By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:01 AM

With the Washington Capitals now bounced from the playoffs and the Wizards once again on the brink of elimination courtesy of the Cleveland Cavaliers, perhaps it's a tad late in the game to be offering much commentary on the local television broadcasters who have toiled all season covering the games of both franchises. Still, a little constructive criticism never hurts.

Let's go to the Wizards' Game 3 at Verizon Center last Thursday night, when the reportorial skills of the Comcast SportsNet crew covering Game 3 left quite a bit to be desired, specifically on the status of a key injury to Gilbert Arenas.

CSN cameras did show Agent Zero limping off the court and up the ramp to the Wizards' locker room late in the second period, but viewers never were specifically told what actually was wrong with the team's most electrifying player until just under five minutes remained in the third period.

CSN had a sideline reporter, Chris Miller, assigned to the game, but it took far too long -- including a 20-minute break at the half -- to inform the audience that Arenas had suffered a bruised knee and was not going to be launching any more threes on a night the Wizards routed the Cavs and hardly needed his second-half services anyway.

Even worse, the network ran a taped interview of Arenas discussing a totally different subject during intermission, when all this viewer wanted to hear was exactly what caused him to leave the game and when he might be back.

A few minutes into the second half, Miller did say that Arenas had told him on the way to the bench for the start of the third period that he was done for the night. But it took another 15 minutes of real time to learn what the injury was, and we never did get any clue as to its severity during the rest of the game broadcast. And someone in the control room should have had the good sense to kill that pre-taped halftime interview, which was totally irrelevant with Arenas hurt and out of the game.

According to CSN spokeswoman Stephanie Offen, "as soon as Comcast SportsNet learned of Gilbert Arenas's injury, the network reported the information to the viewers. The network showed Gilbert walking off the court toward the end of the second quarter. In order to give our viewers the most complete and accurate account of the injury, Comcast SportsNet, as is normal practice with all television outlets, received Gilbert's injury report from team officials, quickly constructed a graphic and then reported the news to viewers during the first break in action."

Without belaboring the point, the key and somewhat bothersome phrase in CSN's official explanation was "as is normal practice with all television outlets." I would beg to differ. If you're a TV sideline reporter, you're supposed to go report and try to get the story, not wait for a press release. You think Jim Gray, Pam Oliver, Leslie Visser, or Andrea Kremer, among many other top sideline reporters, would wait for an official explanation from the team publicist during an NFL game, particularly if a high profile, key player was involved?

Of course not. They'd camp outside the club's locker room where the player was being treated, try to get any information they could from the trainer, team doctor or anyone else with some credibility inside the room and immediately get on the air with what they learned. That should always be the standard operating procedure, not waiting far too long for the team to provide a vital piece of information.

As for the rest of the broadcast, play-by-play man Steve Buckhantz and analyst Phil Chenier did themselves no favors by making it a point in their opening to show off their white shirts on a night team management had called for fans to create a sartorial white-out in the stands. Buckhantz said he and his partner "did our part," roughly the equivalent of the guy covering the Redskins for The Post showing up in the FedEx Field press box on game day adorned in a burgundy and gold tee shirt and team logoed hat.

Of course we know from years of watching that the Wizards broadcasters -- or just about any local announcers in any city around the country these days -- can hardly be called impartial. But the white shirts seemed a tad over the top.

Personally, I've always found Buckhantz a mostly easy listen on the Wizards telecasts. He knows the team, he knows the league, he knows the franchise history and he knows how to get his partner involved at most of the proper moments. There are times when he overloads viewers with arcane stats, or gets far too aggrieved when close calls by the officials go against the Wizards. But overall, he's a fine fit.

Chenier's analysis, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. Early in last Thursday's game, he said the Wizards "had to play at a sustained high level for 48 minutes," one of those Duh!!! comments he makes far too frequently. When Caron Butler started missing a few shots early in the game, Chenier said, "His pace of adrenaline is too high." Oh please.

The contrast between Chenier's commentary and the analysis provided Sunday during Game 4 by spot-in ABC/ESPN commentator Hubie Brown was as stark as Muggsy Bogues trying to jump center against Manute Bol. There's simply no comparison, and Chenier might be wise to spend the offseason listening to the tapes of Brown and other top analysts, even the Wizards first-year radio analyst Glenn Consor, who has been a great addition to that broadcast.

As for the hockey guys, Joe Beninati, a pro's pro, remains one of the more skilled play-by-play voices in a game that requires seemingly super-human constant concentration to keep up with the puck. I've always been totally in the tank for his analyst partner, former Capital Craig Laughlin, even if his voice still sounds as if he's inhaling helium after 18 years on the job. I've even gotten to the point where his signature "biscuit in the basket" goal call still remains mildly amusing, though I could do without any more "danady darts" or "sin bins."

Laughlin also has an uncanny knack for describing a typically bang-bang play -- a slap shot goal, a kick save, a perfectly executed pass -- almost instantly after it ends, and when the replay does come up, you see that he's been absolutely correct in describing in almost minute detail every nuance of the action most of us mere mortals totally missed, sometimes even after the second or third replay.

Despite so many technological advances over the years, hockey still is best seen up close and personal live in the arena and remains, at least for these 60ish eyes, a difficult watch on television, at least on my own Neanderthal non-high-def set. But both Laughlin and Beninati were basically brilliant through three periods and overtime in Game 7 against the Flyers last week, sadly their final call of a season that ended far too quickly.

You hit the nail on the head on two fronts. First, the over the top Masters coverage. I love golf, but the reverence given to the tournament is nauseating. The promos start during basketball season, get worse during the NCAA tournament and culminate with a crescendo of syrup over the Masters weekend. I thought something was wrong with the sound on my TV during the broadcast but then I realized it's hard for the CBS commentators to speak clearly with their heads lodged so far up the collective rear ends of the toon-a-ment officials.

Bullseye [sic] again on Dicky V. He adds energy to a college basketball broadcast the same way a cranky infant adds annoyance to a long airline flight. His act has worn quite thin as far as I'm concerned and it's beyond me what he accomplished to receive the honor of being selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. It certainly takes the luster off of the achievement for the others enshrined. It would be kind of like Bozo winning an Oscar.

David Zack

Silver Spring

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at len.shapiro@washingtonpost.com.