One of the trademarks of Fox Sports Live has been putting their analysts in more general roles to commentate on the news of the day and differentiate themselves from SportsCenter. When FS Live launched, it featured an athlete panel that harkened back to the days of Best Damn. The panel's role has been reduced and athletes now focus more on their particular sports throughout the program.
On Tuesday's FS Live, NBA analyst Gary Payton joined Dan O'Toole to do highlights for the night's top story – the Pacers-Heat showdown in the Eastern Conference. That's quite normal. Former players sitting in with anchors for an extended highlight package happens all the time these days as they drop tidbits of analysis and insight.
During his highlight, Gary Payton gave a shoutout to Rick Balboa instead of Rocky, forgot players' names, and repeatedly shouted the NBA Jam catchphrase "He's on fiiiiire." Like, for almost every made basket.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CHYs-XfxvP4
That was an experience. Someone should have never told him using a catchphrase was a good idea. Payton's idea of analysis is basically just repeating what happened, except more loudly. Other highlights from Payton include calling C.J. Watson "the layup king" for some reason and being totally unable to control the volume of his voice. This highlight is most definitely on fiiiiiiire becasue of the massive amounts of dynamite that just went boom.
