Chansky’s Notebook: Ode To The Jet

Thank goodness for Kenny “The Jet” Smith.

Now that CBS splits NCAA tournament coverage with Turner stations TBS and TNT and TruTV, whatever that is, a cast of thousands carries us from pre-game shows that are mostly filler full of nonsense from Charles Barkley – to different sets with different talking heads like nincompoop know-it-all Seth Davis – to the actual games with eight different teams of announcers – and to the Final Four with Nantz, Raftery and overrated Grant Hill.

So here is a shout-out to Tar Heel Kenny Smith.

Besides spot duty during the early rounds from Brendan Haywood, who is way better than Sir Charles and most of the others, Carolina does not get much representation for a school with the most Final Four appearances and a coach with the best NCAA record in the last 15 years.

I hope the Jet makes a lot of money adding college ball to his NBA pre-game, halftime and post-game gig. He deserves it.

Barkley may entertain some people, but be careful when you say in public you like him. His lack of preparation and knowledge of the college game are constantly in a battle to see which is scarcer. Barkley is perfectly cast as the stooge to Spike Lee and Samuel Jackson in those Final Four promos.

The Jet is the real deal when they let him get a word in edgewise. He was a heady point guard for the Tar Heels and two-time NBA champ with the Rockets. But he can’t say something too intelligent because it doesn’t have the entertainment value Barkley supposedly brings to the table. Turner’s Ernie Johnson is a traffic cop, who needs to give out a few more slow-down citations.

Clark Kellogg, the former Ohio State All-American, wasn’t good enough to keep the analyst job that somehow fell to veteran Bill Raftery and Hill, who had no TV experience to speak of and suddenly was courtside with the A-team at the NCAA tourney.

Why Seth Davis is still on national television is a mystery, other than his father worked in the Clinton White House and he went to Duke. He has authored a couple of books, but, hell — so have I. When do I go on national TV?

I can’t because I’m not a Dukie. A special on the Naismith awards over the weekend had as much Seth Davis as Kenny Smith, which proves that nobody up there knows anything.

Keep it up, Jet, you’re the best thing on TV basketball.

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