Of all the basketball junkies who approach NBA CrunchTime host Jared Greenberg and tell him how much they love the show, one group stands out to him: referees.
“CrunchTime,” which airs on the NBA app on mobile devices and smart TVs, is an “NFL Red Zone” concept applied to basketball, and Greenberg has hosted it in one form or another for seven years.
The Post spoke to Greenberg, 40, in the bustling lobby of the JW Marriott last weekend during the NBA All-Star festivities in Indianapolis. Every few minutes, someone else popped up to say hello, including former Heat legend Alonzo Mourning. .
Greenberg, who is also a sideline reporter for TNT, is now becoming more and more recognized on the NBA scene.
He said a young child walked up to him and asked for his autograph at a recent Lakers-Celtics game in Boston, and now fans regularly see him, citing his love of “crunch time.” He said he would ask for a selfie.
At the age of 15, Greenberg made it his “life’s mission” to work in sports media.
At this point, not only is he gaining public recognition, but it feels surreal that sports referees are riveted to his content.
“You know what the craziest group that’s into this is? It’s referees,” he said.
“I can’t tell you how many NBA referees have stopped me during games, in airports, in restaurants. They love it. People don’t realize how much attention basketball referees get. To them, the league This is the perfect show because instead of watching multiple passes, you can watch all the games at once.”
Up to 14 games may be played in a single night, so 28 teams must prepare.
His “command center” in Atlanta consists of a desk, tablet, laptop, and two monitors.
In addition to watching every game, he watches Slack channels with his researchers and production assistants and checks websites for real-time alerts, such as whether his team is going up 20-0 or not. doing.
On top of that, he does all his notes and preparations on his laptop, plus he stays on top of the conversations on X and hears the voice of producer Bert Bondi.
The show strives to broadcast the biggest moments, best finishes, extraordinary individual performances, milestones and gambling implications.
Greenberg said he is careful not to hurt casual fans with excessive betting, but will address it if necessary.
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“It’ll be like, ‘That game was just over,’ or ‘Hey, it’s a nine-point game with eight seconds left, yeah, team A is going to win, but team B might win.’ ” cover,'” He said.
The show has been airing commercial-free for about two hours on the NBA app since last season, and before that, a version was airing on NBA TV for about five years.
What started as a few minute segments later became an hour, with a seven-hour version airing during the pandemic from 7pm ET until the end of the West Coast game.
Greenberg grew up in Mahwah, New Jersey and attended Hofstra University.
He began his career with the Atlantic League’s Newark Bears as a jack of many trades, helping out with the Terps and arranging tickets, as well as doing radio work.
He freelanced as a sports anchor and reporter for the News 12 Network in the New York and New Jersey area, covering college basketball play-by-play and reporting from the sidelines.
He made his first appearance on NBA TV in 2005, shortly after graduating from college.
Mr. Greenberg, who won’t share his name, still remembers what the man who hired him said to him when he showed up for an interview in a suit.
“I was sitting in his office and he said to me, ‘You’re coming to this interview to do the voiceover.’ It’s really cool that you’re wearing a suit, but here you are. Then I’d never be on TV,”’ Greenberg recalled.
He balanced his work at News 12 in Westchester before heading to NBA TV’s old headquarters in Secaucus to narrate highlights from around the web.
He eventually became the lead anchor of MSG Varsity, a now-defunct 24-hour high school sports network, in 2009.
Turner Sports hired him full-time in 2012 after the NBA lockout, and he co-hosted a social media show called “The Jump” with former NBA players Brent Barry and Dennis Scott. .
This evolved into an NBA TV studio job and sideline reporting work, which eventually became “CrunchTime.”
While many were eager to host the NBA Red Zone concept, Greenberg credits part of the reason he earned the spot to his enthusiastic preparation.
Unlike our colleagues at TNT Charles Barkley frequently fails on his TV shows. Greenberg is confident he can identify every player in a sport to find out which teams currently have players on their bench.
“When the show starts at 8:30 ET, I’m going to give the fans the energy they deserve, because if I wasn’t hosting this show, I’d be sitting at home on the couch with a beer and watching the game. ‘Just like I would have been on the show,’ he said.
