Not a lot of news going on with the Raptors so I am taking a look towards the new season. I was trying to find some examples of the new Raptors play-by-play guy, Matt Devlin and came up empty. Very rare that you go to YouTube and can’t find what you are looking for.

Anyways I decided to go in another direction and contact those who have watched and listened to him over the years. The fans of the Bobcats and Grizzlies.

I contacted Bobcats Planet, Queen City Hoops and 3 Shades Of Blue to ask what they thought of Devlin as a broadcaster and what we can expect as we delve into like after Swirsky.

Here is what they had to say.

Hugh from Bobcats Planet

Good to hear from you! I really liked old Matt. In fact, I wrote a little obit
for him last year when he was mysteriously canned. Here’s the link:

(Disclaimer: like just about everything else I write, it veered wildly off-topic
about halfway-thru)

Yes, he’s hokey, and he has two semi-annoying habits. The first is that he’s a
big-believer in the “speaking of” segue:

Example:
Color Commentator: I don’t think Kobe Bryant will ever break Wilt Chamberlain’s
single-game record.
Matt: Speaking of “break,” it looks like Gerald Wallace just broke his skull
open on the floor by landing on his head. Heh-heh…
(Meanwhile, Bobcats fan at home is watching in horror what appears to be Wallace
dying on the TV screen in a pool of blood)

The second is he has the tendency (and he’s definitely not the only one here) to
say, “He can do that” after a player just did “that” whatever “that” is.

Example:
(Nazr Mohammed drains an open 15-footer)
Matt: He can do that.

Maybe this only bothers me, but I always found myself thinking, “Yes, clearly he
can do that, Matt, because we all just watched him do that.”

But these are minor gripes. Matt knows his stuff and is relentlessly cheerful. He’ll get you through tough times and blow-outs, and lord knows we’ve had a few
of those over the years. I still don’t understand why they let the guy go,
because he was one of the few people (including most of the guys on the team

and the ownership, I sometimes think) who actually LIKED being in Charlotte.

Enjoy him!

Brett from Queen City Hoops

The following from the CharlotteBlogcat covers it pretty well -
“On the other hand, the Charlotte Observer’s normally even-keeled Rick Bonnell has lately been leaning to the Matt Devlin/cornball-optimistic side, which hasn’t exactly reassured me of his objectivity.”

I find most announcers annoying (I couldn’t be more happy to see Billy Packer leaving) so I don’t tend to watch the game with the volume up. Matt Devlin was no exception. But he is at least better than having to listen to Muggsy Bogues on the radio.

Joshua from 3 Shades of Blue

I’m going to have to give it to you straight. That means that I will be forced to burn down your residence for making me recall the broadcasting stylings of Matt Devlin after years of therapy to drive any memory of him from my mind. Ok — he’s not that bad.

Devlin is competent, although very unoriginal. Be prepared to hear plenty of the standard cliches without a ton of interesting insight. I hope for your sake that you have an above average color commentator to offset his rather bland approach. He knows enough about the game to make for a solid broadcast, but you won’t mistake him for Marv Albert in a million years.

Hope that helps prepare you for the Matt Devlin Experience.

Well Raptors fans what do you think? Are you ready for the Matt Devlin experience? Let us all know.

If you are wanting to know how the Raps are doing in summer league, you better go see The Arsenalist, he does a killer job covering it.

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!