Dante & Galante: Where Summer League Is Watchable (Happens)

So as a hoops junkie...I try and watch anything related to basketball.

Anything.

I even am known to watch one WNBA game during each summer. One. [I caught the Atlanta Dream/Phoenix Mercury classic earlier last week if you're guessing, in which the Dream stumbled to an 0-16 record.]

For the whole week I've been waking up at 9am (a huge rarity) to try and write for SC.com for 2-3 hours so that I can block out my afternoon to watch some NBA Summer League action.

Down in Orlando...the Nets/Pacers/Heat/Bulls/Magic & OKC Thundercats are "competing" in a round-robin style every day this week, and the Magic's site has live streams from 12-6 of the games.

In past summers, the live streams have involved ZERO audio while players duked it out for a roster spot and legends such as Bo Outlaw, Tractor Traylor and Marco Bellinelli showcased their hoops prowess.

This year the Magic felt a need for a change -- so they hired Dante Marchitelli and George Galante, two 30-something clowns who have no apparent interest in Summer League basketball. They've never done play-by-play before.



When someone gets a nice dunk, they don't really have a catch-phrase or way to explain the play, nor do they even care. Dante blurted out 'BOCCE BALLS!' randomly after one dunk, and that has apparently stuck. Raw talent these guys. They also sit from a perch above the court and have no access to live stats, so they make up player point totals on the spot. Real pros. And it's also such an amateur operation that they just pan over to the score board to update the game score. NICE. One thing you WILL hear during the painfully dull games is Dante plugging their email address every 45 seconds. It's DanteAndGalante@OrlandoMagic.com, and all Galante does is read through the inbox and answer emails -- MID-GAME. He even was drinking during Game2 earlier today.

So naturally...the fellas at Niketalk decided to join in some fun and send a few emails over their way. Cameos for the day from the likes of Method Man, Dirtylicious and Air Ant.

Check the 5:40 mark for a classic NT General debate. [Also check Brook Lopez's dunk @ 7:40 for some fine commentary.]


5:20 on this one...


And around 5:45, a Haiku I wrote in about assistant Shelly made it on air. Way to go.


And here's four shoutouts from the day combined into one vid:


Listen/watch tomorrow and maybe you'll hear a B.O.P. shoutout.

-Nick