Remember when you were a kid and you got a new toy from the store? Those were the best days.

New toys are a lot fun to show to your friends and play with over and over and over until they grow old and you want something new.

That really does not change when you get older or when you are the biggest sports and entertainment channel on the planet.

I am talking of course about ESPN and their super duper slow motion camera that they have busted out for the NBA Conference Finals.

After three games I am pretty tired of it and I don’t see the need for it on every bumper, intro and hero shot. Was the old normal slow motion just not cutting it?

I can see the benefits of it for rare uses of a huge play or a questionable call but just to show someone hitting a basket is lame.

In fact I don’t know if you notice but the commentators were having a hard time talking over it and matching the speed. They were done before the shot was over.

Jeff Van Gundy even took some shots at it last night with some sarcastic remarks.

If I want to see a John Woo movie I will go see it. I don’t need to see the facial expressions of Eddie House when he screws up a play.

This is classic ESPN getting hold of a new toy and beating it to death. Anyone else find it overused and pointless?

It is not quite as bad as that rope camera they have that follows the game up and down the floor “as if you were there”. Every time they use that I can’t wait until they go back to the normal angle. I worked in sports television for many years and I can tell you one thing, a lot of the game or studio producers love to play with new toys and reinvent the wheel while directors don’t. Guess who wins most of the time? Granted they all have bosses as well and I am sure there is an advertiser that wants their brand all over the use.

Just show the game the way it is meant to be shown. Don’t be the game, cover it.

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