Analysis or discussion of Van Gundy's meatloaf recipe? Could be either or.
prattle tales (prat'-l talz) noun. The coaching/playing anecdotes and miscellaneous personal information (usually inane) shared by play-by-play announcers and color commentators during the "dead spots" of a live telecast, particularly if the game is lopsided or boring.

Usage example: Jeff Van Gundy's a pretty good broadcaster, but he sure spends a lot of time on his prattle tales.

Word history: The term was coined on the Quixotica blog, a self-described compendium of mondern invented slang. Upon discovering it, I was immediately reminded of our good friends Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, who like to talk about themselves, their personal/professional relationship and other insipid factoids regarding their days as coach and player almost as much as (or perhaps more than) they like to talk about, you know, the game they're broadcasting. Take the following example (via Awful Announcing) in which JVG discusses bowling, childhood obesity, knife fighting and Sasha Vujacic's workout regimen. And it's not like this was some meaningless mid-season game between the Hawks and Grizzlies; it was Game 5 of the NBA Finals.



In all fairness though, Bill Walton was doing this long before Jeff, especially when he first began broadcasting. Seriously, Walton can work an anecdote about playing alongside Larry Bird into almost any circumstance. I often wonder if he also does that at home over family dinners. Like, when his wife asks him to pass the mashed potatoes, I bet Bill says something like, "That reminds me of '86, when I was fortunate enough to be on the same team as one Larry Joe Bird, who was a great basketball player and an even greater man. His passing wasn't limited to sending mashed potatoes across the dinner table. He took moving the basketball from himself to a teammate and made it an art form that transcended the game itself. Michelangelo's 'David' had nothing on this give-and-go backdoor pass he gave me against the Lakers on one chilly January evening..."

Labels: Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, Word of the Day