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Inside TNT’s Inside The NBA ShowThe Emmy Award-winning TV show hosts LeBron James’ return to Cleveland.

by Kyle Stack / @KyleStack

When the NBA released the first portion of its ‘10-11regular-season schedule in early August, Tim Kielyobserved at least two games at which TNT’s InsideThe NBA studio show should be present. Notsurprisingly, both involved the Miami Heat.

One was a high-profile match-up with the defendingEastern Conference champion Boston Celtics. Theother game was against a Cleveland Cavaliers squadweakened in the offseason by the loss of its keyplayer — LeBron James.

Kiely, a coordinating producer for Inside The NBA,feels it’s critical that the show, with host Ernie

Johnson and analysts Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, occasionally leave the comfort of its Atlanta studiosfor the excitement of a regular-season game. The criteria is that the contest be highly anticipated, which isprecisely the case with James returning to Cleveland for the first time since he decided to form a Big Three trioin Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

“The idea this year was we saw an opportunity to take the studio on the road in the regular season to biggames and big cities and see what works,” Kiely said in a phone interview from TNT’s Atlanta offices. “Wewere going to go on the road anyway, and obviously with what happened with LeBron, that made a game thatcould have been a regular game into a pretty big deal.”

The popularity of Inside The NBA, which has won five Emmy Awards for best studio show since theJohnson/Barkley/Smith trio formed in 2000, assures that the scene at the arena will be even more raucouswith its presence.

Setting up the show

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The studio show is typically set up in an area where Smith and Barkley can interact with fans — eithercourtside or in a section of seats above what’s known as a vomitory, an entranceway players use to enter andexit the court. Occasionally, the host team will offer the studio crew a spot in a luxury suite or a restaurantsomewhere in the arena, but that’s usually turned down. “The problem with that is we’re pulled away from thecrowd,” said Steve Fiorello, a coordinating director for Inside The NBA. “We want to be in the heart of it.”

Fiorello and other crew members survey locations well in advance of the show’s on-air date at the arena;Fiorello visited Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arenain early November. They settled on a courtsidelocation for the Cavs-Heat game, since theCavaliers didn’t want them to build a set on top ofthe vomitory, as they had done in the past.

The surveying process is simplified by the fact thestudio crew has been to most of the League’sarenas. They know the lay of the land for mostvenues, so there aren’t many surprises on theirvisits. And it’s not as if they typically have muchspace in which to work, anyway.

Fiorello said they work in a space no larger than12′ x 12′ or 14′ x 14′, in which they can place abar-height type table for branding and forJohnson to put his notes on, stools for the on-air cast to sit on and enough room to squeeze in the rest of thecrew, their cameras and lighting equipment. Four hand-held cameras are brought from the studio, three ofwhich are used on the set itself. The fourth roams around for pre- and post-game interviews or shots of theplayers warming up on the floor.

The simplification of the surveying process is a reflection of the ease with which the decision is made to visit avenue in the first place. “It’s not a massively complex decision because we’ve done it before,” Kiely said. He’llcontact the NBA, which will typically sign off on the idea, leaving the home team to approve the request andhelp figure out a part of the arena at which the show can settle in.

Figuring out where to put the green room for on-air talent to get ready and where to place the studio’s mobiletruck that houses staff and equipment also come into play, although those are more easily-settled issues. Thegame crew, that is the crew the directs and produces the announcing crew for the game, will typically set up ina mobile truck on a street outside the arena. The same goes for the extra mobile truck needed for when InsideThe NBA is present at an arena.

Inside The NBA’s cultureNobody knows quite what to expect when James enters Quicken Loans Arena, except that the situation couldbecome awkward and uncomfortable very quickly. What’s a much easier prediction to make is the enthusiasmwith which the crowd will receive the Inside The NBA crew.

“When we show up, we become this voice of basketball,” said Smith, who admitted he didn’t want thatcomment to come off as arrogant. It’s just that he and Barkley have such cache with fans from their role on theshow that people feel closer to them.

Smith said fans are more likely to approach him to start a conversation now than during his NBA career, whichlasted for 10 seasons on six teams. And Smith and Barkley’s honesty about various NBA topics can makefans feel as if the two former players are an extension of their thoughts. “Because Charles and I have suchloud opinions about things, there’s more heckling going on [with the fans]. It’s a lot more fun,” Smith insisted.

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2 Responses to “Inside TNT’s Inside The NBAShow” Inside TNT’s Inside The NBA Show – SLAM Online by LebronJames Miami Heat Basketball Posted: Dec.2 at 11:32 am

[...] SLAM Online [...]

GP23 Posted: Dec.2 at 11:40 am

How many agree that Shaq will have a spot on this show once heretires from playing??

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