Media musings: Kerith Burke's time with UConn women's hoops prepped her for Warriors spotlight -

By Thomas Bonk

She’s seen a basketball dynasty before, so Kerith Burke isn’t all that impressed by the sight of a round, bouncing ball. But since she began covering the Warriors as the sideline reporter for NBC Sports Bay Area and the pace quickened, the game has pushed to warp speed and everything has changed right before her eyes.

Covering the rock star University of Connecticut women’s team for SportsNet New York helped Burke become acclimated to a version of hoops royalty, but the Warriors tend to trek in a vast new dimension.

All the while, Burke is making a name for herself as a cool presence and savvy interviewer. She says it’s all about the players.

“It’s absolutely easy dealing with them,” Burke said. “They’re not just into X’s and O’s, they’re also thinkers and readers and want to talk about some other kinds of news and where they can fit in.”

Burke, who grew up near Seattle and attended Washington State University, was a sideline reporter assigned to UConn’s women’s basketball teams from 2013-2016 as an anchor and reporter for SNY. She covered some women’s basketball for NBC at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and she had some assignment work for the Pac-12 Network. When Ros Gold-Onwude left for Turner Sports, Burke replaced her as the sideline reporter for Warriors games on NBC Sports Bay Area.

From where she stands, Burke fully appreciates the greatness of the Warriors.

“I realize how covering a great women’s college basketball team can translate into something phenomenal here,” Burke said. “It’s sustained excellence, doing the work, understanding the full season.

“Up close, you might see a circus shot by Steph Curry, so that when you see it in person, it seems to happen at a speed that’s hard to fathom. It’s just wonderful and heartwarming. And how many people want to talk to him, and KD (Kevin Durant) and Klay (Thompson) and the rest of them. I’m just so amazed how they’re pulled in so many different directions and they treat every single person the same.”

Kerith was named by her mother after a character in a 1965 James Michener novel titled “The Source,” a historical novel. Michener had won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948 for his “Tales of the South Pacific.”

And now, Burke is the source of sideline information for viewers following the reigning NBA champions. A repeat is up to the players, but they’ve got Burke’s tacit support. The Warriors are an intriguing team and they are also interesting individuals, which is the way she sees fit to deal with each of them.

“They are all easier to deal with in the dimensions of their own personalities. The fans expect top-notch coverage and I’ve been excited to find my way this season.”

Channel surfing

This just in: Mark Ibanez, the sports director at KTVU Fox 2, has signed a three-year contract extension that takes him through 2021.

“That’s going to be it for me,” said Ibanez, who made his debut at KTVU in 1979.

Ponytail tale: After she started wearing her hair in a ponytail, Burke received a snarky tweet from a viewer about the wraparound she used to hold her hair in place, referring to it as “a drug store hair tie.”

No one should ever have to be on the receiving end of that kind of comment. Well, maybe Dallas Braden.

Talk soup: Braden, by the way, is off to a great start as a “field analyst” for the A’s games on NBC Sports California. He’s got a lot of energy, his insights are a welcome addition to the telecasts and his on-field position just to the left of the A’s dugout offers an intriguing perspective. When he showed how to hold the baseball to throw a changeup, the ball looked like it was coming through the camera lens. He may be a little too chummy with the players, but at least no one has stiffed him yet.

Novel graphics: The new graphics packages for the Giants and A’s games on NBC Sports Bay Area/California are big-time improvements to the game-watching experience. New this year for live action (but used in replays last season) is PitchCast that shows the flight of the ball to the plate and its velocity. The Live Strike Zone shows the, well, strike zone. It’s also new this season.

Not again: Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett are pros, but the long season calling the Warriors games may be catching up to them. They get into trouble, especially Fitzgerald, when he safely retreats into some repetitive bad habits.

Please, no more … “he ticked iron” for a missed shot off the rim; or “hug up on him” for defending closely; or “(fill in the blank team) is not going away” for when the other team is staying close. Heard that one the other night about five minutes into the second half. Or “split a pair” for making one of two free throws. That is not an apt reference. It’s a blackjack reference that occurs when the player chooses to split a pair of identically ranked cards and thus play two hands, receiving one new card in each hand from the dealer. In basketball, no one seriously chooses to miss a free throw, unless it’s dire circumstances.

And from Barnett: “They (the Warriors) aren’t thinking about losing, they’re thinking about winning.” Really? He also went from the Warriors’ opponent having “just good offense” to the Warriors playing “bad defense” minutes later. Yes, that just about covers it.

And please, a lot more often, tell us who the foul was on, who is in the lineup now, who got the rebound, the foul, the turnover, things like that. In other words, call the game.

The shape of color: Last week, when USF was matched up against North Texas in the College Basketball Invitational, KPIX sports anchor Dennis O’Donnell referred to the Texas school as the “Green Machine.”

North Texas is far from a household name outside the city limits of Denton, but the team is known as the “Mean Green.” Hey, close enough, though. Could have said “Green Wave” (Tulane) or “Gang Green” (Oregon) or “Big Green” (Dartmouth) or maybe even Green Bay (Wisconsin).

Pet sounds: Flaky ex-Giants reliever Brian Wilson visited the broadcast booth during the Giants’ home opener and apparently indicated he would come back often. After Wilson left, Duane Kuiper said Wilson told him, “I will not be a stranger.” What he meant to say was “I could not be stranger.”

B-roll breakdown: During KPIX’s report of the A’s intention to buy the Coliseum complex, the station aired background video of an A’s game. And there was Yoenis Cespedes on the field, running around in his A’s uniform. Cespedes hasn’t worn that particular brand since 2014. Time to refresh that stock videotape.

(Top photo: Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kmlqb3FnZH9xfZdoZ21nYG58rrHDophmpaWotq%2Bz0mainqqZqbVurtSrop6rXam2rrGMsKCtoF2qsLC6zWauqKWVo8ButM6op6xloKeysbzEnWShnaJis7C%2BjLCYq6qZpL%2B0edKppq2kmZy1tXs%3D