October 2, 2025 • 15 mins
Eric Collins, the Voice of the Hornets joins the show, as he talks about getting to call his first NFL game, as he'll be on the broadcast for Sunday's Panthers/Dolphins matchup, he gives the backstory to some of his iconic sayings, & more
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And our next guest will probably emphatically tell us that
we should bone because you know him and love him
as the voice of the Charlotte Hornets, but you know
that he'll do things nationally for Fox as well, including
calling that Tar Heel game against UCF. Well, this weekend
it will be calling the Panthers game with Mark Schlareth
on Fox here in Charlotte against the Miami Dolphins. So
(00:22):
we get a chance to talk football, Panther football, and
Hornets basketball with Eric Collins, who joins us here on
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Ec How you been man? What's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Man? I'm fantastic, but then maybe some mismmunication. I thought
you were calling. Asked me about my beloved Cleveland Guardians
with a tremendous wines.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Shame on me. How's that not the lead?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Eric, you guys, as a sports guy yourself, you know
there's no words you want to hear in sports more
than Tonight is game three of That's not Game seven,
but game three of the series.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Right, that's where we're at now.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm terrified they moved the game up to three o'clock
Eastern time. Had won last couple of days and three
o'clock in Cleveland this time of year. I'm telling you,
it's like the shadows are insane. So no one's going
to see the ball for the first seven innings. So
it's gonna be total white knuckle times. I'm gonna be
terrified just because any ball there's not a bablin playing
with balls, hitting plays, goofy things happen. So I predicted
(01:17):
just nuttiness in Cleveland today.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
All right, man, well, hey, good luck to good luck
to your guardians, and we'll be watching later today. What
are your thoughts about calling this Panther game? This is
a first for you. I mean you've called a lot
of different things nashally for Fox. I thought it was cool,
well to hear you on the tar Heel football game.
Now you get Charlotte's other pro team. This is it's
(01:39):
got to be kind of cool for you to get
a chance to call their game, right.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh, it totally is it is. You know, it's it's
been a bucket list thing for a long time. I've
never done an NFL game before, you know, and obviously
raised an NFL guy in Cleveland and went to games
all the time when I was a kid watching the Browns.
Actually when they were believe it or not good and relevant.
So this is something I've always wanted to do. And
when they called, they mentioned I think two and a
half weeks ago, I got a phone call from someone
(02:04):
out in LA asking me about my availability because I
didn't have a college football game this week. They said, Eric,
you're supposed to be offer college football, but we do
have a possibility of an NFL game. Would you be
in And at the time I was like, I'd do
it in New Orleans, I do it, who cares? You know? Yeah?
And then they said, oh, by the way, it actually
it's going to be in Charlotte. Are you okay with that?
I think, heck, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Even better doing to walk my dog there. Perfect.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Now, you see, this is your first time in what
twenty years doing a game at Boa, right, you know what?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah? I did the two thousand and five Miny key
Card turb Bowl. Andre Where was my partner at ESPN
that year, and I hadn't been inside banker. I haven't
been in the press box at Bank of America since. So, yeah,
it's gonna be a real kind of an interesting moment.
I'm just doing. Things have changed and I probably won't
know how to get there. But I'll figure it out
between now and Sunday at one o'clock.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's cool, man, That is very very cool. Look for Maggie.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
He'll leave a popcorn trail because that's what Ma's doing
in the press.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Box all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, I'll be crunching and bunching while you're over there. Well,
you're over there broadcasting. What do you think about I mean,
obviously this Panther season, I mean the last two weeks, Eric,
I mean I don't know what to expect from this
team on Sunday against Miami. Do we get the team
that shut out the Falcons and had us getty two
weeks ago? Or do we get the one that absolutely
(03:21):
had us miserable last week? What are your thoughts on
the ups and downs of the Panthers? Heare these last
couple of weeks, Man, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Man's it reminds me a lot of kind of like
what you see out of the Hornets. Man, you never
know what you're gonna get from game to game. In
week two week, I am super excited to just kind
of roll up my sleeves and kind of get to know,
you know, Bryce a little bit and kind of hang
out with the guys for a couple of I'm gonna
go to practice tomorrow, which is something that you know,
it's kind of nice to have the access to do
that and got to sit down with a couple of
(03:48):
guys and kind of see what's going on. It's it'll
be kind of nice to kind of immerse myself in
Panther football for three days and I'll have a more
formed opinion to tell you about twelve fifty nine on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
You see how much pressure in this game and what
you know at this point is on Mike McDaniel and
where that Dolphins organization is right now.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, they had a huge win the other day. Man, obviously,
you know it was necessary. They're owing three that kind
of stinks, but to lose Tyreek Hill, you know, but
to still get you know, a good enough befos to
get a nice win. You know, this is definitely a
proven game for them. You know, can they back it
up and win two consecutive games and all of a
sudden you get your season viable again. So this is
going to be super important for Miami to kind of
(04:26):
just make sure that they are going in the right direction.
You know, it's I don't know. I kind of believe
in them, you know, everything that I've been reading, and
you know, it seems that it seems as if they've
got something going on. I've always liked Mike mcdain. I
just think he's so interesting and unique, and I think
he's a wonderful leader of men, and I think people
gravitate towards him. So I'm gonna give him the benefit
of the doubt just to see if he can turn
it around. But this is, indeed, yeah, massive game for
(04:48):
them and for him.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Do you see people are asking if they're gonna get
hum Diddley D's and they're gonna get your catchphrases? Do
we get catchphrases in this game or or is it
a different sort of ec we're getting?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, you know, just so everyone's clear. You know, when
someone's going down with the Panthers, is going down for
a touchdown, they're going to get it. You know, that's
I'm going to bring it. You know, my a game's there.
But if someone's going the other way and picking up
Bryce Young and going for a touchdown the other way
from Miami, they're going to get it too. You know,
this game is It's clearly not gonna be national broadcast,
but people in South Florida and people in the Carolinas
(05:24):
are going to get it. So I really don't know
how to do a game any other way. You know,
if I don't kind of ramp myself up into the
fourth quarter and then give it all the fourth quarter,
you know, if the most important play happens, you know,
on an opening kickoff, I'm ready, man, So let's do it.
But I I do think hum didda d is going
to be in the back pocket. I just I don't
think I can do it. I've never done it for
a football game in my life. That's kind of unique
(05:45):
to the Hornet, Okay, So I just I want to
kind of preserve that for the Hornets and Hornets fans.
I think that should be sacred. There needs to be
something sacred in my broadcast.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
What about how I mean, can we get maybe a
Bryce has the swagger of a NASCAR veteran?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Do we get that?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
At least? No doubt?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I love that? Okay. I gotta tell you the backstory there.
I was a news reporter back in nineteen ninety five
in Rochester, New York. I was covering like homicide, city
council meetings. It was awful. It was like the worst
job in television. So I wasn't even in the sports department.
I thought that I was going to kind of change
the world by telling all these stories about what was
going on in Rochester, New York. So every once in
a while I would kind of walk down the hallway
(06:23):
past the sports department because it looked like they were
having so much fun. The sports director was again named
John Kutchko, and he was in love with Nascar. You
used to go to Watkins Glen and was always talking NASCAR,
NASCAR and NASCAR in nineteen ninety five. So I would
walk up down the hallway and put my head in there,
and he would always announce me, there goes Eric Collins.
What the swacker of a NASCAR veteran. It made no
(06:48):
sense to me, but I loved it. It made me
feel at home. So that's where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
It has nothing to do with the Carolinas or media
ever going to a track. It was all about this guy.
That was kind of the way he would introduce me
thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
That's that's great and it works perfectly us in NASCAR
country like now, it really just plays well.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
We usually hear sometimes I was.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Going to a free throw life for an important free throw.
He puffs out his chest and he's got the swagger
of a NASCAR veteran. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Man, you are an original, baby, and we love the
fact that you're Charlotte's original. Eric Collins. You you're gonna
get him on Hornets broadcast here very soon. But you
got him for Fox on the regional Panther broadcast national
NBA this year as well.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's true. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Man. Golly, I'm gonna be everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
This is crazy more more e C is a good thing, baby,
So ecod I googled like Eric Collins catchphrases because I
was like, I want to see, like how much people
have written about you and the catchphrases. And I found
something that for some reason I don't know bom and
then again my memory stinks bone. He just asked my wife,
so maybe I forgot this. Twenty twenty two's s I
(07:55):
did a ranking of your best catchphrases.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Do you know what? Do you you know what?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They ranked number one.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Dc oh back in twenty twolve tougher than Woodpecker list.
That is it? That is really yes, that's my favorite.
That is number one favorite and hanging on like a
cat on the screen door. That's what I'm like.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That is great, But number two was and then you
can bring this back out now that Mason Plumley's back
on the team. Number two is when you did the
plum didly d for Mason Plumley.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's good. Now they put that on there.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Okay, do you every once in a while. Every once
in a while, that producer Eric Kendall, who's absolutely fantastic.
He creates this just wonderful environment. You guys understand what
it's like to work with a producer who kind of
gets it. Eric Kendall provides this wonderful environment for Dell
and I to kind of just feel comfortable. And every
once in a while he'll say, well, cheez, Eric, I
haven't heard you say flying around like a torpedo and
a like a two pan of tornado in a while.
(08:51):
Oh my god, I've totally forgotten my back one. So
somehow in the next two broadcasts, I'll get it in there.
You amazing. I totally forget about these things. And then
someone came up to me and say, you know, flies
around faster than a small town rumor. Oh, that's great,
we'll definitely get that one in.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
That is that's cool. That is very good producing. Do
you there's always a sharp stick to the eye to you.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
We don't have that to the normal, And that's a
negative with something habits of the hornets, grinted, what is it?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Grinned his eye and gravel in his guts?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Is that what it is? Oh, that's a total Johnny
Cash line. That's the last line of a boy named Sue.
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Do you write like do you spend some of the
off season or downtime like writing new ones or like
is that a thing?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Well? They all kind of just come to me, just
to normal conversations. Like when I do college football. It's
amazing you sit down with the defensive coordinator if they're
from the South, and I'm telling you just it's non stop,
you know, just great material that I can use. Like
Jim Donnan, the old coach at at Georgia, I did
a football game with him. It was a Tim Tebow
high school game and right out of the shoots, this
(09:53):
is Tim Tebow. He's stronger than ten rows of onions.
So I've never heard that before. That's great. So it's
always committed. So none of these things original. They all
are stuff that kind of comes from talking to people
over the years, hanging out the barber shop. You know, Yeah,
I love it, Eric, I love this guy's shot. It's
all wet. I like that. So I'll go through phase
is when I'll say, you know, Joe shaft, that goes
(10:13):
through smoothly, it's all wet.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Well.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Actually, one of the greatest things that's ever happened to
me is one of my favorite people in the world.
Who I just I think the people in Charlotte need
to understand how blessed we were to have her for
seven years when Ashley Shalmbady was with us on Hornet's
broadcast as the sideline reporter, in the pregame host, all
that kind of stuff. When she left, she left me
maybe those thoughtful gift ever. She gave me this framed
poster of her favorite Eric Collins isms, and I look
(10:41):
at it every single day and it means so much
to me. So I list her to the nth degree.
But yeah, I used to like PJ. Get your jammis
on for PJ.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Washington. That one always got me.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
And I love this one, and I'm sure you've got
some backstory to it. Confused as a goat on AstroTurf.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
That was definitely came from some defensive coordinator. I think
it was Ellis Johnson, who was the defensive coordinator of
Mississippi State, and he was just telling a story about
his team not being in the right formation, and he
just dropped it like it was a normal conversation. I
was like, this is just brilliant. I actually, I'm a
big peloton guy and I get on the peloton every
day for a while. Yeah, and it's amazing how often
(11:21):
someone will say something on a peloton rider or hear's
something in a music lyric in the background, you know,
outcast no colder than a polar bear's toenails.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, I love that stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So I do make mental notes and every once in
a while I write it down. Oh, don't forget this one.
This is great. I like that.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I got more rejections in the Harvard Law School.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I actually came up with that one while sitting on
the end of the bench in high school playing high
school basketball. I didn't remember I was memorizing all the
cheers that the cheerleaders did, because that was kind of
like my coming of age time. And when I wasn't
staring at the cheerleaders, I was just trying to come
up with things that were happening during the game. He
shoots Jilker's little Rabbit Hunter more moves the painted Picasso.
(11:58):
So those all send them.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
I think you have one that ties in, and you
have one on the SI rankings strong like a bowl.
And now the Hornets get young bull Colin Sexton. How
how fired up are you to watch him? And really overall,
how excited should we be about the depth of perimeter
players that this Hornets team?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Hass I you know Colin Sexton, you know I make
the bones about it. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio,
and I still have, you know, an allegiance. I pay
attention to Cleveland sports. He puts up numbers.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
He's a really interesting guy. He's always been super efficient.
You know, winning hasn't necessarily correlated everywhere he's went, But
this is a guy who shoots a good ball from
the field. He gets the free throw line. I'm super
excited because for years and you guys have seen it LaMelo.
If he gets hurt, you know what's next, and it
just doesn't seem like there's, you know, a plan in
(12:46):
motion to kind of figure out how to go forward
without LaMelo. I think Colin Sexton and Spencer Dinwiy and
a healthy Terrence Man or Trey Man. I love all
three of those options, and you know, hopefully that depth
will kind of help as we move forward. And I
can't wait to see conplay. I'm a such a believer
in the quality of form, and his form is flawless.
(13:07):
And I'm not a shot doctor, you know, I'm not
even a physiologist. I just like watching ball and his
shot looks perfect to me. So I'm so excited to
watch him not only shoot you know, eighteen footers, but
I can't wait for him to get to the free
throw line. That's what that's all about.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Like?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
What is the I was reading? I brought this up
earlier today. Dan Devine, Yahoo NBA writer had an article
about if you know what their upside is if LaMelo
and Brandon play together. I mean it's been thirty something games.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You know this.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I forget the number thirty something games that they have
played together in in these two seasons, and he really
thought based on the small sample size, the efficiency numbers
when they're both on the floor together, and what they added,
like you're talking about he really he said this. It's
a national guy that is in me as a Homer
saying this. He said he thinks that if they stay healthy,
(13:56):
those two guys, it has the chance to not just
be playing a playoff team. Like, what, what do you
think the ceiling is if those two guys are together
for most of the season.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Oo, I like that. Well, I think the East. I
think everyone acknowledges it's kind of weird, you know it'
stuff for grabs with all the injuries to significant players.
You know how you know what's Boston going to be? Like,
what's Indiana going to be?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Like?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
You know those that's just Mason wild cards, Brandon Miller.
Everyone has forgotten about if Brandon Miller had stayed healthy. Man,
he was the way he was going yesterday, the way
he was tracking that shot is pure.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Man.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I'm a little bit worried about the fact that the
injury was to his right wrist. You know, that's a massive,
important part of your body for his game. But if
he continues that trajectory. If he's healthy, I'm telling you
that guy, he is what the NBA should be. Man,
He's got a body that's going to fill out. He
can get anywhere he needs to go on the floor.
That shot is pure.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I would love, love, love.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
To see him and Continent pull on the floor at
the same time two guys who I believe are just
down dead eye shooters, hanging out with LaMelo and La
Melow's happy and in the middle of the floor with
wide open spaces and pumping it up to those guys.
No offensively, I don't know. We'll figure it out, but
the offense I think would be a lot of fun.
I you know, I just think that people have totally
gone to sleep on Brandon Miller and forgotten what he
(15:16):
can be. You know, I think his jump shot and
his size and his wingspan is so different than most
players in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, it could be.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
They could be fun to all those perimeter guys fast
pace and you know what fast pace, but and perimeter
players means bone. Eric Collins losing his mind and I
can't wait.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Man.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
We look forward to hearing hearing you on Sunday and
you know we look forward to hearing you and Dale
doing the Hornets games and congrats on the national gig
there with NBC as well.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Keep up the good work, EC, thanks for hanging with us.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Mac Bond, you guys are terrific. Thank you so much
And our next guest will probably emphatically tell us that
we should bone because you know him and love him
as the voice of the Charlotte Hornets, but you know
that he'll do things nationally for Fox as well, including
calling that Tar Heel game against UCF. Well, this weekend
it will be calling the Panthers game with Mark Schlareth
on Fox here in Charlotte against the Miami Dolphins. So
(00:22):
we get a chance to talk football, Panther football, and
Hornets basketball with Eric Collins, who joins us here on
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Ec How you been man? What's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Man? I'm fantastic, but then maybe some mismmunication. I thought
you were calling. Asked me about my beloved Cleveland Guardians
with a tremendous wines.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Shame on me. How's that not the lead?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Eric, you guys, as a sports guy yourself, you know
there's no words you want to hear in sports more
than Tonight is game three of That's not Game seven,
but game three of the series.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Right, that's where we're at now.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm terrified they moved the game up to three o'clock
Eastern time. Had won last couple of days and three
o'clock in Cleveland this time of year. I'm telling you,
it's like the shadows are insane. So no one's going
to see the ball for the first seven innings. So
it's gonna be total white knuckle times. I'm gonna be
terrified just because any ball there's not a bablin playing
with balls, hitting plays, goofy things happen. So I predicted
(01:17):
just nuttiness in Cleveland today.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
All right, man, well, hey, good luck to good luck
to your guardians, and we'll be watching later today. What
are your thoughts about calling this Panther game? This is
a first for you. I mean you've called a lot
of different things nashally for Fox. I thought it was cool,
well to hear you on the tar Heel football game.
Now you get Charlotte's other pro team. This is it's
(01:39):
got to be kind of cool for you to get
a chance to call their game, right.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh, it totally is it is. You know, it's it's
been a bucket list thing for a long time. I've
never done an NFL game before, you know, and obviously
raised an NFL guy in Cleveland and went to games
all the time when I was a kid watching the Browns.
Actually when they were believe it or not good and relevant.
So this is something I've always wanted to do. And
when they called, they mentioned I think two and a
half weeks ago, I got a phone call from someone
(02:04):
out in LA asking me about my availability because I
didn't have a college football game this week. They said, Eric,
you're supposed to be offer college football, but we do
have a possibility of an NFL game. Would you be
in And at the time I was like, I'd do
it in New Orleans, I do it, who cares? You know? Yeah?
And then they said, oh, by the way, it actually
it's going to be in Charlotte. Are you okay with that?
I think, heck, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Even better doing to walk my dog there. Perfect.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Now, you see, this is your first time in what
twenty years doing a game at Boa, right, you know what?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah? I did the two thousand and five Miny key
Card turb Bowl. Andre Where was my partner at ESPN
that year, and I hadn't been inside banker. I haven't
been in the press box at Bank of America since. So, yeah,
it's gonna be a real kind of an interesting moment.
I'm just doing. Things have changed and I probably won't
know how to get there. But I'll figure it out
between now and Sunday at one o'clock.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's cool, man, That is very very cool. Look for Maggie.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
He'll leave a popcorn trail because that's what Ma's doing
in the press.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Box all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, I'll be crunching and bunching while you're over there. Well,
you're over there broadcasting. What do you think about I mean,
obviously this Panther season, I mean the last two weeks, Eric,
I mean I don't know what to expect from this
team on Sunday against Miami. Do we get the team
that shut out the Falcons and had us getty two
weeks ago? Or do we get the one that absolutely
(03:21):
had us miserable last week? What are your thoughts on
the ups and downs of the Panthers? Heare these last
couple of weeks, Man, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Man's it reminds me a lot of kind of like
what you see out of the Hornets. Man, you never
know what you're gonna get from game to game. In
week two week, I am super excited to just kind
of roll up my sleeves and kind of get to know,
you know, Bryce a little bit and kind of hang
out with the guys for a couple of I'm gonna
go to practice tomorrow, which is something that you know,
it's kind of nice to have the access to do
that and got to sit down with a couple of
(03:48):
guys and kind of see what's going on. It's it'll
be kind of nice to kind of immerse myself in
Panther football for three days and I'll have a more
formed opinion to tell you about twelve fifty nine on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
You see how much pressure in this game and what
you know at this point is on Mike McDaniel and
where that Dolphins organization is right now.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, they had a huge win the other day. Man, obviously,
you know it was necessary. They're owing three that kind
of stinks, but to lose Tyreek Hill, you know, but
to still get you know, a good enough befos to
get a nice win. You know, this is definitely a
proven game for them. You know, can they back it
up and win two consecutive games and all of a
sudden you get your season viable again. So this is
going to be super important for Miami to kind of
(04:26):
just make sure that they are going in the right direction.
You know, it's I don't know. I kind of believe
in them, you know, everything that I've been reading, and
you know, it seems that it seems as if they've
got something going on. I've always liked Mike mcdain. I
just think he's so interesting and unique, and I think
he's a wonderful leader of men, and I think people
gravitate towards him. So I'm gonna give him the benefit
of the doubt just to see if he can turn
it around. But this is, indeed, yeah, massive game for
(04:48):
them and for him.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Do you see people are asking if they're gonna get
hum Diddley D's and they're gonna get your catchphrases? Do
we get catchphrases in this game or or is it
a different sort of ec we're getting?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, you know, just so everyone's clear. You know, when
someone's going down with the Panthers, is going down for
a touchdown, they're going to get it. You know, that's
I'm going to bring it. You know, my a game's there.
But if someone's going the other way and picking up
Bryce Young and going for a touchdown the other way
from Miami, they're going to get it too. You know,
this game is It's clearly not gonna be national broadcast,
but people in South Florida and people in the Carolinas
(05:24):
are going to get it. So I really don't know
how to do a game any other way. You know,
if I don't kind of ramp myself up into the
fourth quarter and then give it all the fourth quarter,
you know, if the most important play happens, you know,
on an opening kickoff, I'm ready, man, So let's do it.
But I I do think hum didda d is going
to be in the back pocket. I just I don't
think I can do it. I've never done it for
a football game in my life. That's kind of unique
(05:45):
to the Hornet, Okay, So I just I want to
kind of preserve that for the Hornets and Hornets fans.
I think that should be sacred. There needs to be
something sacred in my broadcast.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
What about how I mean, can we get maybe a
Bryce has the swagger of a NASCAR veteran?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Do we get that?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
At least? No doubt?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I love that? Okay. I gotta tell you the backstory there.
I was a news reporter back in nineteen ninety five
in Rochester, New York. I was covering like homicide, city
council meetings. It was awful. It was like the worst
job in television. So I wasn't even in the sports department.
I thought that I was going to kind of change
the world by telling all these stories about what was
going on in Rochester, New York. So every once in
a while I would kind of walk down the hallway
(06:23):
past the sports department because it looked like they were
having so much fun. The sports director was again named
John Kutchko, and he was in love with Nascar. You
used to go to Watkins Glen and was always talking NASCAR,
NASCAR and NASCAR in nineteen ninety five. So I would
walk up down the hallway and put my head in there,
and he would always announce me, there goes Eric Collins.
What the swacker of a NASCAR veteran. It made no
(06:48):
sense to me, but I loved it. It made me
feel at home. So that's where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
It has nothing to do with the Carolinas or media
ever going to a track. It was all about this guy.
That was kind of the way he would introduce me
thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
That's that's great and it works perfectly us in NASCAR
country like now, it really just plays well.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
We usually hear sometimes I was.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Going to a free throw life for an important free throw.
He puffs out his chest and he's got the swagger
of a NASCAR veteran. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Man, you are an original, baby, and we love the
fact that you're Charlotte's original. Eric Collins. You you're gonna
get him on Hornets broadcast here very soon. But you
got him for Fox on the regional Panther broadcast national
NBA this year as well.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's true. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Man. Golly, I'm gonna be everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
This is crazy more more e C is a good thing, baby,
So ecod I googled like Eric Collins catchphrases because I
was like, I want to see, like how much people
have written about you and the catchphrases. And I found
something that for some reason I don't know bom and
then again my memory stinks bone. He just asked my wife,
so maybe I forgot this. Twenty twenty two's s I
(07:55):
did a ranking of your best catchphrases.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Do you know what? Do you you know what?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They ranked number one.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Dc oh back in twenty twolve tougher than Woodpecker list.
That is it? That is really yes, that's my favorite.
That is number one favorite and hanging on like a
cat on the screen door. That's what I'm like.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That is great, But number two was and then you
can bring this back out now that Mason Plumley's back
on the team. Number two is when you did the
plum didly d for Mason Plumley.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's good. Now they put that on there.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Okay, do you every once in a while. Every once
in a while, that producer Eric Kendall, who's absolutely fantastic.
He creates this just wonderful environment. You guys understand what
it's like to work with a producer who kind of
gets it. Eric Kendall provides this wonderful environment for Dell
and I to kind of just feel comfortable. And every
once in a while he'll say, well, cheez, Eric, I
haven't heard you say flying around like a torpedo and
a like a two pan of tornado in a while.
(08:51):
Oh my god, I've totally forgotten my back one. So
somehow in the next two broadcasts, I'll get it in there.
You amazing. I totally forget about these things. And then
someone came up to me and say, you know, flies
around faster than a small town rumor. Oh, that's great,
we'll definitely get that one in.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
That is that's cool. That is very good producing. Do
you there's always a sharp stick to the eye to you.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
We don't have that to the normal, And that's a
negative with something habits of the hornets, grinted, what is it?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Grinned his eye and gravel in his guts?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Is that what it is? Oh, that's a total Johnny
Cash line. That's the last line of a boy named Sue.
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Do you write like do you spend some of the
off season or downtime like writing new ones or like
is that a thing?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Well? They all kind of just come to me, just
to normal conversations. Like when I do college football. It's
amazing you sit down with the defensive coordinator if they're
from the South, and I'm telling you just it's non stop,
you know, just great material that I can use. Like
Jim Donnan, the old coach at at Georgia, I did
a football game with him. It was a Tim Tebow
high school game and right out of the shoots, this
(09:53):
is Tim Tebow. He's stronger than ten rows of onions.
So I've never heard that before. That's great. So it's
always committed. So none of these things original. They all
are stuff that kind of comes from talking to people
over the years, hanging out the barber shop. You know, Yeah,
I love it, Eric, I love this guy's shot. It's
all wet. I like that. So I'll go through phase
is when I'll say, you know, Joe shaft, that goes
(10:13):
through smoothly, it's all wet.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Well.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Actually, one of the greatest things that's ever happened to
me is one of my favorite people in the world.
Who I just I think the people in Charlotte need
to understand how blessed we were to have her for
seven years when Ashley Shalmbady was with us on Hornet's
broadcast as the sideline reporter, in the pregame host, all
that kind of stuff. When she left, she left me
maybe those thoughtful gift ever. She gave me this framed
poster of her favorite Eric Collins isms, and I look
(10:41):
at it every single day and it means so much
to me. So I list her to the nth degree.
But yeah, I used to like PJ. Get your jammis
on for PJ.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Washington. That one always got me.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
And I love this one, and I'm sure you've got
some backstory to it. Confused as a goat on AstroTurf.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
That was definitely came from some defensive coordinator. I think
it was Ellis Johnson, who was the defensive coordinator of
Mississippi State, and he was just telling a story about
his team not being in the right formation, and he
just dropped it like it was a normal conversation. I
was like, this is just brilliant. I actually, I'm a
big peloton guy and I get on the peloton every
day for a while. Yeah, and it's amazing how often
(11:21):
someone will say something on a peloton rider or hear's
something in a music lyric in the background, you know,
outcast no colder than a polar bear's toenails.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, I love that stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So I do make mental notes and every once in
a while I write it down. Oh, don't forget this one.
This is great. I like that.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I got more rejections in the Harvard Law School.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I actually came up with that one while sitting on
the end of the bench in high school playing high
school basketball. I didn't remember I was memorizing all the
cheers that the cheerleaders did, because that was kind of
like my coming of age time. And when I wasn't
staring at the cheerleaders, I was just trying to come
up with things that were happening during the game. He
shoots Jilker's little Rabbit Hunter more moves the painted Picasso.
(11:58):
So those all send them.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
I think you have one that ties in, and you
have one on the SI rankings strong like a bowl.
And now the Hornets get young bull Colin Sexton. How
how fired up are you to watch him? And really overall,
how excited should we be about the depth of perimeter
players that this Hornets team?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Hass I you know Colin Sexton, you know I make
the bones about it. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio,
and I still have, you know, an allegiance. I pay
attention to Cleveland sports. He puts up numbers.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
He's a really interesting guy. He's always been super efficient.
You know, winning hasn't necessarily correlated everywhere he's went, But
this is a guy who shoots a good ball from
the field. He gets the free throw line. I'm super
excited because for years and you guys have seen it LaMelo.
If he gets hurt, you know what's next, and it
just doesn't seem like there's, you know, a plan in
(12:46):
motion to kind of figure out how to go forward
without LaMelo. I think Colin Sexton and Spencer Dinwiy and
a healthy Terrence Man or Trey Man. I love all
three of those options, and you know, hopefully that depth
will kind of help as we move forward. And I
can't wait to see conplay. I'm a such a believer
in the quality of form, and his form is flawless.
(13:07):
And I'm not a shot doctor, you know, I'm not
even a physiologist. I just like watching ball and his
shot looks perfect to me. So I'm so excited to
watch him not only shoot you know, eighteen footers, but
I can't wait for him to get to the free
throw line. That's what that's all about.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Like?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
What is the I was reading? I brought this up
earlier today. Dan Devine, Yahoo NBA writer had an article
about if you know what their upside is if LaMelo
and Brandon play together. I mean it's been thirty something games.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You know this.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I forget the number thirty something games that they have
played together in in these two seasons, and he really
thought based on the small sample size, the efficiency numbers
when they're both on the floor together, and what they added,
like you're talking about he really he said this. It's
a national guy that is in me as a Homer
saying this. He said he thinks that if they stay healthy,
(13:56):
those two guys, it has the chance to not just
be playing a playoff team. Like, what, what do you
think the ceiling is if those two guys are together
for most of the season.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Oo, I like that. Well, I think the East. I
think everyone acknowledges it's kind of weird, you know it'
stuff for grabs with all the injuries to significant players.
You know how you know what's Boston going to be? Like,
what's Indiana going to be?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Like?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
You know those that's just Mason wild cards, Brandon Miller.
Everyone has forgotten about if Brandon Miller had stayed healthy. Man,
he was the way he was going yesterday, the way
he was tracking that shot is pure.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Man.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I'm a little bit worried about the fact that the
injury was to his right wrist. You know, that's a massive,
important part of your body for his game. But if
he continues that trajectory. If he's healthy, I'm telling you
that guy, he is what the NBA should be. Man,
He's got a body that's going to fill out. He
can get anywhere he needs to go on the floor.
That shot is pure.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I would love, love, love.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
To see him and Continent pull on the floor at
the same time two guys who I believe are just
down dead eye shooters, hanging out with LaMelo and La
Melow's happy and in the middle of the floor with
wide open spaces and pumping it up to those guys.
No offensively, I don't know. We'll figure it out, but
the offense I think would be a lot of fun.
I you know, I just think that people have totally
gone to sleep on Brandon Miller and forgotten what he
(15:16):
can be. You know, I think his jump shot and
his size and his wingspan is so different than most
players in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, it could be.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
They could be fun to all those perimeter guys fast
pace and you know what fast pace, but and perimeter
players means bone. Eric Collins losing his mind and I
can't wait.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Man.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
We look forward to hearing hearing you on Sunday and
you know we look forward to hearing you and Dale
doing the Hornets games and congrats on the national gig
there with NBC as well.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Keep up the good work, EC, thanks for hanging with us.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Mac Bond, you guys are terrific. Thank you so much
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