Vitale’s Big Mouth Gets Him in Troube (NCAA Fanhouse)
Dickie V Loses Cred With Billy D (ESPNBS)
9 Responses to “Dickie V: ‘I Didn’t Know My Cellphone Was on, Baby! My Bad With a Capital M!’”
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February 27th, 2007 at 3:09 PM
lol @ Taurean Green thinking about the NBA. Maybe the NBADL, and that’s a maybe.
February 27th, 2007 at 4:30 PM
My beef with Vitale is that he adds nothing of value to the broadcast. He’s a hypeman, and a bad one at that. Other commentators at least try to add some insight and game analysis. Vitale just adds volume.
Anyway, regarding him trashing Noah – that’s hilarious.
February 27th, 2007 at 4:32 PM
This is why I come to this site. Awesome. I was in the Far West AAU 3-Point contest in high school and Dickie V was there and I was not impressed with him, he was mean to the younger kids because they couldn’t focus on his boring stories (He was giving a motivational speech, baby!). And I swear to God, I wasn’t even paying attention and he just came up and signed my shirt, it was pretty funny. After the contest, it went in the wash just like any other shirt would.
February 27th, 2007 at 4:53 PM
I think Vitale used to be a good announcer. He adds a ton of excitement to the game broadcast and is really one of a kind. It’s just in the past 6-8 years or so when Duke was in it’s prime run he decided to become a total schlep for that program and made a lot of his future broadcasts painful to endure (duke this, duke that)
February 27th, 2007 at 4:54 PM
It’s too bad what Dickie V has become. IF you ever catch an old game called by him on ESPN Classic, he really knows what he’s talking about. In fact Old Dickie V is far better than any basketball color guy today (not that that’s saying much). He’s just bought into his own image and really become a caricature of himself. And his never ending hyping of the ACC is really annoying, any non biased basketball eye would tell you the ACC sucks this year, but he’ll have you believe they deserver 8 entries.
All that being said, I can’t speak to MtotheP’s experience, but my brother saw him at some resteraunt in FL (probably the same one where this infamous phone call took place) and said he was great, just talked basketball with everyone and signed autographs. The guy really loves basketball and people.
February 27th, 2007 at 5:38 PM
LC21 – The Acc sucks this year? You must mean its spread above all other conferences has narrowed.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:30 PM
I met Vitale at a speech years ago and found him to be incredibly knowledgeable, upbeat and pleasant. I don’t like the Duke thing either, but the indefatigable enthusiasm is what the college game is all about. Not many of the commentators add much to the broadcasts that hasn’t been spoon-fed from the university SIDs. You’d rather hear Billy Packer, for crying out loud?
February 27th, 2007 at 11:48 PM
Well, either Donovan really said it or Dickie V likes to lie to people to make himself look cool… either way I think the radio station should have cut it off when they realized he didn’t know he was on the air… then they turned into cowardly little bitches when he called back and didn’t even confront him about it. Pussies.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:31 PM
You’d rather hear Billy Packer, for crying out loud?
Yes. At least Packer calls the game