After retiring from the NBA this summer, Shaquille O’Neal joined up with the gang at TNT, adding another former player to the Inside the NBA staff. But now, there’s a rumor circulating that Shaq is looking to wrestle at this coming year’s WrestleMania. His rumored opponent is The Big Show, who WWE bills as “the largest athlete in professional sports." 

Athletes getting into the ring is nothing new. Remember Dennis Rodman’s multiple WCW appearances? Karl Malone being brought in to counter Rodman? NFL legend Kevin Greene facing the very same Big Show, then known as The Giant? And hell, even Shaq himself got into the act a couple of years ago! But Shaq isn’t an athlete anymore, he’s an announcer. Announcers really don’t have that aura about them that athletes do. 

I was able to think of one announcer that got involved with wrestling, though in a decidedly non-physical aspect: Milwaukee Brewers play by play man Bob Uecker, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010. It’ll be interesting to see if TNT even plugs O’Neal’s appearances with the company (if they happen), due to WWE’s relationship with Viacom. TNT used to be the home of WCW Monday Nitro, which was taken off the air more than a decade ago when WWE bought out WCW. Wrestling hasn’t made an appearance on Turner stations since, and I really don’t know what the company would do if O’Neal decided to get involved.

It would be pretty cool to see the Inside the NBA crew interact with some of the WWE elite, though. Again, this is highly implausible, but imagine the Big Show or other WWE wrestlers invading the Inside the NBA set, and dressing Ernie Johnson down on a level that Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley just wish they could. And hell, think about Barkley and Smith showing up on WWE Raw or Smackdown to support their co-worker.

I’d love to see a crossover between the two flagship shows, but I think it’s extremely unlikely to happen. But it would be a nice way to shake things up for fans of both programs. Neither the NBA or WWE really need to leech off of each other, but I’m sure fans of both products would love the crossover.

The NBA is back this Holiday weekend, so enjoy the following nationally televised games or fire up your overpriced NBA League Pass. Also, marvel in the fact that Breen (and JVG) will appear to be in two places at once on Christmas Day.  And at least spread a little more holiday cheer than the newest members of the New Orleans Hornets.

Sunday, December 25

Boston Celtics @ New York Knicks (TNT Noon) Marv Albert, Steve Kerr
Miami Heat @ Dallas Mavericks (ABC 2:30PM) Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy
Chicago Bulls @ Los Angeles Lakers (ABC 5PM) Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown
Orlando Magic @ Oklahoma City Thunder (ESPN 8PM) Dave Pasch, Doris Burke
Los Angeles Clippers @ Golden State Warriors (ESPN 10:30PM) Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, Chris Mullin

Monday, December 26

Houston Rockets @ Orlando Magic (NBA TV 7PM) Local Broadcast
Los Angeles Lakers @ Sacramento Kings (NBA TV 10PM) Local Broadcast

Tuesday, December 27

Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat (TNT 8PM) Marv Albert, Mike Fratello, Steve Kerr
Utah Jazz @ Los Angeles Lakers (TNT 10:30PM) Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller

Wednesday, December 28

Boston Celtics @ New Orleans Hornets (NBA TV 7PM) Local Broadcast
New York Knicks @ Golden State Warriors (NBA TV 10PM) Local Broadcast

Thursday, December 29

Dallas Mavericks @ Oklahoma City Thunder (TNT 8PM) Marv Albert, Mike Fratello, Steve Kerr
New York Knicks @ Los Angeles Lakers (TNT 10:30PM) Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller

Friday, December 30

Phoenix Suns @ New Orleans Hornets (NBA TV 8PM) Local Broadcast
Chicago Bulls @ Los Angeles Clippers (NBA TV 10:30PM) Local Broadcast

Saturday, December 31

Utah Jazz @ San Antonio Spurs (NBA TV 8:30PM) Local Broadcast

Sunday, January 1, 2012 - New Years Day

Boston Celtics @ Washington Wizards (NBA TV 6PM) Local Broadcast

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Yesterday we ran through the first half of our sports media wish list for 2012, so be sure to mosey over that way if so inclined. Below is the second half of what we're hoping to see in 2012.

The Return Of Hard Knocks

We were pretty diligent in covering how the lockout was impeding HBO and NFL Films from procuring a team to participate in the wildly popular all access show. While many were just happy to have the NFL labor issues resolved, it was deflating not to have Hard Knocks building up anticipation for the upcoming season.

Looking back at past seasons, there have been times I've thought, "That's one of the best hours of television I've ever watched." Here is one of many memorable clips from over the years...

While it's likely we'll see Hard Knocks return after a one year hiatus, the bottom line is that an NFL team needs to sign off on giving that access and being subjected to additional exposure and scrutiny. It's a big decision and one with a lot of risk involved. 

Given how awesome and unique Hard Knocks is, we're definitely saving a wish for its return. Off the top of my head the Broncos and Lions seem like some worthy candidates for next year.

A very interesting week in the Dickies vote as three new faces make their debut in the weekly winners.  I'm as amazed as you are that this is Deion Sanders' first quote of the NFL season to make the list.  Curt Menefee and Rodney Harrison make their first appearance as well while none of the top four in the standings garnered points this week.  The envelope, please...

10) "Patriots secondary. Much improved. Didn't blow any coverages, no miscommunications, big balls...big thrown balls over their head...much improved day." - Rodney Harrison (via DevsFan30)

9) "The Ravens score a meaningless touchdown ... Well except to some friendly degenerates we know." - Al Michaels (via joelb811) obviously referring to his own betting habits.

8) "Joe Flacco is as mobile as any QB playing the game right now" - Cris Collinsworth (via several)

7) "The ball is out of bounds. Let's see who touched it last." - Marv Albert. Is this basketball? (via bmitchelf)

6) "I think Michael Vick is starting to come" - Chris Berman on NFL Sunday Countdown (via nro1111)

5) "LOOK AT THIS CLOWN!!" - Thom Brennaman (via Packey) [VIDEO]

4) ‎"It's chilly today in New York. But it is November -- I guess it should be." - Joe Buck (via sys)

3) "Caleb Hanie working his magic as he always does." - Curt Menefee (via natedog2827)

2) "They'll go for it here on first down." - Joe Buck (via sctvman)

1) "Who gets in your butt?" - Deion Sanders to Tony Romo (via thedudeinatl)

Week 15 Top 5 -

1) Dick Stockton 87 pts

2) Brian Billick 55 pts

3) Phil Simms 53.5 pts

4) Jon Gruden 47 pts

5) Chris Berman 39 pts

Others receiving votes -Mike Tirico 28 pts, Joe Buck 27 pts, Al Michaels 15.5, Cris Collinsworth 14 pts, Dave Lapham 14 pts, Jim Mora 14 pts,  Dan Dierdorf 13 pts, Rich Gannon 12 pts, Terry Bradshaw 10 pts, Scott Hanson 10 pts, Jim Nantz 10, Deion Sanders 10, Dan Fouts 8.5 pts, Bob Griese 8.5 pts, Troy Aikman 8 pts, Curt Menefee 8 pts, Thom Brennaman 8 pts, Dan Patrick 7 pts, Marv Albert 7 pts, Mike Mayock 6 pts, Daryl Johnston 5 pts, Marcellus Wiley 5 pts, Tim Ryan 5 pts,  Bob Costas 4 pts, Warren Moon 3 pts, Keyshawn Johnson 3 pts, Chad Pennington 2 pts, Tony Siragusa 1 pt, Ron Jaworski 1 pt, Rodney Harrison 1 pt.

You can check out the Week 16 NFL announcing schedule here.

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Joe Buck has joined Twitter and it was a pretty eventful first day for @buck with just above 15,000 followers and 22 tweets. I am guessing by the time you read this, both those numbers will be a lot higher.

What struck me is that unlike other media personalities who slowly ramp up their usage and usually use their account in a very vanilla way, Buck surprisingly came out of the gate with a fury you wouldn't expect from the often beleaguered Fox announcer.

The first thing that caught my eye was Buck's twitter bio and picture shown below.

No fluffy bio or professional photo of Buck in a suit and wearing makeup. Instead we get more or less an unshaven cell phone picture of Buck and a bio that punches back at year of vocal criticism (a lot of which comes from us at times).

Buck's 22 tweets are also pretty saucy. A tweet about Artie Lange, poking fun of Albert Pujols media overkill, admitting his hair is going grey, and poking fun of how people consider his announcing style can be a bit dry...

While this probably won't sway the many who dislike Buck as Fox's front man, it definitely humanizes a guy who has long been considered a bore in terms of offering up emotion and personality in his work.

For quite a while, Buck has been the pinata he references in his bio and he's never really had an outlet to dish it back out. Whether it's us, Justin Timberlake, or Artie Lange, you have to have some level of sympathy for a guy who gets it from all angles. He's been the lead guy for Fox forever and often bemoaned by fans and media pundits alike. It's probably healthy for him to have an avenue to connect with fans and have a back channel where he can be a bit more casual and personal in what he says.

Upon seeing Buck's account I thought of Nicolas Cage's character in The Weather Man. Cage's character is a media personality transitioning from local to national prominence that nobody seems to like. In fact, people throw food and drinks at him with some level of regularity. He lives in the shadow of his famous father and being an independent movie, obviously he's emotionally dead inside and suffering a midlife crisis before having an epiphany that he needs to LIVE a bit.

Below is the trailer, and by no means in this endorsement of Nicolas Cage... who probably should join Twitter too.

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Last week, we shared with you our annual list of the Top 10 Announcing Gaffes of the year.  This year, we thought it was only right to give a shout to our favorite clips and the best announcing moments of 2011.  It was tough to whittle our list down to only ten, but these are the very best of the best in the year that was at Awful Announcing.  The Top Ten features announcers from high schools to the minors to the pros and from America to Spain, England, and Italy.  We hope you enjoy this list of classic clips as much as we do.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

10) Cricket Smash

Welsh cricket announcer Edward Bevan gets quite the scare as this smashing cricket hit smashes the window of the commentary box.  The audio of Bevan bravely commentating his own life flashing before his eyes and the glass breaking is quite extraordinary.

9) "TouchDOOOWWWWn!!"

This still unnamed Georgia high school football announcer was one of our favorite finds of the year for the simple way that he exuberantly screamed the word "touchdown" like the finest evangelist. (See, you can make religious jokes about football without mentioning Tim Tebow... oops)

Playoff implications like woah in Week 16. Over half of the Christmas Eve/Fourth Day of Hanakkuh games can affect the playoff picture in a big way. Depending on what happens on Saturday, the SNF game could also become mostly meaningless, as the Bears could be eliminated and the Packers could have first place in the NFC all wrapped up.  The MNF game should be a real doozie, though, as the Falcons travel to Nawlins to play their heated rival Saints.  Happy Holidays, everyone!

Your broadcast maps can be found here, via The 506.

Thursday, December 22

Houston Texans @ Indianapolis Colts (NFLN 8:20PM) Brad Nessler, Mike Mayock, Alex Flanagan

New York Giants @ New York Jets (FOX 1PM) Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa
St. Louis Rams @ Pittsburgh Steelers (FOX 1PM) Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Arizona Cardinals @ Cincinnati Bengals (FOX 1PM) Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick, Laura Okmin
Minnesota Vikings @ Washington Redskins (FOX 1PM) Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Carolina Panthers (FOX 1PM) Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington

Denver Broncos @ Buffalo Bills (CBS 1PM) Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Oakland Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs (CBS 1PM) Kevin Harlan, Solomon Wilcots
Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots (CBS 1PM)  Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Cleveland Browns @ Baltimore Ravens (CBS 1PM) Spero Dedes, Rich Gannon
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Tennessee Titans (CBS 1PM) Bill Macatee, Steve Tasker

San Diego Chargers @ Detroit Lions (CBS 4PM) Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorf
Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas Cowboys (FOX 4:15PM) Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver
San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks (FOX 4:15PM) Ron Pitts, Charles Davis

Sunday, December 25 - Christmas Day

Chicago Bears @ Green Bay Packers (NBC 8:20PM) Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya

Atlanta Falcons @ New Orleans Saints (ESPN 8:30PM) Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski

h/t Sammy!

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Like a kid on Christmas morning, every year I wait with anticipation to see what the Associated Press has deemed as the Top 10 Sports Stories of the Year.  Ok... so maybe that's overexaggerating a bit, but it's still fun to look back on the year as a whole to see what stories mattered in the world of the sports.  You can check Matt's podcast with SI's Richard Deitsch discussing many of these stories.  And, as with any year-end list, the 2011 selections by the AP have left plenty of room for debate.  First, the Top 10 from the AP:

(1) Penn State
(2) NFL/NBA Lockouts
(3) Packers Win
(4) Conference Realignment
(5) Cardinals Win
(6) Ohio State
(7) Mavericks Win
(8) Dan Wheldon Dies
(9) Syracuse
(10) Women's World Cup

Now, some analysis:

What The AP Got Right
-Absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the AP got the #1 story of the year right, the Penn State scandal.  Very rarely does a sports story grip the nation in the fashion of the horrible child abuse scandal at Penn State and the fall of the legendary Joe Paterno.  The developments at Penn State didn't just lead the likes of ESPN and the blogosphere for weeks, it led the top of national news programs.  Not only was the detail of the allegations on a disgusting and sensational level, but the coverup by people in power at Penn State directly led to the firing of the all-time winningest coach in college football history.  

-The AP also got the 2nd story of the year correct, the ongoing labor drama in the NBA and NFL. The first half of the year, the sports media was paralyzed by the thought of missing a second of NFL action.  And, perhaps in part due to the overload of lockout coverage and the mass hysteria missing games would cause, the NFL players and owners finally got a deal done.  The NBA was not so fortunate with their lockout causing games to be missed, although the messiness of Godfather Stern versus the players is still making for endless fodder as we approach the Christmas Day opening of the season.

Stories Ranked Too Low
-For a story that dominated much of the summer months, it was surprising to see the Mavericks NBA Title win rank only #7 on the AP's list.  If nothing else, the Mavericks were only supporting characters to the real drama of the NBA Finals, the fact that they beat LeBron James and the Miami Heat.  After the Decision Debacle of 2010, there was even more pressure on King James and the Heat to win the championship.  The fact that they made it all the way to the NBA Finals, only to lose to a deserving Dirk Nowitzki, was certainly a bigger story than just the #7 spot.  Then again, a LeBron James choke job in the playoffs isn't anything new.  

-It may have been a token nod, but the Women's World Cup was one of the most dramatic sporting events of the 2011 calendar year.  From the dramatic run of the U.S. Women's National Team, to the eventual champions Japan winning the tournament after the devastating earthquake in their country, the Women's World Cup showed this country will support soccer at the highest level, no matter the gender.  

Stories Ranked Too High
-As a bitter Bears and Cubs fan who lives in Columbus, OH... I'd like to argue with a straight face that the Packers Super Bowl win, the Cardinals World Series title, and the Ohio State scandal are overrated.  Yes, 2011 wasn't the best year for yours truly as a sports fan.  But, if I had to go with one that was really ranked too high, it would be the St. Louis Cardinals and their comeback World Series win.  Yes, Game 6 was an epic comeback by the Cardinals, but it was also a spectacular failure by the Texas Rangers. Much like 2006, the Cardinals were once again a mediocre team who got hot at the right time.  Heck, the Cardinals only had the 2nd best miracle comeback to even get in the postseason, ranking behind the Rays/Red Sox race.  If anything, after seeing the San Fransisco Giants slotted in the same #5 position last year, it seems the AP just slid the generic World Series winner in the same spot.  The AP also fails to mention Albert Pujols's money grab to leave the Cardinals for the Angels in free agency this month, a baseball story with perhaps even bigger ramifications.  

Stories That Could Have Been Considered
-Yes, the AP did a great job as usual with their year-end review.  But, there were a couple of stories that were just as big that could have slotted in the Top 10.  The dependancy on the leader remains constant in the lives of sports fans, but ESPN certainly shifted from reporting news to making news in 2011, and mostly for the wrong reasons.  From the Longhorn Network and college realignment, to Craig James, to the #1 New York Times bestseller about the inside world of Bristol, ESPN found their motives in question by many in the sports media world.  In fact, one could argue the #FreeBruce movement alone was one of the top sports stories of the year because it showed the blowback against ESPN's darker side from fans and bloggers.  

-And last, but certainly not least... Tim Tebow.  Whether you like him or not, or think the media has obsessed over Tebow with their coverage, there is no question Tebow has been the story of the NFL season.  Let's just hope 2012 doesn't see the predictable overcorrection by the sports media that sees Tebow the quarterback, and the person, obliterated.  

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John Ourand of Sports Business Journal just put together his 2012 sports media predictions and given his track record, access, and insight, it's definitely worth a read. Looking back, Ourand has a very respectable batting average despite the fact that some of the predictions are swinging for the fences rather than playing it safe.

A lot of the 2012 predictions are things I'd openly welcome, which got me thinking -- what would be on my sports media wish list for the new year? After some brainstorming, here is the first half of ten things I'd like to see happen in the coming year:

A Healthy Recovery And Return To Work For Steve Sabol

It's been a while since we've got an update on the health of Steve Sabol, as the NFL Films President has been very private about his battle with cancer. In August, it was a watershed moment as Steve introduced his also ailing father for his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame. The impact of the Sabols and their legacy can be seen in this great video. In a nutshell, football wouldn't be America's most popular sport if not for their ahead-of-the-curve vision they've executed for nearly 50 years. 

I've been trying to will good news from the silence surrounding Steve's time away. With that in mind, we'll lead off our 2012 wish list by wishing a healthy recovery and return to work for one of the most underrated people in sports media. 

MLB Blows Up Their Truly Terrible Video Policy ...

After a bit of a hiatus, the AA Podcast is back!  Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated is our guest on the newest edition to discuss the biggest sports and media stories of 2011.  We examine the most impactful stories of the last year including the scandals at Penn State and Syracuse, TebowMania, Craig James, and much more.  Richard also gives us his breakthrough announcer of 2011 and names to watch moving forward in 2012 as well as a bit of Rapid Fire on the most notable announcers in sports.  All that and more on a jampacked AA podcast looking back on the year in sports for 2011.

Make sure to follow Richard on Twitter if you aren't already and if you've missed any of our podcasts, download them from ITunes.

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