To anyone involved in sports broadcasting: For basketball and tennis matches, how do they decide which plays to show for the recap?
For most sports, it’s easy. Auto racing usually has only a few really dramatic or tense moments per race. Football often comes down to a few key plays or one big series. So does baseball. And hockey, despite the speed of the action, and you can recap some soccer games in 20 seconds. Boxing usually has one or more turning points, and the bouts are short enough that it’s possible to show a good chunk of the action. Golf usually has only a handful of contenders per tournament, and it’s easy to pick out highlights.
Basketball, on the other hand, has so much scoring that there’s almost never one “big play”, even near the end. It’s hard to tell how the game went by one basket, one steal, one block, one rebound, etc., and the recaps leave a lot out out of simple necessity. Likewise, there are a lot of points scored in tennis, and it’s simply impossible to get a feel of how the match actually went from the few points they’re allowed to show.
So how exactly do they get selected? (I’m pretty sure star power has at least something to do with it…grumble Tiger Woods grumble…)
It seems to me that you are probably not a big fan of basketball or tennis. Even though every 2-point basket counts for 2 points and every 3-point basket counts for 3, some are much more important than others. A steal followed by a dunk that caps a 10-0 run for a team is more significant than the first 2 point field goal of the game. By seeing that one clip you can get a feel for each team’s momentum at that point in the game, in addition to just knowing the score. Also, picture a basket that gives one team a lead that they never relinquish, or a shot in the closing minutes that puts the game out of reach for the trailing team. Then there the obvious highlights, like a fastbreak 360 degree behind the back under the leg monster slam, and of course a half court buzzer beater that goes in (even if it really doesn’t effect the outcome of the game but especially if it does). Tennis is similar in that even though every point is equal, some points can be more equal because of their effect on the momentum of the players. Martina Hingis battling back from triple break point to win a game is more significant than her serving an ace to start a game later that day.
Yes, I’m aware of that. I was asking for the specifics (that’s why I wanted people with some familiarity with sports broadcasting). The problems for sports like these is that there’s a lot of things that happen in one game, which, naturally, leads to a lot more highlights to choose from. In nearly every car race, nothing noteworthy happens for very long stretches (trust me, I’ve seen too many car races…), but occasionally there’s a big pass, a major collision, a sudden change of fortune. But out of the many possible highlights in a single basketball or tennis contest (substitute other sports if you like; I’m just stating the most obvious ones), how does the sports desk decide which ones to use? That’s what I’m going for here.
I’ll admit to having something of a personal beef with one particular basketball broadcast. It was the Syracuse/Hawaii game in the first round of the NCAA championship, ESPN covered it, and they didn’t show one 'Bows highlight. They didn’t lose that badly, either.
Hawaii? Well, this helps answer part of your question. Generally, they won’t choose a game with a small market, like Hawaii to cut and edit.
Sick of New York teams and LA teams? If LA playa Philly, that’s two huge markets. You’ll get hi-lites. How do they pick the hi-lites? Someone in the production crew during the broadcast will mark spots in the recording for quick review/edit later. These guys are good at what they do. They pick things, go back, cut 'em, edit them, wrap them. On replays during a game from different angles and cameras, they generat tons of hi-lites, almost instantly before the next play rolls, like in Football. Having the plays from the replay group is a good start for what makes the final hi-lite real.
Tennis? Same thing…two hi ranked players, or a genuine upset of a hi ranked player get air time. The production crew will mark parts of the match for review/edit. Some are instant replay and some instant replays are final hi-lites.