If you’re a fan of college basketball – you’re likely familiar with play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson’s work.
Johnson has the ability to make seemingly any sporting event sound exciting. He achieves the perfect balance of calling the action as an announcer, building the drama and transferring the feeling inside the arena to the viewers at home – all without going over the line in cheerleading.
What If Gus Johnson Called NASCAR Races Instead Of College Basketball?
There are some basketball fans who will watch a Gus Johnson-called game just because of the announcer. That’s no exaggeration. I did that very thing on Wednesday night with the VCU-Southern Cal NCAA Tournament game.
And Gus delivered. Which leads me to wonder: What would it sound like if he called NASCAR races?
Can you imagine how cool that would be? Nothing against Fox’s Mike Joy – who I think is great – but Gus would bring an entirely new level of excitement.
Kyle Busch would pull off some amazing move, and Gus would be thrilled with the moment: “COLD-BLOODED!”
Or if a driver had a flat tire late in a race after leading, Gus would pull out his phrase, “HEARTBREAK CITY!”
Gus would find plenty of “Oh my GOODNESS!” moments in NASCAR, along with reasons to use his “Ha-HAAA!” after an amazing finish.
Would he dare use “Here comes the pain!” in case of a driver fight? Where could he work in his “Rise and fire!” phrase?
We can’t even begin to imagine what Gus would have done with the ending of this year’s Daytona 500. He might have been able to call most of the last lap, but then blown a gasket as he did in last year’s Xavier-Kansas State game (“Uhh.....AHHHHHHHH!!!!!”).
Come give it a try, Gus. It couldn’t be worse than Bill Weber.
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