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yminie · 6 years

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vaunt (m) | jeon jungkook

pairing: Jungkook x Reader genre/warnings: college/fratboy!jungkook, fratparty!au, smut, porn with bare minimum plot, oral(male and female recieving), unprotected sex(stay safe kids), squirting, creampie, jungkook has a “huge wang”(phrasing by @gimmesumsuga 2k18), all the good stuff y’know. words: 9387 summary: Every weekend Beta Tau throws a ‘little’ party to help students relax and let loose and frat resident Jungkook has a big mouth that talks a lot of big game. You finally get sick of the lack of relaxation on your end and set out to see if he’s all talk.

a/n: I literally thought this up yesterday at 4am after some lazy(unrelated) porn watching so, enjoy!

Even the fifth pass of the vodka bottle around the circle wasn’t building your tolerance to the conversation across from you, but you doubt anything could.

“Wait, it wouldn’t fit?” Jimin leans forward, smacking the younger on the leg with a disbelieving yet bright grin stretching his cheeks.

“My dick literally wouldn’t fit. Yet another girl I’m too big for.” You blink slowly down at the alarmingly fast emptying cup in your hand just before you take another swig, tongue dragging across your lower lip to catch any stray drops.

“Like, too long?” You can’t help but frown in mild disgust as all the boys within the circle shuffle closer to the boy, eyes alight with intrigue.

“Too long and too thick. I really thought Momo would give me a decent run for my money, but no such luck!” Jungkook leans back, legs spread and arms propped behind him against the back of the couch, and the cocky smirk tilting the corners of his lips curves even further as Taehyung whoops and claps a hand against his shoulder.

“Shit man, unlucky! Did you end up getting to finish or was she stingy?” Really? Is this how boys regularly talk about the girls they fuck, or is it specially reserved for parties sat with people that really don’t want to fucking hear about e.g me?

“Nah she was decent, gave a good attempt at blowing me until I convinced her to just sit with her mouth open while I jacked myself. I spent enough time eating her out, she owed me that much.” The boys sat around the cocky youngster all hoot with laughter, owls perched on tree branches, and the ones closest lay into him, hitting him good naturedly while they grin and sneer. Boys are fuckin’ gross.

“Are they for real?” Irene whispers, leaning in close until she’s resting back on your shoulder, and you roll your eyes with a huff, reaching out to snatch the last dregs of the Absolut before Yoongi could get a hold of it, and he quickly fixes you with a squinty glare you shamelessly return, emptying the bottle into your cup.

“That was my fuckin’ shot.” He’s still glaring, but there’s really no venom in his voice. Unless the slurring covers it up.

“I’m sat here listening to your little brother talk absolute shit about whatever monster cock he’s dreamt up, so you owe me a little more than a shot of alcohol.” Irene giggles beside you, head tipped back against your shoulder and almost colliding with your jaw, and Yoongi’s expression lightens to a fuzzy grin.

“Oh, you’re not impressed?” You merely raise an eyebrow, lifting your cup to your lips to drain the last of the too-sweet-too-strong mixed drink before promptly flicking the empty plastic towards him, which he essentially ignores other than a further upturn of his lips.

“I need another drink.” You drag yourself from the couch, Irene in tow, and quickly rehydrate yourself.

When you return, your spots been taken by strangers and the boys have disappeared, but you pay it no mind, simply finding somewhere else to sit as you down another cup; this time in peace.

___________

Same day of the week.

Same stupid frat house.

Same old dingy couch.

Same obnoxiously loud dick talk.

Why do you come to Beta Tau’s again?

Oh yeah, free alcohol.

“So she dislocated her jaw?!” You bury your face into Yoongi’s arm, pawing at his jacket as you groan in disgust. He chuckles, taking another drag from the joint perched between his thumb and forefinger, and simply holds the freshly opened bottle of Absolut towards you. It’s Raspberry this time, sweet enough that one swig burns your nose with sugar, but unfortunately it doesn’t burn your eardrums.

“No, no! She thought she did!” Jimin hiccups as he giggles at the absurdity, correcting Hoseok sharply even as he sways from side to side. “Her jaw cracked or something, right Kook?” “Yeah she worked like the head and stuff in, but when she tried to go further her jaw clicked. Nearly bit my dick off but I pulled out pretty quick.” Jungkook is blasé about the whole memory, sipping smoothly from the red cup Jimin hands him and only scrunching his nose momentarily from the toxicity. Now that’s something to impress – Jimin’s drinks are like ingesting straight poison and it’s baffling how one tiny person can devour so much alcohol and not die. “But you didn’t get to try and fuck her?” Namjoon pitches in, lazed back in a random bean bag off to the side as he occasionally dissociates, and you digress Jimin’s probably mixed him a drink or two tonight. “Nah, she skipped out after that like I spooked her. I honestly don’t think she believed it was going to be that big. The mood was kind of killed afterwards anyway, and I ended up levelling up on Overwatch again that night instead so it’s all good.” Jungkook is sporting the same old cocky grin that makes your stomach roll in disgust, and you continue to ignore just how tightly his leather pants are stretched across his thighs. Fuck, I’m hammered. “Damn, Tzuyu’s a looker too. Fuckin’ shame.” “It’s a shame you lot won’t shut the fuck up.” You wish you had the strength to say it loud enough to be heard, but at this stage you’re just tired. Cheek mushed against Min Yoongi’s shoulder as you wave the smoke from his joint out of your eyes, you simply grunt to yourself just loud enough for only the two people next to you to hear. Irene muffles her giggles with a closed fist over her lips whereas Yoongi lets his dry chuckle loose, coughing slightly when the smoke in his throat gets caught and chokes him a little. The cold glass of heavens escape is still cradled against your chest, and you look up to reply to Jimin’s look of desire with an almost predatory scowl and tightening of your hands around the bottle neck, and he sensibly makes no move to take it from you. Maybe one day you’d be able to get through a frat party without the desperate need for more, more, more alcohol. Until then, no one’s getting between you and these bottles you ‘borrow’ off Yoongi once he’s three or four joints in. Bless his heart. __________ “Have you finally managed to get it in yet, Kook?” Jimin cackles as Jungkook settles beside him on the lounge and the rest of the boys break out into laughter loud enough to have your head aching. I’m so not drunk enough for this. “No.” He whines repulsively and reaches a hand down to brace over his crotch, fingers flexing and moulding to his junk. “Worst fuckin’ blue balls I’ve ever had.” “Who was it now?” You could swear these idiots hadn’t eaten in days with how starved they were for Jungkook’s bullshit gossip, and you roll your eyes so hard you swear you glimpse your brain. “Suzy.” Tongue-in-cheek, Jungkook drops the name of his latest ‘attempted’ conquest to a chorus of gasps and you arch a brow. Boys are dumb. “You’re fuckin’ lying!” “Suzy? You’re joking right?” “Mate, she’s untouchable, how the fuck did you get anywhere near her?” Jungkook leans forward with a shrug, sipping from his cup. “Girls talk man.” “So she did it to see if the rumours are true?” This earns another shrug from Jungkook and the way the boys get more and more excited makes heat boil under your skin. How many more times would you be subjected to this? “Guess so, I didn’t exactly ask her.” “Mate, are her tits as perky in person as they always look in those tight tops?” Jungkook grins against the rim of his cup with a quirk of his brow towards Namjoon and it sends the group into another excited fit. “Fuck! But you couldn’t get it in?” He shakes his head. “When I tried she started to tear up and told me she really, really wanted to, but I was gonna tear her pussy if I went any further. Had to stop.” That’s enough. “Oh my god, you’re so full of shit! Will you lot shut the fuck up already!” The words you’d been thinking pointedly towards Jungkook’s forehead burst forth, and if it weren’t for the heavy bass ringing through the house from the next room you could probably have heard crickets from how silent the circle fell. “You don’t believe him?” Jimin leans forward, a soft pink swell to his cheeks from the alcohol as pure entertainment swims in his eyes. “No. I don’t. And I’m sick of sitting here every week listening to the complete bullshit this kid is coughing up. I can’t believe you lot do believe him.” Like a broken faucet, once you start the words just continue to flow out. “He’s lying! He couldn’t possibly have a dick that big. He only brings it up because of the way you all start to jump up and down and beat your chests like a pack of wild gorillas. It’s, quite frankly, sad to watch. Grow up.” Irene is silent on one side of you while Yoongi is soundlessly vibrating with laughter on your other side. You’re panting for air just a little after your rant, and you turn your gaze to Jungkook to find him even more amused than Jimin. “That sounds like a challenge.” Jimin grins wider, patting Jungkook on the shoulder before pushing him as if motioning to stand, but Jungkook stays sitting, vision locked with yours. “Yes it does.” You lift an eyebrow, chin tilting expectantly. He’s full of shit, absolute nonsense, and you don’t believe him for one second. “Go on then, show me I’m wrong.” You gesture towards his lower half and Jungkook laughs indulgently, chuckles being echoing by his harem of ‘bros’ and you clench your jaw. “Out in the open like this, babe? Now I’ve heard some girls are into that but I’ve yet to meet one.” You can feel your eye twitching slightly at his gall, but you swallow down the annoyance as you continue to wait patiently. “If it stings less to only be caught by one person in your lie, we can head up to your room and you can show just me instead, Kook.” The group sat around him ‘oooh’s’ but you suspect it’s not entirely in your favour. Regardless, you stick to your claim and shuffle yourself towards the edge of the couch cushion below you, propping your chin expectantly into your palm and you rest your elbow against your knee. “What are you getting yourself into?” Irene whispers from beside you, but you ignore her, keeping your eyes on the kid in front of you as he continues to sit in silence until you’re convinced. “Thought so-” “Let’s go.” Jungkook downs the rest of his drink as he stands, throwing the empty cup down before tucking his thumbs into the pockets of his incredibly tight leather jeans – you know the pair far too well by this point. Your brows lift in slight surprise momentarily as the boys roar a cheer around the two of you, but the defiant heat in his eyes has your competitive side humming with the need to be right and you’re standing before you can think twice, tugging your skirt down from where it’s ridden up and flipping your hair back behind you. Jungkook doesn’t move to touch you, doesn’t speak, and offers you no more than a tilt of his head before he’s off, winding slowly between dancing bodies and drunken groups of friends towards the staircase. You ignore his hollaring friends and the way Irene gapes at you, the loss of filter that had enabled you to speak up inevitably still driving you, and you quickly slip through the crowd to follow him up the stairs and into the semi quieter hallway. As he trails down the hall, you stare at the back of his head and think back to the first time you met Jungkook. Something like three or four years ago, barely about to be a high school graduate and a least a foot shorter than he is now. Definitely not as broad or as built as he’s become, and it’s almost hard to put the two together as one person. You’re focusing so hard that you almost don’t realise he’s come to a stop in front of you, and you have to catch yourself on the wall to your right before you fall as you stumble to avoid slamming into him, and you don’t miss the way his cheeks lift in amusement even as he hides his smile. “Last chance, babe. You can turn back now and forget about this, or you keep going and leave my room a changed woman.” You cross your arms, raising your eyebrows in mild shock. “Yeah, are you done?” He shrugs, stubborn smirk still on his face, and you roll your eyes. “Are we going in or what? I’m not here to be glamoured into sleeping with you, I’m literally just here to catch your ass out. Got it?” “Okay, whatever you say.” Jungkook raises his hands in mock defeat, grinning from ear to ear as he finally turns the knob and opens the door. He leads you inside into darkness, closing the door behind the two of you and completely abolishing the last light source and leaving you blind. A hand against your lower back makes you jump and you almost slap the appendage away before you realise he’s guiding you to the bed. You sit, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and moments later a click sound fills the room with a soft golden glow. Jungkook is surprisingly close, only about a foot away, and with the dimness of the room he looks even broader. “Ready?” He regards you with wide grin and you smirk back, crossing your legs as you lean back onto your hands. “You’re really sticking to this aren’t you?” You have to admit, his commitment to the facade is admirable. “Nothing to stick to other than the cold hard truth. You’re really sticking to the idea that I’m lying? Or was this some sort of grand plan to get into my pants? Because I can assure you, all you had to do was ask.” His eyes rake over you, up your legs and pausing over the short hem of your skirt before trailing up towards the dip in your top. One hand comes to rest over his front and his fingers squeeze confidently, massaging himself in front of you. And liar or not, you couldn’t help but feel yourself start to heat up at his actions. “No grand plan, just purely sick of hearing your bullshit when I’m trying to get drunk and relax.” He laughs at this, and you feel your lips quirk slightly, but you hold your composure. “Maybe I can help you relax then?” He raises an eyebrow in question, taking a step closer and tilting his head as he gazes deep into your eyes. His knees are touching yours now, and you know if you look down there’s a decent chance of seeing his stirring erection. “Maybe you can stop procrastinating so I can be on my merry way back downstairs to disappoint all your friends.” You feel a twinge of annoyance when his expression only turns more amused. “Do those girls know you talk about them like that?” “Does it matter?” His hand drops from his crotch to swing gently at his side, and you force your eyes to hold steady locked with his and not move elsewhere. “Those girls talk about me just as savagely, pick me apart. It’s all part of the game, babe, no need to be so concerned.” You’re about to say more when he suddenly shuffles forward, denim grazing the outsides of your thighs and knees pressing into the bed until he’s straddling you, forcing you to uncross your legs. “You came up here for a reason. Should we cut to the chase?” Your mouth is suddenly dry with his proximity, not expecting him to get so close, but Jungkook seems to take no notice as leans even closer and reaches for your hand. “What are you doing?” Your voice shakes slightly, and you clear your throat quickly as you watch him bring your palm closer to the bump at the front of his jeans. “Don’t you want to feel how big it is?” Jungkook’s eyes sparkle in the lamps soft light and he tilts his head just so to watch your expression carefully. You somehow feel quite exposed under his gaze, but your reluctance seems to die on the tip of your tongue as the heat of his body over yours starts to seep into your bones. Jungkook, whilst he is incredibly douchey, somewhat arrogant and entirely too self assured, is still a very handsome young man. And you’re going to continue to blame your raging hormones for the reaction your body is experiencing at the idea of touching him. “I thought you were just going to show me.” His teeth catch his lower lip and he halts the pulling of your hand. “I’m not trying to force you if you’re uncomfortable.” You can’t help but chuckle, discomfort being the furthest thing from your mind. “Don’t tell me you’re still putting it off? You’ve come so far.” His sweet gaze turns deadly, eyes narrowing in to yours, and he releases your hand for a moment to flick open the button of his jeans, dragging the zipper down and hooking his thumbs under the waistband to push the tight fabric down to his thighs. Trim, black briefs come into view and this time you let your eyes drop to follow his movements, abandoned hand still sitting loose in your lap just inches from the sizable bump. “Doesn’t seem like anything special to me.” He’s decent, that much you can easily tell just by the sheer bulk of his front, but the size isn’t quite what you’d call impossible and you relax as you take this into account. “I’m not even hard, you’re not exactly making this easy for me.” Jungkook does it again, reaches down to glide his hand over himself before cupping his balls gently, rolling them in his fingers. “It’d go faster if you helped.” You stare up at him for a moment, contemplating while you chew on the inside of your cheek. Basic stubborn insistence had quickly turned into a sudden want and your mind was so hazy it was hard to comprehend what was a rational though versus what was very, very irrational. But you couldn’t care less even if you tried. Placing your hand in his, you sit up straighter and firmly brace yourself on the one hand propped behind you. Jungkook gives you a once over, tightening his grip on your fingers, before pulling your hand gradually closer until your digits meet the soft skin just above his waistband. Fingers firmly locked around the entirety of your wrist, he mimicked his earlier actions on himself, grazing down the thin cotton of his briefs before curling your palm and moulding his cock against your hand. You can feel the way your eyes visibly widen but you manage to catch your lower lip before it can drop open, and your teeth dig almost painfully into the sensitive skin as he pushed himself further into your palm. The tips of your shaky digits are grazing the swell of his head, and your core throbs when you note he’s already a handful and he really isn’t hard – not that it takes him long. Jungkook grinds against your fingers until you gradually take initiative, spreading them even further to cup around the edge of his balls, and his head rolls back as you give him a firm stroke. His dark gaze returns to you, further shadowed with the way his just parted hair falls down and into his gaze, and you automatically press yourself closer to his warmth, thighs coming together beneath him. You’re so in awe, the way his cock continues to grow under each stroke of your fingers making your mouth water, and just when you think he’s done growing under your touch, you feel him harden and thicken a little more. You briefly think back to past moments you’d bothered to glance between his hips, and you’re astounded at the way he’s managed to hide such a large amount of length and girth in such tight pants. And then thinking back to not ten minutes ago, you grow sheepish, almost embarrassed, over your outburst. He must be able to see the realisation in your eyes, as Jungkook’s grin quickly returns, and he bucks his hips even harder against you with a dangerous roll that has even your own hips flexing against the bed below. His hand lifts to glide over your collarbone until he can push your tee collar to the side and follow the curve of your shoulder. He regards you carefully as he leans closer, the heavy scent of his cologne mixed with a hint of raspberry from the vodka on his tongue and even the musky sweetness of the weed he must’ve sampled at some stage throughout the night, all comes together to make your head spin. Your lips part in a gasp when his own finally graze against the dip in your neck, and your fingers twitch to grasp firmly around his shaft as your head tips back, lashes fluttering. Your fingers don’t even touch wrapped around his girth, and your mouth salivates more at the feeling of just how thick and heavy he is in your palm. You’re still in disbelief at the sheer size of him. “Now do you believe me? Or do you wanna see it properly?” The heat of Jungkook’s breath washes over your skin and leaves goose bumps in his wake, a shiver vibrating up your spine. When his lips press open against the softest spot beneath your ear to allow his tongue a leisurely swipe across your skin, your digits curl into his waistband and the sticky slick of his precum slides across your fingertips as they meet his tip. Jungkook hisses in a gasp and the thick thighs planted either side of your waist tense and hold you momentarily hostage, the rippling muscle beneath the leather rolling against your ribs and making you twitch. You pull your dewy fingers from his cock and start to pull the plain briefs down, eager for a first look at his impressive length, and you surely aren’t disappointed. His shirt slightly raised to just above belly button gives you a glance at honeyed skin stretched firm over generous muscle, and the tops of his thighs are just as delectable, thick and meaty with just enough give when your fingers squeeze in. But all of that aside, you’re immediately drawn to the throbbing, dripping tip of his cock as it’s released from his briefs and slapping against his stomach. The lamp light catches on the streak of moisture the weeping of his length leaves shining on his skin, and you swallow reflexively with the want to clean it up with your tongue. What was it about a cock this big that made you lose all inhibitions and let go of your pride? How did he make you lose control so easily? And why does it feel so good? “So, does it live up to your expectations?” Jungkook’s lips quirk on one side and you jump a little when his teeth nip at your sensitive skin. “I-I-” you’re not quite sure what you’re trying to say, and the huff of breath that escapes him is a throaty chuckle, muffled by your neck. “I think you might owe me an apology. You wanna try and show me how sorry you are?” You’re nodding before you can stop yourself, tongue peeking between your lips to moisten them. Jungkook’s hands fly up to press against your shoulders and before you know it, you’re lain back and he’s shuffling further up over you. Taking a firm hold of your wrists, he pulls them down to your sides as he kneels around them and you automatically lift them to press palms against the dips in the backs of his thighs. His belt buckle clinks as he pulls it from the loops of his jeans and it hits the floor with a thud, Jungkook’s shirt quickly following it, and you soon wish your arms weren’t pinned so you could graze his strawberry pink nipples with your fingernails. The leather of his jeans is pulled so far that you’re thinking it might burst, but he lifts one leg to tug the pants from his body, quickly stripping the other as well, and you’re panting below him, eyes greedily absorbing all the freshly exposed skin. The dim glow coats his skin like honey and a light sheen of sweat from the humidity rising in the room shines in the valley of his chest and right along the curve of his brow. To be quite frank he looks fucking delicious and when his fingers twist behind your neck and into the back of your hair, your nails automatically dig into his skin to form crescent moons. “Open wide for me.” Jungkook creeps a hand down to flick over your lower lip, and you’re tempted to chase the digit with your tongue as you comply, lips parting and mouth opening for him. “Little bit more baby, otherwise I won’t fit.” Your jaw, almost pushed to its limits, gives a sharp ache of complaint when you stretch as far as comfortably possible, and your tongue pools with what can only be described as drool when he wraps his long fingers around himself and thrusts into his fist slowly. A bead of precum builds quickly at his tip before gliding smoothly to the underside of his cock and hanging directly above your mouth. You fix your stare on the tiny dew drop, fingers tightening against his skin and he bites down on his lower lip with a smile at the hunger in your gaze. He knew you wanted it. The head of his cock is like velvet, gliding smoothly across your lower lip, and your tongue lifts immediately to greet him as he presses against your mouth. Jungkook moans gently, fingers tugging slightly as he tilts his hips and presses forward harder, and you stretch your lips until the head of his cock glides in and sits heavy on your tongue. You pull him closer by the hands you slide from his thighs to his ass and you groan as he stretches your mouth wide open. “That’s it, just like that.” Jungkook pants above you, moving his hips slowly as he thrusts into your mouth. Your teeth just miss his length as he pulls back further and pushes in harder, and pleased surprise lights up his eyes as he watches more and more of his cock disappear into your mouth. The first nudge of his head finding your throat has you flinching, fingers squeezing his flesh and lashes fluttering as you try your best not to choke. “I’m impressed, you can take more than most.” The glare you send him would be far more threatening if it weren’t for the tears that bud in your eyes, nose sniffling as you try to keep your breathing even when he fastens his pace. Your hands fly from his ass to his hips and you urge him on, pushing yourself past the comfort barrier and down onto his cock as hard as you can. Jungkook cries out in surprise, head falling back as his hips stutter and both hands are soon buried deep into your hair. He pulls from you quite suddenly, still perched above you, and the glossy slick of your saliva and his precum makes him look even more imposing, cock flushed red and rock hard. You gasp for breath, licking the last of his flavour from your lips as you stare silently up at him, and he only pauses for a moment before his composure breaks. Hands hook under your arms and pluck you easily from the bed, throwing you back to land with your head against the pillows, and you can’t help your squeals of surprise when he immediately tugs you down towards him in the opposite direction, sliding into his stomach and pushing your skirt up your hips as he pulls your knees over his shoulders. He doesn’t bat an eye at your cotton panties, simply hooking his finger beneath and pulling them to the side to expose your dripping core. Jungkook has his mouth on you in seconds, greedy moans leaving his lips as he runs his tongue straight up over your folds and comes to a stop on your clit. Rolling his tongue, he sucks the sensitive nub between his lips and catches the skin between his teeth, and your legs immediately attempt to clamp shut around his neck as you cry out, but they don’t get the chance. He pushes your knees up off his shoulders and close to your chest, keeping his lips tightly in place as he rolls your clit against the backs of his teeth. The sharp bite has you arching up into his efforts, grinding your core harder against his tongue until the tip slips deep inside and you completely freeze up, gasping at the sudden intrusion. Fingers twisting painfully into the sheets beside your head, you start to shake with the intense pleasure, and the way you twitch and whimper under his tongue drives him to double his efforts. “God, Jungkook!” Every gasp for air is immediately stolen from your lungs as he pulls moan after moan from your lips. The way he eats you is messy, but the slick that pools in the cleft of your ass and shines on your inner thighs only turns you on more, and the way his lips look so perfectly kissable whilst covered with your wetness makes you positively weak. “Fuck!” He grunts against the innermost part of your thigh when his fingertip glides over your leaking hole, feeling the way it tightens under the barest of touches echoed in his cock as he shamelessly rolls his hips against the bed. You already seem so tight, so small and ready to be ruined and he hasn’t even put anything in yet. “Please!” The absence of his tongue on your clit makes you ache with the need to release and you quickly find yourself begging, one hand falling down to slip between the strands littering his forehead while the other glides across your chest to wrap around one tight rosebud. “Please fuck me with your fingers!” “That’s right, beg for my fingers baby. Tell me how much you want it.” You whine even louder, uncaring of the risk of getting caught by any party goers as you lift your hips to roll against his mouth. “I want it so bad! W-want you to stretch me out for that massive fucking cock!” Jungkook chuckles gently against your hip where he’s pulling the skin between his lips to lift cherry bruises to the surface, and you burn with a blush when he peeks curiously up at you. “Didn’t know you had such a dirty mouth, baby.” You pout when he doesn’t follow the urging of your hand in his hair to rewrap his tongue around your core.

“Didn’t take you for such a tease. Thought you wanted me to come up so you could show me that it’s so big it can’t fit inside my pussy.” He nips at your skin a little harder until you yelp but any complaints die on your tongue when he lets a finger graze your entrance, coating it in your slick before slowly easing just the first half inside you. “With a pussy this tight it’s definitely not gonna fit, baby.” His words are muffled as he kisses and licks his way up your body, thumb replacing his tongue and resting just above your clit as he pumps the soaked digit deeper into your walls and once he’s close enough you grab at him, nails finding comfort in the short hairs on his nape as he buries his face into your neck. “Stretch me out then. Get me ready for your cock.” You breathe against his skin, and he shudders with a groan as he finally connects your lips. One finger is easily turned into two and you only give a light gasp in response to the slight stretch. Jungkook curls his fingers now, pressing deep and searching until you buck your hips with a loud cry and press yourself even closer to his chest. Your core starts to tighten, pleasure building and your hips jerk rapidly under his ministrations. The incessant throbbing deep within grows larger and hungrier the harder he grazes against your sweetest spot and soon enough he’s pulling wrecked whimpers from your lips as you buck and grind wildly against his hand. The gush of wetness that signals your orgasm is bordering on excessive, and you can’t help but muffle a scream into the blankets beside your head, recovering from the aftershocks as Jungkook continues to slowly pump his two fingers in and out of your entrance, a third finger grazing just the side of your folds but feeling imposing enough to make your skin burn with nervous excitement. “You want me to stretch you out a little more?” His cock is still there, burning hot and hard as a rock against your hip, and when he pulls the two digits from between your folds to momentarily gaze at the slick coating his hand, a certain heat shining in his eyes, you feel the same heat burning inside your core. “Yes, please!” Fingers glide over your pussy lips before sliding back inside you, and Jungkook is still smirking as he gently presses the third finger to your hole, already coated from your orgasm. It slides in deep along with the others, a delicious burn stretching your entrance but it’s only momentary, the hunger deep within automatically accepting his fingers with the want for even more, and you know you won’t be content until you’ve had his cock – or at least tried to. “Such a good girl.” His praise has you keening, face turning to connect your lips with his until he starts to thrust, pinpointing the tips of his fingers to batter your sensitive walls skilfully, and you quickly bury your face in his neck as you cry out. You’re still so sensitive from your earlier orgasm, and you’re thankful he’s choosing to avoid your clit for the time being. “Please fuck me.” You’re wailing, holding him tightly to you even as you feel yourself start to sweat, skin sticking to skin, and the blood pumping in your veins is like lava. Jungkook doesn’t seem to mind, the hand not on your pussy wrapped under your shoulder and cupping the back of your neck as he pulls you just as close. “I’m not gonna fit in your tight little pussy baby, not yet.” Somehow his lips are cool as they press to your flushed skin, pouting softly against your cheek and his teeth nip at your skin as he glides down to your jaw. “I may very well rip you in half if I try.” “I don’t care! I want it! Tear my pussy apart, use me please!” You’re getting close again, all semblance of control over your mouth flying out the window as you curl into him, thighs shaking with the effort of not closing them tight around his wrist. Jungkook doesn’t say anything to that, but presses his tongue onto your skin with a deep growl, and he hovers over you quickly, fingers insistent as he pounds into you and the heel of his palm smacks against your clit with each motion. Forced to release your grip on his hair, you grope desperately for something to dig your nails into and soon locate the pillow above you, fabric groaning with protest as you squeeze it between your fingers. “Cum for me.” The thumb of his free hand is lifted to his lips to greet his tongue before he plants the moistened digit against your clit, rolling the sensitive nub nice and hard as he finger fucks you even faster than before, and you’re seeing stars. “Fuck!” Your orgasm is blinding, and you feel your eyes roll back under your lids as you pull the pillow down and sink your teeth into the cotton. Jungkook yanks the corner down so as to see your face and when you finally open your eyes there are tears pouring from the corners. Your jaw aches from how hard you’re clenching your teeth on the pillow and your fingers complain with tiny pangs of pain when you finally straighten them. You hold the cushion there until you can no longer breathe properly and you finally throw it back to the side only to discover the entirety of your lower half is showered in generous drops of liquid, and your face heats when you note the wetness of the comforter beneath you. “So fucking hot.” Jungkook mumbles, drawing your attention back to him, and his very drenched fingers run through the tiny puddles littering your skin. The idea is dirty, the sticky, wet feeling even more so, but it does nothing to assuage the post coital high that’s sunk into your bones. You shiver under his roaming fingertips, and he grins again as your legs vibrate, hooking his hands under your knees and pulling them over his hips. “Are you gonna fuck me now?” You’re still breathing hard, and you cover his hands with yours when they glide over your hips. “You still want more?” He chuckles, thumbs massaging across the soft dip beneath your navel and you squirm in response, the heat of his cock pressed against the back of your thigh reminding you just how long he is. “I want it all.” You roll your hips up and over his cock, and his grip tightens before falling lax and he meets you with a thrust of his own. “Do you think you can take it?” He’s still self indulgently thrusting his cock against your pussy, the underside of his shaft coated in your wetness. “Why don’t you put it in and see for yourself?” You’re talking big, but you still feel a modicum of nerves at the sheer width of his cock, and already feeling the ache from his fingers having stretched you open, you can only imagine what him even just trying to get inside you is going to feel like. “Careful what you’re asking for.” His hands run from your hips up to the bunching fabric where your skirt sits bundled around your stomach. Pulling it down, he snags your panties in the process and strips you of both smoothly before gliding his fingers up to the hem of your shirt and you arch your back to help him as he lifts it up and over your head. Your bra doesn’t stand a chance and soon you’re completely naked in front of him, such stark contrast to less than a minute ago. “You’re very confident in yourself for someone who apparently never actually gets it inside. Is that why you’re so good at the the foreplay?” Jungkook’s hands freeze on your waist, and you hold your breath for a moment as he stares down at you. The heat reigniting in his eyes makes your insides clench and you know he can feel the way your heart batters inside you chest with his hands on your ribs. “Fuck I hope I get it in, gonna make you shut your smart mouth baby.” Hands flip you and you land on your stomach with a squeak of surprise, and Jungkook is none to gentle about the way he lifts your hips into position. The swipe of his tongue across your core catches you even more by surprise and you moan when he soaks you further with his saliva, fingers spreading the mixture of his mouth and your pussy until you feel it gliding in rivulets down your thighs. Catching the drops, he spits noisily into his palm and the slick noise of his hand pumping his length fills the air. You clench in anticipation and he must see the way your hole flutters because he groans, palm catching the swell of your ass with a wet smack before the first brush of his tip meets your core. You gasp as he presses closer, and even just the tip of him is so thick that you start to doubt whether he’s going to fit. He runs the head of his cock up to swirl in your wetness, and you feel your hole release another little gush of moisture as he brushes past your clit. The hand not guiding his cock cups your left ass cheek and pulls it aside to get a clear view of your entrance and he squeezes your flesh with a hiss. “So tight and wet. Can’t wait to fucking wreck you.” You feel the burn before you notice the increase in pressure, and you bury your face in the comforter as he pushes against your entrance. You can feel the way his stickiness mixes with your wet slick and the velvet feel of him brushing against you makes you tighten even further. “Deep breath baby, relax for me.” You do as he says, breathing deeply and focusing on nothing else for a minute, and the slight pop of his tip pushing into your core catches you off guard, and you immediately clench around him, and he swears loudly into your back. “Fuck, holy fuck you’re so tight.” An odd sense of pride is swimming in your blood at just how shaky his voice is, and once again you’re reminded of the things you’d heard him say about the other girls. When was the last time he felt a pussy wrapped around his cock? “Oh my god.” You whimper as he presses forward with an involuntary push of his hips and his fingers glide down your spine as he shushes you gently, ignoring the way even he is out of breath and shaking. The burn continues as he presses forward even more, and you can’t help but lift a hand to hold his hip back from going any further as you gasp for breath. The swell of his shaft just below his tip is the thickest part and you’re being pushed way past your limit. You can feel the heat of his breath on your back and he rests his forehead against your shoulder blade, a gentle kiss following. As the pain starts to dull you carefully draw back before sinking down again, and you can feel the way Jungkook’s hands are shaking from holding himself back. Pleasure blooms along with the burn the next time you sink back, the tip of his cock brushing a particularly sensitive spot inside you, and you cry out, nails digging deep into his skin. “How are you so fucking big, oh my god Jungkook.” He laughs a little, kissing your skin again before finally sitting up to watch the way you stretch around his shaft, a thick rivulet of slick dripping down from where the two of you are joined, and he moans breathlessly. “You feel so good, baby.” You moan right back as you swivel your hips, slowly sinking further down his length and each inch you work inside yourself has his fingers tightening and breathing coming faster. But even now you’ve still got at least two inches to go and you’re not sure if you’ll make it all the way, surprised you’d even gotten him inside to begin with. “I can’t believe that fucking thing is going inside me right now.” Jungkook’s hips surge forward and he sinks another inch before hitting your cervix and you arch your back at the sharp spike of pleasure and pain that takes over your body. “J-Jung-ah!” One thrust turns into two and soon enough Jungkook is smoothly gliding in and out of your core, and you can do nothing other than lay with your face buried into the comforter while you bundle the fabric in tightly closed fists. He draws back until just the swell of his head is stretching your hole before sinking back in with a fatal roll of his hips. “So tight, so fucking good baby.” You can hear the strain in his voice, and he gives a slightly higher pitched moan in response to the way you tighten around him. “Your pussy looks so good stuffed full with my cock, does it feel good? Huh?” “Y-Yes!” You sob, the bite of pain as he slams into you as deep as he can only sweetens the pleasure of his tip finding your gspot and tears spring in your eyes as you feel your legs start to shake with every pound. “F-feels so g-good!” “Not talking so much shit now, huh?” His blunt nails bite into the cushiony flesh of your ass before his hand rears back and another smack lights up your skin nice and pink, and you know he can feel that way your walls flutter with every hit. “In fact I think you’re so drunk for my cock you won’t even be able to think up one of your silly insults.” “Ha-ah!” Your cheeks blush pinker than your ass and you try hard to formulate a response but he’s so right. The only thing you can focus on is the delectable way the mix of his precum and your wetness is gradually tickling its way down your inner thighs and the wet smack his balls make on your clit with each stroke. You’ve never been pushed this far, never been filled so good, and you’re starting to feel lightheaded with the sheer amount of conflicting feelings battering your body. “Pussy is so greedy it’s sucking me back in every time I pull out. Are you this hungry for every cock you take?” Jungkook decorates his words with extra deep thrusts and your legs start to give out beneath you, shaking and sliding on the comforter, but he holds you steady regardless. When you don’t answer he creeps a hand between your thighs and lands a decent smack over your clit and you buckle and fall instantly. “Answer me!” “Ah! N-No, only yours! Only your cock!” He lets you flatten over the mattress, following you down easily and planting his hands beside your shoulders. You can feel moisture dripping onto your back, sweat from somewhere on his body, and your tongue starts to crave the salt that’s collecting on his skin. His thighs hold your legs open as he fucks you even harder into the comforter and now you’re well and truly devouring the fabric in an attempt not to scream out loud. “Only my cock?” You mewl a yes and, feeling his breath on the back of your neck, turn your head in an attempt to kiss him, but the way he has you pressed down under the weight of his thrusts makes it impossible. Seeing your struggle, he grinds deep into you for a moment before pulling away, and when his cock slips from your hole a surge of wetness follows him. Gripping your hips again he pulls your tired frame from the bed and up onto your knees again, assisting you to turn over onto your back, and when you’re finally relaxed with your knees hooked up around his waist he covers you with his body and kisses you hard and deep. His tongue glides along yours, sharing the faint taste of your flavour that still lingers in his mouth, and you’re sure he can taste himself as well. Your arms are numb but you lift them anyway, hooking around his neck and holding him to you as he presses fully against you and you love the way his skin slides against yours, sticky and smooth all at once. You can taste the sweat on his upper lip and you follow the flavour down his cheek and under his jaw, lips and tongue sucking hard when he jerks at a particularly sensitive spot, and you can feel the way his neck vibrates when he moans deep. When you release his neck, kissing the bruise you leave behind, you lock eyes with him and your lips part to moan as he slips a couple fingers over your core to test your wetness. “Still so drenched. All for me?” “All for you.” You whisper the words, dry throat protesting while you swallow numbly and Jungkook presses pouted lips to your just for a second and he lines himself back up to your entrance and surges forward again. The second breach of your walls is naturally far easier than before, but the change in position means the way his cock is curved lets his tip hammer straight into your gspot, and you’re instantly arched up and moaning as he thrusts again and again. “F-Fuck yes, right there baby!” You don’t notice that you’re pulling on his hair but he loves it anyway, forearms pressed on either side of your head as he tangles his fingers into your hair and slides his tongue across your parted lower lip. “Right here?” His extra hard roll of his hips against your spot has your nails digging into his shoulders as you gasp for air, and you nod weakly, broken moans escaping as your brows furrow and he knows you’re about to cum again. All for him. “Cum for me baby – will you squirt for me again? I love it when we’re covered in your cum, dirty girl.” You sob, teeth clamping down on your lower lip as tears pour from your eyes, and you can feel your walls tighten with release, and a strong pressure deep inside. “There it is baby.” The first wave of your orgasm hits and your eyes roll back, thighs squeezing him tight, but when you think he’s going to continue to fuck you through it, he pulls out instead and uses the thick head of his cock to rub messily at your clit, and then you feel it. Little drops of release shower over the two of you, and each wave of your orgasm becomes more and more intense as you continue to cum, drenching the both of you and the bed without pause. He only stops when you reach down and grab the hand holding his cock, and you pant for air as your thighs lift and press together, shaking violently. He’s biting his lip, smile tilting the corners of his mouth, and he helps you hold your legs together while you catch your breath, fingers stroking your skin softly. “You good?” You nod, swallowing thickly as the blood rushing between your ears calms and the feeling returns to your fingers and toes, letting your thighs fall open once more. Jungkook immediately leans down to capture your lips, shaft pressing against your folds and soothing the ache in your walls with the pure heat radiating off of his cock. He’s still leaking profusely, precum puddling just below your navel where his head nudges your skin, and you take pity on him, having held himself back to ensure your pleasure. Breaking away from his lips, you let one hand drop to stroke over his cock, and he releases a shuddered breath into your mouth, humming a moan against your cheek when you lift your hips to stroke his tip against your entrance one more time. “Cum in me?” The jerk of his hips as his eyes shoot open in surprise pushes his tip just past your folds and into your heat, and when he pulls back to look at you he’s forced to hold back a moan at the pure unadulterated pleasure on your face. “Oh, fuck yes!” You brace yourself, hands pressed against his chest, as he presses harder and further into your pussy. The stretch is a little tighter, evidence of your recent orgasm, but the lingering wet mess leaves no room for resistance and he slides right in. “I won’t last long.” Voice tight, Jungkook starts to thrust, and the smooth velvet of your walls gliding around his sensitive tip has fire burning in his blood. No longer needing to hold back his orgasm, he relaxes into you, lips caressing your neck and chest pressed against yours, feeling the pebbles of your nipples graze across his skin with every thrust. If he’s honest with himself, he’s wanted you for a long time, and you look even better laid out beneath him like this than he ever could have imagined, your hair fanned out so prettily on his bed and your lips cherry red from the kisses you’ve shared. You pull him even closer as his breath starts to come quicker, hips moving a little clumsy and his fingers tightening in the blanket beside your head, and he swells even more inside you, throbbing as he gets closer and closer to release. With one last burst of energy, Jungkook rears back onto his knees, hands planting on your waist, and speeds up until the only sound either of you can hear is the loud smacking of his hips meeting your ass. Your lashes flutter, core tightening slightly at the discomfort of overstimulation, but it’s all worth it to watch the way his eyes roll back and his lips pout in concentration. He cums surprisingly noisily; sharp, high moans hitched with gasps of pleasure, and you moan in reply as he fucks the first pump of his seed deep inside your core. “Fuck, baby.” He pats your ass as he leans forward to catch your lips, twitching with the last drops of his cum leaking slowly out of your core, before slumping forward to cover your body with his own. You stay there for a moment, enjoying the heat of his body even as the discomfort starts to sink in and the moisture on your skin quickly turns sticky and gross. Jungkook continues to lay over you, relaxing even further to make you grunt under his weight, and you groan when you feel him chuckle, amused by the way you wriggle under him. “Told you it was big.” You snort, punching his side and he dissolves even further into laughter. “Get the fuck off me or I’ll tell everyone the opposite you fuckin’ weeb.” He chuckles, rolling off to the side and finally letting you breathe. You sigh in relief, turning towards him and pulling a pillow down to rest your head upon. “You don’t want people thinking your boyfriend has a little dick, right?” You can’t help but stare at him in shock, eyes wide as you freeze and roll his words over in your mind. “What?” Heat least has the audacity to look sheepish, averting his gaze from you to scratch at the back of his neck. “Y’know… We’ve known each other for ages, and I think you’re great.” You start to relax back onto the bed, a small smile spreading across your face. He’s really quite cute when he gets flustered. “I mean only if you want to, I just thought maybe we could hang out or-” “Jungkook are you… trying to ask me out?” He looks back at you, calming slightly when he notices the smile on your face, and you grin harder when he nods slowly. “You’re such a dork.” Rolling closer, you hook an arm around his neck and pull him closer to plant your lips hard on his, and he makes a noise of surprise before returning your embrace and holding you close with an arm around your waist. “You better stop your shit talking at parties or I’m dropping your nerd ass so quick.” He laughs against your lips, nodding, and you lay your head against his chest, relaxing as his fingers glide up and down your spine, the noise of the party fading into the background.

#jungkook #bts #jungkook smut #jungkook imagines #jungkook scenarios #jungkook one shot #bts scenarios #bts imagines #bts smut #kook

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 6 years

Text

Kevin Harlan is Still Searching for the Perfect Broadcast

VICE Sports: I want to jump in with a question I’m sure you’re asked all the time, but what call of yours are you most proud of or feel you’re best known for?

Kevin Harlan: I guess I’m best known for the LeBron dunk back against Boston, five, ten years ago. I’m not really sure when it was to be quite honest. There’s a dunk over Kevin Garnett. He was the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and LeBron was beginning to emerge as this player that we’re seeing now, and that call has gotten a lot of notoriety.

I’ve never done a conference finals. I’ve never done an NBA Finals. I’ve never done an All-Star game. There are certain games that you do along an NBA season that might have a call here or there that’s pretty good or that fans will latch onto. I’m really not as dialed into the social media thing the way I probably should be or certainly the way my daughters are, and son, so they’ll tell me from time to time that something I said…like the other night we were doing a promo for Lil Uzi Vert. He was going to perform at halftime or the postgame of our show. It was Los Angeles before the All-Star game.

And I go “Have they missed a couple letters here in this guy’s last name because it doesn’t even make sense.” I’d never heard of the guy before, and so I looked him up during a commercial break because they handed me the card, and they said you’ve got to read this coming out of the commercial. And I said “Who is this? What is this? I didn’t know if it was a game or, I wasn’t sure what it was. So I read the card and said ‘Who doesn’t love the song Money…” or whatever the name of the song was, and my girls start texting me like “Dad what’d you say about Lil Uzi Vert?” I said “I don’t know I just read the card!” so I play a little dumb with them sometimes. I’m really not dialed into this stuff.

There was a great three-point shot by LeBron in a regular season game the day after the Super Bowl a couple years ago. I’d just done the Super Bowl then flew to Washington, and they were playing the Wizards. He hit a big-time three-point shot that I think tied the game, falling out of bounds, right in front of the bench. Just a remarkable, remarkable shot.

When I was doing Jordan when I first got to TNT, and before that with the Timberwolves, anytime he touched the ball you just knew something big was gonna happen, but I can’t really tell you if there’s a specific call that stands out. They all kind of blend together, to be quite honest. But I know the LeBron thing has been a special treat for people around the internet, and they’ll play it when I come back into Cleveland, in the arena sometimes.

It’s personally my favorite call of all time, and I don’t want to harp on it too much, but how did With No Regard For Human Life even pop into your head?

Well I used it three times. One time it was Kevin getting dunked on LeBron. When I was doing the Timberwolves and Garnett was a young player, I think I used it then. And then I used it in Madison Square Garden when Kobe had 61, and he had a big dunk. Big, big dunk off the baseline, reverse, came up the left side and really hammered it.

You can’t write anything down because it would not sound like it would be in the flow of a call. I get asked these questions a lot “How did you think of that?” and I don’t know. I’m not a very smart guy. I’m kind of a goofy guy, I guess, and so when it came with Garnett back in the early Timberwolves days, they were so bad that we were just kind of looking for things to keep us awake and focused during the broadcast because we were getting our brains beat in all the time, and so we’d joke around. I worked with a couple guys that I really liked and we would have a good time on the air even though we’d pile up the losses and win 15 games and lose 60 whatever, so you try to keep yourself motivated and creative, and so we’d come up with stuff like that.

What triggers it, though, is kind of when you see the expression afterwards. I was working with Doug Collins, who I just adore. But Doug, when he saw that, it takes a lot for him to get into it, and he took his left arm, braced it against my chest, leaned back in the chair, thus moving me back in the chair, so literally I was falling backwards when we saw that dunk. And he was so excited. I know that’s what kind of lit my fuse on that particular call.

The fact that he had to get by a couple of guys on the move, and how far he was away. And his arm was fully extended and then he goes over the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. I mean, that’s a pretty stunning thing to see. And there’s not a lot of that in the NBA, when you have the confluence of rising superstar and established defensive presence and big-time playoff game and national audience and everything just kind of came together. And when he had that dunk with Doug’s reaction, it just kind of came out.

I’m really surprised a lot of us don’t say dumber stuff, like, there’s not obscenities that come out. Because when you’re in the stands, you’re standing there saying “Holy shit, what was that?” In replacing those vile words, we come up with things like “With no regard for human life.” But LeBron at that stage was a young player and just really beginning to take over, and the transition from Kobe to him was in full flower and you could see this kid was a special kid. And then to do it against a veteran like Garnett, a championship team like the Celtics, was a pretty big thing.

How would you describe your style as a play-by-play broadcaster, and in your field is it important at all to stand out and separate yourself in anyway?

First and foremost I think I’m a fan, and I have this great seat to watch these players do stuff that I just, like, I watch Harden and words don’t do it justice, the kind of stuff that he does. Kind of like LeBron. The stuff he does is just, one minute he’s zipping a pass down the lane through a bunch of arms and legs, and the next he’s skying up to grab a rebound against a taller, stronger player, and then he takes a three-point shot with ease and grace. Then you watch Harden stopping on a dime, backpedaling up and getting above the arc and hitting a three and the passing and the presence and the vision. So I’m really inspired and like a fan in that regard. I’m a passionate person. I’m an emotional persona. And it just kind of comes out. It’s probably best suited for a local broadcast as opposed to a national broadcast, but I really just enjoy it.

My dad was in pro sports for so long and I’ve been around baseball clubhouses and NFL fields and locker rooms and sidelines my whole life. I don’t know if my dad ever told me this but he probably lived by this credo because that’s kind of the way he ran his: He loved what he did, would’ve done it for free, and felt it was an honor to be there. I feel the same way. It’s an honor to do these games. NBA, NFL, or college basketball. I’ve really enjoyed college basketball and the tournament. It’s such an honor to be there, so I let my emotions sometimes get the best of me.

But you know, a great pass in the first quarter should not be downplayed. Now, in the realm of a game is it significant? Probably not in the first quarter. First half. And people will say “Oh you should wait until the end of the game!” Are you saying that a great pass by Harden or a juke and he breaks a guy’s ankles and the guy goes tumbling down and it’s the second quarter, I’m not gonna show a little bit of emotion? You’ve got to be kidding me. So I feel like when a good play happens, a good play happens. Now, maybe you save an extra gear for late in the game when it has a bearing on the outcome, but I’ve got to tell you that in every game there’s a highlight or something happens that is just, to me, incredible. Every single game, and I’ve done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of basketball games. Moreso with the pros than college, but the pro game I see stuff where I can not believe what I just saw. And I like having that feeling, because I’m thinking the fans that are watching in their seats, back and around us, I know they’re saying the same thing: “Wow did you see that play?!” And that’s how I feel.

How important is it to inject humor into a broadcast?

Unfortunately we’re in a business now where personalities and…before you were asking, Michael, about how to stand out. I think when you try to stand out that becomes an issue because I think you have to go into it calling the game and making sure you’re prepared and have done all the professional things you need to do. And as they tell these players, you’ve prepared all week and you’ve lifted these weights and you’ve run these miles and gone through the sets, now go out and have fun! I feel like I’ve prepared all week or all night or however long for my game until I go do it, well I want to go out and have some fun. I really am enjoying myself.

I love the business. I don’t like much around the business, but I love the business. I love doing the games because at the end of the day personalities and having fun seem to always grab the attention, and a lot of guys I think are graded on their humor as opposed to how they’re calling the game and I think you’re mistaken if you don’t recognize that. But I don’t think you can force it. We have to read these billboards, you know, so “The NBA on TNT is brought to you by GEICO, 15 minutes can…” and last night for the first time all season we had one by Arby’s, and you know in the Arby’s commercial the guy comes on and says “We’ve got the meats” or however he says it. So we had this great game, but our guy today tells me “You know what people liked?” And I was like “What, one of the KD blocks? Was it a pass inside?” “No. They loved the way you read that Arby’s commercial.” I said “Really, God.” I’m amazed at the type of stuff people latch onto, and that’s why I don’t go on social media and see this stuff because you’re kind of seduced into thinking “Well that’s who I’ve gotta be. That’s how I’ve gotta act with more humor.” I think if the humor comes naturally, especially with the guy you’re with, then it feels organic, but if it’s forced and you’re trying to do funny lines and skits and little bits and stuff, I think people can kind of see through that.

I never go into a game thinking “Hey let’s try and be funny tonight” or “Let’s try to be passionate, real, excited when maybe the game isn’t so.” I go in thinking nothing except let’s begin as a pro, stay as professional as you can. Make sure you never lose sight of the game regardless of what the score is, and make sure you’re doing an honest job in reporting the game. And if the other stuff tries to fall in because of a guy slipping or something goofy happening,a guy gets hit on the head with a ball or whatever it might be, you’re loose enough and in the moment enough that you kind of laugh and have fun because you know your viewer is probably laughing at whatever it might be.

What did you mean when you said that you love the business but don’t like things around the business?

I don’t like…the travel is, and people always say that, and who am to complain about the travel, especially now, I’m only doing a game or two a week. But when football is going on and I’m doing a Sunday, a Monday, and a Thursday, that can be pretty tough. And we just became empty nesters, so now my wife is going with me on trips and that has been a game changer because we’ve been married 31 years and we had four kids and our last one just left for college. She was just with me in San Francisco the last couple of days and that was terrific, and I would’ve hated to be out there without her. She made the trip and it just changed everything. That part of it actually is getting better.

It becomes tiresome and comes with the territory, and I’m not complaining, but there’s a lot of scrutiny on every word that we say. “What did he mean by that?” and “How should I take that?” We had a broadcaster in Oklahoma City say something that was unfortunate and was hurtful to some and we all get that. I think instead of just calling the game you’ve got to be very cognizant of how you present it and what you say, and that becomes an additional challenge. Again, not complaining, it just becomes something else on your plate that you’ve got to consider. And you should! It’s great this is all happening in our society. That there’s this real concerted effort by everybody—hopefully, certainly by us broadcasters—to make sure that you’re treating people the right way. That you’re never trying to say anything hurtful or disrespectful. And not that guys in the past would ever do that, but it’s a different climate we’re in now.

When I say it’s the stuff around, I shouldn’t complain about that. It was in the past, the travel. And now that my wife is with me it’s much better. I think we’re more on guard in what we say and we’ve got to be careful with what we say, more than ever before and there’s example after example, from Jimmy the Greek to the golf guy talking about a female swing of a club. All this stuff is out there and you’ve just got to be very, very careful that you don’t offend anybody and represent yourself and your company in a professional way. You can’t go into a broadcast scared, but you’ve got to go into a broadcast with that sense of awarness. Not that you didn’t before but it’s even, I’m sure you can appreciate, even more now that you really not say anything that would be construed or taken in a way that you don’t want, and it’s not kind or fair to other people.

How do you prepare for a game?

When you first get in the business, there’s the release and newspaper stories and that’s it. Now you’ve got very smart bloggers out there and you’ve got these websites that look at the analytics, and you feel like if you don’t visit these sites and take advantage of all these different ways to get information that you’re letting down your audience, thus not being the professional that you need to be.

You’ve gotta go and make sure you check all this stuff, because you don’t want to be left not in the know. You don’t want to miss a great statistic that would complement a big play by Harden or whatever. Luckily, the media relations staffs of all these different teams are dialed into these things too, so a lot of times they’ll put them in their notes which is really helpful because it saves you time from having to go and look this stuff up.

There was this guy who was a blogger. His name was Dieter Kurtenbach. I read a couple of his stories and I thought wow this guy is really good. Trying to find guys like that to read, like Bill Simmons. I think Simmons has a very interesting basketball mind. His mind is fascinating to me. There are a lot of them. There are so many. You’ve got to read what they think.

To get back to your question, the first thing I like to do is read the beat writers from each of the teams going in because they’re there every practice, every press conference, every game, every quarter, every dribble, they’ve seen it all. They’ll know far more than I’ll ever know about the team, but we’re expected to go into that arena, sit in that chair, put on that headset, and be as knowledgeable as those beat guys are. So you start there. Then you go to the release because you want to make sure you’ve got the details correct. Sometimes the stories can have an errant number or something like that, so you go back and double check, and then you start to hunt for stories online. Writers you know, websites you go to, statistical pages which are very important and have more of an analytical insight, whether it’s PER or whatever it might be.

You always say, I want one sentence on every player, so if I’m watching John Wall at the free-throw line I want to know, “John Wall grew up in North Carolina, he was a player of the year, he played a year at Kentucky, never thought of another school, first pick,” whatever I might say about him, but that I can say it in one line. It’ll take about five to seven seconds, and that’s what you try to do.

But in the world we’re in, and as fast as the pro game moves, so much of what we’ve written and prepared for can’t be used because the game is so fast. It’s like “score, score, rebound, free-throw, read a card, another free throw, back at it they go.” There’s never a time to catch your breath, which is the beauty of the college game. In the college game there’s far more space. There are these times to breathe and you can tell a story. You can get into a meaningful conversation with your analyst, because they use a lot of the clock, they don’t move as fast, they’re not as skilled, there’s not as much scoring, there are a lot of missed shots, on and on and on and on. In the NBA they’re so skilled. It’s a great pass, it’s a terrific rebound, it’s a wonderful three-point shot, and there’s so much to document that you can’t go to your information. So you’re discouraged a little bit on the pro side that you can’t get out all the good stuff that you’ve got. And there’s so much good stuff out there. And that can be a little frustrating.

The college game—I just finished doing the tournament—there is a ton of space. The game moves slower. It’s a natural rhythm for a broadcast. The NBA really should be done as a radio broadcast because more times than not if you try and get any kind of meaningful conversation with the analyst, the analyst is saying “ah, the two points there by Jaylen Brown and they’re going the other way, and as I was saying…” You’re constantly doing all this work without any chance to get it in, where as in the college game there is so much time and space and pockets that you can really kind of put stuff into and set up and get a storyline established. It’s great. But, that being said, the skill level between the two styles is immense. It’s absolutely immense.

You’ve got a bunch of people to read. They’re scary to read because they’re so smart, and so provocative, and so dead on with what they say, you feel sometimes like “God, why didn’t I think of that?” [Laughs]. I say that all the time. I have a lot of respect for the people that cover these games.

What’s the best game you’ve ever called?

You know I’d like to think that I haven’t called it. I like to think that it’s still ahead of me. I like to think that all the mistakes I’ve made in all the years I’ve been lucky enough to do this, I’d like to think that it’s yet to come. I’ve had a couple of Super Bowls that have been great because of last-minute heroics. The Malcolm Butler interception for the Pats on Russell Wilson. The historic comeback by Brady and the Patriots against Atlanta. If you’re lucky enough to get a Super Bowl like that it’s terrific. So there have been plays within games that I’ve been pleased with.

Listen, after every broadcast I can pick a thousand things I would say or do differently. A thousand. Maybe more. I wish I would’ve let it breathe more. I wish I would’ve put more emphasis on it. I wish I would’ve been smart enough in the moment to ask my analyst this or lead him into that or follow up with something he said or told the truck “No let’s hold off on that graphic because I think there’s something else more important.” There’s a thousand of those moments every single broadcast. So I like to think, and I’ll probably never have it, I like to think that my best broadcast is yet to come. But if it doesn’t, as I tell each of my three girls and our son, something that I learned very early on, it’s cliche but it’s so true: The journey is the essence of why you’re doing it. That is the reward. Going through all the preparation, making all the flights, not getting a lot of sleep, handling a different team from night to night, trying to be as good as you are. Your voice on some nights could be spot on and you could rattle off and not trip over anything. There are other nights where it’s like pulling gum out of your teeth. There’s no flow, there’s no rhythm, there’s no pace, there’s none of it. Those nights are just so frustrating.

I’ve never had a perfect broadcast or been close to one. I doubt I ever will, but I love the challenge of going for that. I love the challenge of preparing both my delivery and presentation with the notes that I have, and the information I’ve got. I love the challenge of aiming for that in every broadcast, and am disappointed when I fall short. But know that there’s another game coming up. It’s like a torture chamber to sit and listen [through my tapes]. “That was stupid, that was dumb, that was wrong, that didn’t sound good, talk slower” it’s just everything.

I don’t want to bring up any bad memories, but does any one gaffe stand out?

There’s things you probably would not say again. I’m trying to think if there’s anything that..for whatever reason I can’t think of one. I’m sure there are. You know when that kid ran out on that field in San Francisco a couple years ago, I was scared to death going back to the San Francisco airport thinking that was gonna be a real problem for me. My boss was standing next to me when the drunk kid ran out on the field and I kinda went with it, but I thought “This is the one thing they do not want you to do, is they do not want you to…”

Draw attention?

Yeah! Which is exactly what I did! I broke every rule right there.

I don’t know anyone who didn’t love that.

[Laughs] It turned out well, but had I been doing the game on TV for CBS, I would never have done it because that is just an automatic “no.” But on radio I guess it was just a bit different because you’re so used to describing every single thing you see on the field, and the kid ran right through the formation as they were lining up to take the snap. So it looked like he was a slot receiver. And he ran right by them! And he was allowed to run on the field for like 40 seconds before the security guys came out and got him. So there have been moments like that where I thought “That probably wasn’t very smart.”

A lot of times you’ll say the wrong pronunciation of a guy’s name or you’ll say something and local fans in Milwaukee or Houston will say “that’s not right,” and you completely flub that up and they call you out on it. Those are the things that you really begin to dread. Every mistake is a learning process and you just don’t do it again. You spend extra time on pronunciations. You spend extra time on making sure everything is dotted and crossed the right way.

Which player right now excites you the most, as a broadcaster? Is it an athletic star—LeBron or Russell Westbrook—or someone more like, say, Lance Stephenson, who provides pure entertainment in a different form?

I don’t know if the league has ever had a deeper list of great players. I’m watching Antetokounmpo right now. Oh my God. I mean this guy is just, he is a fascinating player with his background. So when I see him do things, the agility he has for his size, I’m just amazed. Harden to me is…he’s not Michael and he’s not LeBron. He’s not Kobe. I’ve had the honor of calling all three of their careers. I started doing Jordan his rookie year. Kobe, did a lot of his games as a rookie in the playoffs, right through his last season. Then LeBron since he got in the league. So those three guys are just incredible. But Harden is different than any player I can recall. Harden scores, he shoots, he sets up, he’s as unbelievable an offensive player as I’ve seen. He really is.

He’s brilliant.

He is brilliant. He is absolutely brilliant. And then LeBron of course, what we’re seeing him do just has never been done. Jordan to me was so exciting. I caught a little bit of Dr. J in his last couple years because I started in the 80s. But he wasn’t like these guys. Dr. J was graceful and had a majesty about him, where LeBron is, as we all know, for his size, to do what he does, and have the skills of a guard and the wherewithal of a big man, is just amazing. But Harden to me is a pretty unique guy and I don’t even know I can do justice in trying to really describe his game because I think you wouldn’t understand it unless you saw it. He doesn’t have the physical, imposing features of Jordan, even Kobe—who bulked up during his career—and certainly LeBron. He doesn’t look like them.

I love shooting. I love the art of a jump shot. And maybe it’s because I work with Reggie [Miller] and worked with Steve Kerr that I have a great appreciation for just how hard it is to do that, have all the mechanics that make it work, whether you’re guarded or unguarded, five feet or 25 feet away. I just love those guys. I think I love them more than the alley-oops and the jams. I thought I loved the dunks and all that power, which are great, they’re fun. But you see them so often.

To see a real skilled shooter like Ray Allen or Miller or now Curry, and Klay, and Harden…I am loving this space and pace and passing. Passing to me, and shooting, are like the two most wonderful things about this game. I love great sets and intricate plays. But I love the passing that gets you through that and makes a play become that memorable play. And so those are my two favorite things: passing and shooting. And I couldn’t put one over the other. They’re hand in hand. Those are the things that I enjoy the most about the game.

When you’re in the stands, you’re standing there saying “Holy shit, what was that?” In replacing those vile words, we come up with things like “With no regard for human life.”

The player who’s most intriguing to me is Harden because he’s unlike Kobe, Michael, and LeBron. He’s just a different guy. Now they all have elements of what he has but I don’t think he has any elements of what they have. They were power and force and ferocity. The athleticism. Not that James isn’t athletic but he’s not that athletic. He’s not Kobe Bryant, Jordan, LeBron athletic. So he’s doing it on guile and skill and nuance and adroit footwork. Just all this great stuff that to me is fascinating.

I don’t know him. I’ve never talked to him. He probably has no idea who I am, but in calling as many games of his as I have, I just have more of an appreciation for him every time I see him play. And I have that same appreciation for the shooters I see, and I love shots. Big shots, long shots. Who was the guy that played point guard for the Kings back in the early 2000’s?

Jason Williams.

Jason Williams. I wish I could’ve bottled that team. I wish all these kids passed like that. I wish they passed behind the back. I just wish there was more. I kind of held out hope that Ricky Rubio was gonna be like that, and at times he can do something like that, but he didn’t become the full blown Jason Williams that I thought he might be. When Jason Williams was on that team, kind of freestyling, freewheeling, swashbuckling, I just loved it. I absolutely loved watching him play. That was fun and entertaining and just the craft and the skill it took to pass like that I just found… “Wow what am I seeing?” because not every guy can do it. But those guys that can, and shoot with the consistency from outside, that’s kind of what Harden is. Harden has that wow factor where it’s like “How did he stop so fast that a good, agile guard is thrown off his balance and falls down? How does that happen? How does he do that?” And he does it gracefully. He said the other day, “I don’t know how I do it, I just do it. And I think about it but don’t know how I do it.” I just find that really, really fascinating.

Well, he’s about to win his first MVP.

He is, he is. Is he your MVP?

Oh, no question.

LeBron has had a great statistical season, there’s no doubt. In any other year he’d probably win, but this guy, this year has been great.

I’m not sure if you can make predictions on the record or not so I’ll word it in case you can’t: Which team do you think will be the hardest to defeat over the next couple months?

I think if Golden State is anything like they’ve been against a very smart San Antonio team, minus their best player, in Curry—they’ve kind of been in this malaise, whether they were bored or whatever—they have hit another gear, and they’re looking like the team that won last year. And as good as Houston is, and they are good, and it hurt them to lose Mbah a Moute, they’re gonna miss his defense and they’re gonna need it against a team like Golden State should that be a series. But Golden State is showing all the earmarks of being the team they’ve been, even though the regular season maybe didn’t reveal it as much. You know, they won 58 games. That was third most in the league, and everyone says “Oh, they’re complacent” and “Oh, they’re gonna flip a switch.” I would never degrade them and say it’s as easy as flipping a switch. I just think that for whatever reason, with guys injured and the season being so long, they weren’t gonna move up and catch Houston or drop back any further and lose that position. I think they just kind of said let’s refine what we’re doing, let’s work on the small things, and it’s starting to show. When they get Curry back, and if their bench can give them a little bit more, I think they’re going to be a very difficult out regardless of who they play.

I picked Houston before the season started and I’m sticking with that prediction.

I like it, I love the pick. I love the pick of Houston. I love them, I love them. Morey is definitely the Executive of the Year, and they bolstered their bench and they’ve got defensive minded guys. What I find remarkable about Houston is Paul and Harden are able to figure out between the two of them, they can defer when the other one is going. They have that innate feel and relationship that they don’t get pushed out of shape, maybe when the other guy takes a shot and they thought they should’ve. There’s not been an issue there. They’re friends. And they’re teammates to the best degree it seems like, and I think that’s been a remarkable story. And there’s a lot to like about Houston. I’m splitting hairs here but I do think if Curry can come back and be the Curry that we know, I think Golden State is going to be a very, very difficult out.

Hopefully we get them in the Western Conference Finals. My fingers are crossed.

As basketball fans, wouldn’t that be a treat? My goodness.

Kevin will call Game 4 of Timberwolves-Rockets alongside Reggie Miller and Kristen Ledlow, Monday (April 23) at 8 p.m. ET on TNT

Kevin Harlan is Still Searching for the Perfect Broadcast syndicated from https://australiahoverboards.wordpress.com

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Kevin Harlan is Still Searching for the Perfect Broadcast

VICE Sports: I want to jump in with a question I’m sure you’re asked all the time, but what call of yours are you most proud of or feel you’re best known for?

I’ve never done a conference finals. I’ve never done an NBA Finals. I’ve never done an All-Star game. There are certain games that you do along an NBA season that might have a call here or there that’s pretty good or that fans will latch onto. I’m really not as dialed into the social media thing the way I probably should be or certainly the way my daughters are, and son, so they’ll tell me from time to time that something I said...like the other night we were doing a promo for Lil Uzi Vert. He was going to perform at halftime or the postgame of our show. It was Los Angeles before the All-Star game.

And I go "Have they missed a couple letters here in this guy’s last name because it doesn’t even make sense." I’d never heard of the guy before, and so I looked him up during a commercial break because they handed me the card, and they said you’ve got to read this coming out of the commercial. And I said "Who is this? What is this? I didn’t know if it was a game or, I wasn’t sure what it was. So I read the card and said ‘Who doesn’t love the song Money…" or whatever the name of the song was, and my girls start texting me like "Dad what’d you say about Lil Uzi Vert?" I said "I don’t know I just read the card!" so I play a little dumb with them sometimes. I’m really not dialed into this stuff.

It’s personally my favorite call of all time, and I don’t want to harp on it too much, but how did With No Regard For Human Life even pop into your head?

You can’t write anything down because it would not sound like it would be in the flow of a call. I get asked these questions a lot "How did you think of that?” and I don’t know. I’m not a very smart guy. I’m kind of a goofy guy, I guess, and so when it came with Garnett back in the early Timberwolves days, they were so bad that we were just kind of looking for things to keep us awake and focused during the broadcast because we were getting our brains beat in all the time, and so we’d joke around. I worked with a couple guys that I really liked and we would have a good time on the air even though we’d pile up the losses and win 15 games and lose 60 whatever, so you try to keep yourself motivated and creative, and so we’d come up with stuff like that.

I’m really surprised a lot of us don’t say dumber stuff, like, there’s not obscenities that come out. Because when you’re in the stands, you’re standing there saying "Holy shit, what was that?" In replacing those vile words, we come up with things like "With no regard for human life." But LeBron at that stage was a young player and just really beginning to take over, and the transition from Kobe to him was in full flower and you could see this kid was a special kid. And then to do it against a veteran like Garnett, a championship team like the Celtics, was a pretty big thing.

How would you describe your style as a play-by-play broadcaster, and in your field is it important at all to stand out and separate yourself in anyway?

But you know, a great pass in the first quarter should not be downplayed. Now, in the realm of a game is it significant? Probably not in the first quarter. First half. And people will say "Oh you should wait until the end of the game!" Are you saying that a great pass by Harden or a juke and he breaks a guy’s ankles and the guy goes tumbling down and it’s the second quarter, I’m not gonna show a little bit of emotion? You’ve got to be kidding me. So I feel like when a good play happens, a good play happens. Now, maybe you save an extra gear for late in the game when it has a bearing on the outcome, but I’ve got to tell you that in every game there’s a highlight or something happens that is just, to me, incredible. Every single game, and I’ve done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of basketball games. Moreso with the pros than college, but the pro game I see stuff where I can not believe what I just saw. And I like having that feeling, because I’m thinking the fans that are watching in their seats, back and around us, I know they’re saying the same thing: "Wow did you see that play?!" And that’s how I feel.

How important is it to inject humor into a broadcast?

Unfortunately we’re in a business now where personalities and...before you were asking, Michael, about how to stand out. I think when you try to stand out that becomes an issue because I think you have to go into it calling the game and making sure you’re prepared and have done all the professional things you need to do. And as they tell these players, you’ve prepared all week and you’ve lifted these weights and you’ve run these miles and gone through the sets, now go out and have fun! I feel like I’ve prepared all week or all night or however long for my game until I go do it, well I want to go out and have some fun. I really am enjoying myself.

I love the business. I don’t like much around the business, but I love the business. I love doing the games because at the end of the day personalities and having fun seem to always grab the attention, and a lot of guys I think are graded on their humor as opposed to how they’re calling the game and I think you’re mistaken if you don’t recognize that. But I don’t think you can force it. We have to read these billboards, you know, so "The NBA on TNT is brought to you by GEICO, 15 minutes can…" and last night for the first time all season we had one by Arby’s, and you know in the Arby’s commercial the guy comes on and says "We’ve got the meats" or however he says it. So we had this great game, but our guy today tells me "You know what people liked?" And I was like "What, one of the KD blocks? Was it a pass inside?" "No. They loved the way you read that Arby’s commercial." I said "Really, God." I’m amazed at the type of stuff people latch onto, and that’s why I don’t go on social media and see this stuff because you’re kind of seduced into thinking "Well that’s who I’ve gotta be. That’s how I’ve gotta act with more humor." I think if the humor comes naturally, especially with the guy you’re with, then it feels organic, but if it’s forced and you’re trying to do funny lines and skits and little bits and stuff, I think people can kind of see through that.

I never go into a game thinking "Hey let’s try and be funny tonight" or "Let’s try to be passionate, real, excited when maybe the game isn’t so." I go in thinking nothing except let’s begin as a pro, stay as professional as you can. Make sure you never lose sight of the game regardless of what the score is, and make sure you’re doing an honest job in reporting the game. And if the other stuff tries to fall in because of a guy slipping or something goofy happening,a guy gets hit on the head with a ball or whatever it might be, you’re loose enough and in the moment enough that you kind of laugh and have fun because you know your viewer is probably laughing at whatever it might be.

What did you mean when you said that you love the business but don’t like things around the business?

I don’t like...the travel is, and people always say that, and who am to complain about the travel, especially now, I’m only doing a game or two a week. But when football is going on and I’m doing a Sunday, a Monday, and a Thursday, that can be pretty tough. And we just became empty nesters, so now my wife is going with me on trips and that has been a game changer because we’ve been married 31 years and we had four kids and our last one just left for college. She was just with me in San Francisco the last couple of days and that was terrific, and I would’ve hated to be out there without her. She made the trip and it just changed everything. That part of it actually is getting better.

It becomes tiresome and comes with the territory, and I’m not complaining, but there’s a lot of scrutiny on every word that we say. "What did he mean by that?" and "How should I take that?" We had a broadcaster in Oklahoma City say something that was unfortunate and was hurtful to some and we all get that. I think instead of just calling the game you’ve got to be very cognizant of how you present it and what you say, and that becomes an additional challenge. Again, not complaining, it just becomes something else on your plate that you’ve got to consider. And you should! It’s great this is all happening in our society. That there’s this real concerted effort by everybody—hopefully, certainly by us broadcasters—to make sure that you’re treating people the right way. That you’re never trying to say anything hurtful or disrespectful. And not that guys in the past would ever do that, but it’s a different climate we’re in now.

How do you prepare for a game?

You always say, I want one sentence on every player, so if I’m watching John Wall at the free-throw line I want to know, "John Wall grew up in North Carolina, he was a player of the year, he played a year at Kentucky, never thought of another school, first pick," whatever I might say about him, but that I can say it in one line. It’ll take about five to seven seconds, and that’s what you try to do.

But in the world we’re in, and as fast as the pro game moves, so much of what we’ve written and prepared for can’t be used because the game is so fast. It’s like "score, score, rebound, free-throw, read a card, another free throw, back at it they go." There’s never a time to catch your breath, which is the beauty of the college game. In the college game there’s far more space. There are these times to breathe and you can tell a story. You can get into a meaningful conversation with your analyst, because they use a lot of the clock, they don’t move as fast, they’re not as skilled, there’s not as much scoring, there are a lot of missed shots, on and on and on and on. In the NBA they’re so skilled. It’s a great pass, it’s a terrific rebound, it’s a wonderful three-point shot, and there’s so much to document that you can’t go to your information. So you’re discouraged a little bit on the pro side that you can’t get out all the good stuff that you’ve got. And there’s so much good stuff out there. And that can be a little frustrating.

The college game—I just finished doing the tournament—there is a ton of space. The game moves slower. It’s a natural rhythm for a broadcast. The NBA really should be done as a radio broadcast because more times than not if you try and get any kind of meaningful conversation with the analyst, the analyst is saying "ah, the two points there by Jaylen Brown and they’re going the other way, and as I was saying…" You’re constantly doing all this work without any chance to get it in, where as in the college game there is so much time and space and pockets that you can really kind of put stuff into and set up and get a storyline established. It’s great. But, that being said, the skill level between the two styles is immense. It’s absolutely immense.

You’ve got a bunch of people to read. They’re scary to read because they’re so smart, and so provocative, and so dead on with what they say, you feel sometimes like "God, why didn’t I think of that?" [Laughs]. I say that all the time. I have a lot of respect for the people that cover these games.

What’s the best game you’ve ever called?

Listen, after every broadcast I can pick a thousand things I would say or do differently. A thousand. Maybe more. I wish I would’ve let it breathe more. I wish I would’ve put more emphasis on it. I wish I would’ve been smart enough in the moment to ask my analyst this or lead him into that or follow up with something he said or told the truck "No let’s hold off on that graphic because I think there’s something else more important." There’s a thousand of those moments every single broadcast. So I like to think, and I’ll probably never have it, I like to think that my best broadcast is yet to come. But if it doesn’t, as I tell each of my three girls and our son, something that I learned very early on, it’s cliche but it’s so true: The journey is the essence of why you’re doing it. That is the reward. Going through all the preparation, making all the flights, not getting a lot of sleep, handling a different team from night to night, trying to be as good as you are. Your voice on some nights could be spot on and you could rattle off and not trip over anything. There are other nights where it’s like pulling gum out of your teeth. There’s no flow, there’s no rhythm, there’s no pace, there’s none of it. Those nights are just so frustrating.

I’ve never had a perfect broadcast or been close to one. I doubt I ever will, but I love the challenge of going for that. I love the challenge of preparing both my delivery and presentation with the notes that I have, and the information I’ve got. I love the challenge of aiming for that in every broadcast, and am disappointed when I fall short. But know that there’s another game coming up. It’s like a torture chamber to sit and listen [through my tapes]. "That was stupid, that was dumb, that was wrong, that didn’t sound good, talk slower" it’s just everything.

I don’t want to bring up any bad memories, but does any one gaffe stand out?

There’s things you probably would not say again. I’m trying to think if there’s anything that..for whatever reason I can’t think of one. I’m sure there are. You know when that kid ran out on that field in San Francisco a couple years ago, I was scared to death going back to the San Francisco airport thinking that was gonna be a real problem for me. My boss was standing next to me when the drunk kid ran out on the field and I kinda went with it, but I thought "This is the one thing they do not want you to do, is they do not want you to…"

Draw attention?

Yeah! Which is exactly what I did! I broke every rule right there.

I don’t know anyone who didn’t love that.

[Laughs] It turned out well, but had I been doing the game on TV for CBS, I would never have done it because that is just an automatic "no." But on radio I guess it was just a bit different because you’re so used to describing every single thing you see on the field, and the kid ran right through the formation as they were lining up to take the snap. So it looked like he was a slot receiver. And he ran right by them! And he was allowed to run on the field for like 40 seconds before the security guys came out and got him. So there have been moments like that where I thought "That probably wasn’t very smart."

A lot of times you’ll say the wrong pronunciation of a guy’s name or you’ll say something and local fans in Milwaukee or Houston will say "that’s not right," and you completely flub that up and they call you out on it. Those are the things that you really begin to dread. Every mistake is a learning process and you just don’t do it again. You spend extra time on pronunciations. You spend extra time on making sure everything is dotted and crossed the right way.

I don’t know if the league has ever had a deeper list of great players. I’m watching Antetokounmpo right now. Oh my God. I mean this guy is just, he is a fascinating player with his background. So when I see him do things, the agility he has for his size, I’m just amazed. Harden to me is...he’s not Michael and he’s not LeBron. He’s not Kobe. I’ve had the honor of calling all three of their careers. I started doing Jordan his rookie year. Kobe, did a lot of his games as a rookie in the playoffs, right through his last season. Then LeBron since he got in the league. So those three guys are just incredible. But Harden is different than any player I can recall. Harden scores, he shoots, he sets up, he’s as unbelievable an offensive player as I’ve seen. He really is.

He’s brilliant.

To see a real skilled shooter like Ray Allen or Miller or now Curry, and Klay, and Harden...I am loving this space and pace and passing. Passing to me, and shooting, are like the two most wonderful things about this game. I love great sets and intricate plays. But I love the passing that gets you through that and makes a play become that memorable play. And so those are my two favorite things: passing and shooting. And I couldn’t put one over the other. They’re hand in hand. Those are the things that I enjoy the most about the game.

When you’re in the stands, you’re standing there saying "Holy shit, what was that?" In replacing those vile words, we come up with things like "With no regard for human life."

I don't know him. I’ve never talked to him. He probably has no idea who I am, but in calling as many games of his as I have, I just have more of an appreciation for him every time I see him play. And I have that same appreciation for the shooters I see, and I love shots. Big shots, long shots. Who was the guy that played point guard for the Kings back in the early 2000’s?

Jason Williams.

Jason Williams. I wish I could’ve bottled that team. I wish all these kids passed like that. I wish they passed behind the back. I just wish there was more. I kind of held out hope that Ricky Rubio was gonna be like that, and at times he can do something like that, but he didn’t become the full blown Jason Williams that I thought he might be. When Jason Williams was on that team, kind of freestyling, freewheeling, swashbuckling, I just loved it. I absolutely loved watching him play. That was fun and entertaining and just the craft and the skill it took to pass like that I just found… "Wow what am I seeing?" because not every guy can do it. But those guys that can, and shoot with the consistency from outside, that’s kind of what Harden is. Harden has that wow factor where it’s like "How did he stop so fast that a good, agile guard is thrown off his balance and falls down? How does that happen? How does he do that?" And he does it gracefully. He said the other day, "I don’t know how I do it, I just do it. And I think about it but don’t know how I do it." I just find that really, really fascinating.

Well, he’s about to win his first MVP.

He is, he is. Is he your MVP?

Oh, no question.

LeBron has had a great statistical season, there’s no doubt. In any other year he’d probably win, but this guy, this year has been great.

I’m not sure if you can make predictions on the record or not so I’ll word it in case you can’t: Which team do you think will be the hardest to defeat over the next couple months?

I think if Golden State is anything like they’ve been against a very smart San Antonio team, minus their best player, in Curry—they’ve kind of been in this malaise, whether they were bored or whatever—they have hit another gear, and they’re looking like the team that won last year. And as good as Houston is, and they are good, and it hurt them to lose Mbah a Moute, they’re gonna miss his defense and they’re gonna need it against a team like Golden State should that be a series. But Golden State is showing all the earmarks of being the team they’ve been, even though the regular season maybe didn’t reveal it as much. You know, they won 58 games. That was third most in the league, and everyone says "Oh, they’re complacent" and "Oh, they’re gonna flip a switch." I would never degrade them and say it’s as easy as flipping a switch. I just think that for whatever reason, with guys injured and the season being so long, they weren’t gonna move up and catch Houston or drop back any further and lose that position. I think they just kind of said let’s refine what we’re doing, let’s work on the small things, and it’s starting to show. When they get Curry back, and if their bench can give them a little bit more, I think they’re going to be a very difficult out regardless of who they play.

I picked Houston before the season started and I’m sticking with that prediction.

Hopefully we get them in the Western Conference Finals. My fingers are crossed.

As basketball fans, wouldn’t that be a treat? My goodness.

Kevin will call Game 4 of Timberwolves-Rockets alongside Reggie Miller and Kristen Ledlow, Monday (April 23) at 8 p.m. ET on TNT

Kevin Harlan is Still Searching for the Perfect Broadcast published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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powerfulprincipal · 7 years

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Hulk Leaders...And the importance of managing stress

By Danny Gentry

In our first installment of the Super Principal series, we discussed THOR Principals. These are the principals who have some serious and helpful education expertise, but allow their narcissism to get the better of them. THOR Principals use the “big hammer” of being the boss to push their own agenda to the the exclusion of all others. While their sincere desire for student success may be noble, they often leave their teachers frightened and demoralized.

HULK Leaders?

To say that THE HULK is a poor model for leadership should be obvious to everyone. Beating people to a pulp and destroying things is never a great way to win over a boardroom, much less a teaching staff. However, these green monsters are out there in abundance, and it is interesting to note that almost everyone has had at least one encounter with a HULK-type leader. HULK leaders are the leaders who present themselves as mild-mannered and friendly one the one hand, and teeter on the brink of serious mental illness on the other. Learning how to identify, and potentially control, this type of behavior (in ourselves and others) is beneficial to our careers and to the overall health of our profession as educators.

In this article, we will take a look at HULK leaders. I have termed them HULK leaders because much of the time they are display normal, intelligent, and rational behavior; but in times of stress and often under crisis, they literally become raging idiots. These people somehow manage to get themselves into leadership positions despite the fact (or maybe BECAUSE of the fact) that they probably suffer from some type of borderline personality disorder found deep within the bowels of the DSM V (for those who aren’t familiar with this ling, the DSM V is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders...5th Edition). It is interesting to note that as you study abnormal psychology, you begin to find out that many of the traits that are found in people with mental illness, are also traits that are found in some famous and effective leaders. We will discuss this aspect of HULK leaders in a later section.

Getting to know THE HULK

As we begin our discussion, let’s turn our attention to the namesake of this type of leader: THE HULK. He’s the big green guy that breaks things, jumps really far, and beats his enemies senseless (see this clip from the Avengers). In an interesting side-note, this video clip probably explains the outcome of a hypothetical battle between a HULK leader and a THOR leader (a popular game played by comic book fans). Anyway, like all superheroes, if you want to truly understand who they are, you need to first understand their alter-ego. The HULK’s alter-ego is Bruce Banner, an outwardly mild-mannered nuclear physicist with a disturbing past. Early child-abuse by his father, the murder of his mother, bullying by classmates in school, and exposure to radiation; made for an unusual and disturbed childhood for Bruce. During an accidental exposure to huge amounts of gamma radiation, Bruce began to transform into an alternate persona now known affectionately as THE HULK. As a result of this exposure, coupled with his past experiences, Bruce becomes THE HULL under times of great stress and emotion. Following this experience, as do many other people with a history of emotional trauma and multiple-personality disorder, Bruce went on to earn a PhD and settled into an academic career. During this time, he learned more about his “disorder” and took some steps to control the rage within. He also learned where to buy his t-shirts, and his really stretchy pants, in bulk.

My personal experiences with HULK leaders

When I first started out as a high school assistant principal, I had the misfortune of working in a school district where we had a HULK leader as the superintendent. Physically, he was about as far from the Hulk as you could get. He was about 6’3” tall and so skinny that he would almost disappear when he turned sideways. He was very smart, and was an expert in school finance (a skill that would one day lead to his undoing). I never had to face his Hulk wrath directly, but I witnessed many occasions where he came to our school, transformed into THE HULK, and literally screamed at our principal for over an hour while they were behind closed doors. After those meetings, my principal would come out her office carrying her purse, crying, and vowing to quit. Each time she would leave the school for awhile, pull herself together, and then show up for work again the next day. These types of Hulking-Out episodes went on for an entire year. As you would expect, the following year the HULK Superintendent left, and my principal was offered a job at the central office. Demonstrating the veracity of the old saying “karma is a bitch”, this superintendent was arrested and convicted of financial fraud in his new school district and spent several years in the federal penitentiary. I wonder if he yelled at the guards or the other prisoners? Probably not.

Unfortunately, the HULK-type leaders seemed to keep dropping into my path. After I left the school district with the screamer/crook superintendent, I found myself in another district that ALSO had a HULK for a superintendent. I am convinced that this guy may have had a similar background as Bruce Banner, because he was a truly disturbed individual. He actually grew up in a town in the Texas panhandle not too far from where the U.S. government assembled nuclear weapons, so who knows. Anyway, not long after I got there and settled in, I started hearing stories of how this superintendent would go into the previous principal’s office and stay in there for hours yelling at him. I then heard that one day, the principal just turned in his resignation and basically left in the middle of the night. I wondered when it would be my turn to see this type of behavior from this guy; and it didn’t take too long to find out.

Honestly, the job was great in the beginning. It was a small school district and it was just the two of us in a K-12 school. At the time, I was about the same age as one of his estranged sons (Estranged, due to the fact that he had divorced their mother while she had cancer and took up with a young college cutie while he was unemployed and going to night-school...but I digress), so he would take me hunting, golfing, out to nice restaurants; in lieu of having a relationship with his own son. In retrospect, it was kinda pathological and sick...but this was only the beginning of the weirdness. I knew he was not the “paragon of virtue”, but he was being nice to me for the time being and I was okay with that. The yelling started with me a few months after I started when I accidentally left the lights on in my office one night. He happened to be driving past the school and called me in the middle of the night to yell at me over the phone. I also got yelled at for: Touching a newspaper that was sitting out on the counter in the district office, calling the gas company because there was a gas leak on the grounds, calling 911 because we had a student who had overdosed, and for having a fundraiser to raise money to help Afghanistan children after the war started. I could fill a page listing all of the other incidents of yelling and intimidation, but there would be so many, and some would seem so ridiculous that you might start to question whether or not I was making it all up. I assure you that this was ALL too real.

So, how did it all turn out? We all like to think that WE will be the person who stands up to the HULK, but when you need a job and you have a wife and kid, sometimes taking the abuse is a viable option. However, I did get pushed into an ethical corner by his behavior and refused to cross the line. It turns out that this superintendent started up a very public extramarital affair with a district employee and ordered me to violate school policy in favor of helping her son who was a troublemaker and a drug-addict. This kid was a student in our school, and he ordered me to look the other way on a very serious offense, and it was at this point that I started to stand up against the abuse. When I did, a lot of other people stood up with me and things in that small town got really intense really quickly. Without going into a lot of detail, the final outcome was another fine illustration of how “karma is a bitch”. I ended up resigning my position to take a much better job in great school district in a beautiful part of the country. Meanwhile, this guy got fired, lost his wife, his house, and had a sanction placed on his superintendent certification. The last I heard, he was divorced and living with his new mistress in a broken-down, Walter White style RV, somewhere in south Texas.

The Psychology of the HULK Leader

I am not a psychologist, so I’m not going to try to convince you that I understand what makes a HULK-type leader tick. I will say that it is my opinion that many HULK-type leaders suffer from some form of mental illness. In Part 1 of this series, I talked about the THOR-type leaders who suffered from a healthy dose of narcissism. Narcissism is not a disorder you find listed in the DSM V, it is a character trait that is a common affliction of normal people when they are exposed to power. THOR-type leaders already view themselves as a “cut above” due to their knowledge and skill set. Give them the HAMMER of Power, and impending narcissism causes them to wield that power with often destructive results.

HULK-type leaders are truly fascinating and frightening.. I’ve always been amazed at how two personalities can reside within one brain. We have all heard the cliche’ that genius is just one step away from madness. In the case of the HULK-type leader this is especially true. In the past few years, there has been considerable research into how leaders respond to stressful situations and crises. In a very counterintuitive book entitled, First Rate Madness...Why mental illness enhances crisis leadership, psychologist Nassir Ghaemi, argues that, ironically, the leaders who have led best under crisis situations have been those who suffered from substantial mental illness. Furthermore, he makes a case for why “normal” (or as he dubs them, Homoclites), often fail in leadership positions in times of crisis. In the book, he gives the examples of various leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy; who were all afflicted with some type of mental illness or condition that rendered their mental faculties as questionable. In the case of Lincoln and Churchill, both men suffered from often debilitating bouts of depression. In the case of the Roosevelts and JFK, they all suffered from some physical ailments whose symptoms and treatments often either exhibited or induced some type of mental impairment.

In citing examples of “normal” (Homoclite) leaders, he lists leaders like failed civil war general George McClellan, Richard Nixon, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and George W. Bush. In each of these he sees a totally normal individual who negatively transformed under the stress of leading during a crisis. Some of these even went full HULK, like Nixon. According to Ghaemi, “Most leaders are mentally healthy. And that may be the problem. Mental health may not be as good for leadership as people often assume. This would be the case if mental illness confers certain psychological advantages that may be useful for leadership. Mania, for instance, is well associated with creativity. Depression, in many psychological studies, is associated with enhance realism. Both may increase resilience.”

Managing Stress Helps Manage THE HULK Within

It is in considering the impact of stress on normal leaders, that the research of Ghaemi (2011), really comes to bear on our work as school leaders. What we find is that we are dealing with two causes for HULK-type leader development: Leaders who are truly mentally ill who may manage a crisis well, but fail at everyday leadership because they can’t control their behavior; and “normal” leaders who do well under normal circumstances, but fail under stressful or crisis situations. In either case, we need to come to the frightening realization that many of us are capable of becoming HULK-type leaders, and we need to understand what we can do to avoid it.

While it may be hard to wrap our minds around the notion that mental illness actually confers some benefits to people when it comes to leading during a crisis, it is even more important for us “normal” people to effectively manage our stress...because we generally don’t operate well under stress. We can also prepare for and anticipate for the crises that we know will eventually come. Stress-avoidance is not a particularly effective form of stress-management, because it can actually cause otherwise “non-crisis” situations to turn into a crisis. An example of this would be choosing NOT to confront a teacher over an important issue, and instead choosing to ignore it. It is in these situations where the greatest danger lies for most “normal” principals. These situations often become the crisis of your own creation, and the ones that are the most frustrating; precisely because they were avoidable. Being a principal is a stressful job, so we need to learn to find ways to manage stress instead of avoiding it. We can also be proactive and prepare for those crisis situations. If we don’t, we may find ourselves being like Bruce Banner, and becoming a HULK-type leader who turns into something ugly and horrible in response to the stress.

It’s hard for most of us “normal” people to imagine ourselves turning into a HULK when stressful or crisis situations come our way, but there are some signs that you are not dealing with the stress very well. According to Ghaemi (2011), leaders should be concerned about their response to stress or crisis when they: stop listening to others, “double down” or become fanatically devoted to one idea or solution, or find themselves withdrawing to a “trusted inner circle”.

Resources

There are LOTS of articles out there that give advice to principals on how to manage stress and prepare for crises. Here are some links to a few of them:

A Principal’s Guide to Stress Relief

What Are Some Steps to Reduce Stress for Principals

Crisis Management and Response

Conclusion

HULK-leaders are out there. The sad part is that HULK-type leaders don’t yell, turn green, and grow ten sizes bigger; they look just like you and me. They may be a person in your school or school district. They may even be reading this article. They may not even realize that they have a HULK leader within them until it’s too late and the monster appears because they didn’t know how to appropriately deal with stress or prepare for the inevitable crises that occur as a part of the principalship. THE HULK-type leader can cause a lot of damage to a school if left to their own devices. I know, because I have witnessed the horrible effects of HULK leaders on schools. The importance of establishing and nurturing a positive school culture is SO important, that principals must make it a priority to monitor their own stress levels and to prepare for crises. In doing so, they provide a safe and effective learning environment for everyone.

References:

Ghaemi, N. (2011). A first-rate madness: Uncovering the links between leadership and mental illness. Penguin.

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