When Kings fans aren’t at Sleep Train Arena watching the game live, many tune in to Comcast SportsNet California to catch the action on TV or on the go.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Comcast SportsNet has two separate studios under one roof: CSN Bay Area and CSN California. The latter is the home of Kings basketball broadcasting and is where fans are able to see Sacramento's home squad in action.
Most fans are familiar with the long-time tandem of Grant Napear and Jerry Reynolds when they watch the team on TV, but there’s a whole other side of the CSN team that brings the game to the screen.
In the studio, Producer Eric Simms is one of those responsible for running the show. Simms broke down just a brief look at some of the preparation that goes on before the cameras even start rolling.
“Primarily, I start with a blank slate. I go through the rundown of the show with [on-air talent] like Grant [Napear] and Jerry [Reynolds] and make sure I have it all timed out. I get the topics of the game going,” Simms said. “So I’ll go through all of the game previews, the game notes, and I dig for the little nuggets of info. Basically, my job is to create as many elements as I can for the presentation to be as diverse as possible and to lead the conversation.”
When the show goes live, Simms also explained some of the juggling that goes on while his team tries to keep the on-air presentation as smooth as possible.
“Once we’re actually doing the show, I’m in the [on-air talent’s] ears on the headset and I’m also timing all of that out,” Simms continued. “So if I have Grant and Jerry for 90 seconds and they go two minutes, I have to account for that time lost and make up for it in other ways during the show.”
In front of the camera, there are a variety of on-air personalities for CSN. Two of the hosts for pregame and postgame are Guy Haberman and also former Sacramento guard Doug Christie. This pair sets the stage before Kings games, while also providing their own insight and thoughts after the buzzer sounds.
“I had no idea what I was coming into really, but the people I work with like Guy and all of the producers have been fantastic. That’s one of the things I really enjoy the most about this position,” said Christie. “On top of that, it gives me a way to stay close to the game and I’m just having a great time watching basketball and getting to talk about it!”
Much like the sports they cover, there is a tight-knit team mentality at Comcast SportsNet, an aspect that Haberman considers to be one of the best parts of his position.
“That idea of being on a team is what you get here [at CSN] when you’re working everyone - with the producers and the graphics crew and the researchers and the analysts,” said Haberman. “That’s the great thing about our analysts like Doug and Bobby [Jackson] is that they were on really good teams and know what it means to be a great teammate.”
Between those working on everything behind the scenes to those on camera, it is a collective team effort at Comcast SportsNet to produce and deliver top-notch sports coverage for fans all over the region to enjoy.
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