ESPN comes up short – again

Seems like we've been beating up on ESPN of late.
Sorry – but here's another round.
ESPN's coverage of the death of John Wooden was quite good – in large part because they left the commentary to other people and not their writers.
Most of the anchors weren't born when Wooden's teams were winning 10 of 12 NCAA championships or winning 38 games in a row in the NCAA tournament.
And I'll bet they could have cared less.
It wasn't too difficult to look underneath the stoic faces on the television Friday night and Saturday morning and see a bunch of people ready to crack wise about anything. That's what they are paid to do. It's very difficult for ESPN's wannabe broadcasters to actually impart information without a certain smirk.
If you look on the Web, there are many wonderful tributes about John Wooden, his coaching ability and his ability to mold young men (far more important than his coaching career). One of the best is from longtime L.A. Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. It lasts about a minute and, with some help from Skakespeare, Scully (as is usually the case) says more in less time than anyone else can.
The last word belongs to Kevin Denke, who runs the newsroom here at MetroWest Newspapers.
"I think trying to explain the importance of John Wooden is a lost art and unfortunately, in our day and age, a lost cause."