Or maybe it's more like hate-love. He was never the fun guy, the enthusiasm guy like Dick Vitale or Bill Raftery, so Billy Packer didn't engender much affection from college basketball fans. So now that he's giving up college basketball commentary, many certainly are ready to celebrate as if their team just got a No. 3 seed in a weak regional. For example, Barry Horn of The Dallas Morning News wrote: "As the years passed ... he grew overbearing, arrogant, condescending, dismissive and petulant. There is only so much anyone can take from a know-it-all uncle who humorlessly preaches he is the smartest man in the room. Most viewers have long had their fill of Packer." From Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times : "Billy Packer had become old-school -- and not in the good way of paying attention to detail or studying hard before he would go on the air, but in the way of a crotchety old guy who chases neighborhood kids out of the yard. ... What stood out about Packer over the last few years was inability to project joy. He had one of the most recognizable voices in NCAA tournament history but never sounded as if he was having fun." Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post noted Packer's flaws, but ultimately came down on the side of appreciating his body of work: "Nobody has been as good at explaining and analyzing a college basketball game. .. His very presence at a game lifted its importance and made it a bigger event than if someone else was ...
Anytime
Or maybe it's more like hate-love. He was never the fun guy, the enthusiasm guy like Dick Vitale or Bill Raftery, so Billy Packer didn't engender much affection from college basketball fans. So now that he's giving up college basketball commentary, many certainly are ready to celebrate as if their team just got a No. 3 seed in a weak regional. For example, Barry Horn of The Dallas Morning News wrote: "As the years passed ... he grew overbearing, arrogant, condescending, dismissive and petulant. There is only so much anyone can take from a know-it-all uncle who humorlessly preaches he is the smartest man in the room. Most viewers have long had their fill of Packer." From Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times : "Billy Packer had become old-school -- and not in the good way of paying attention to detail or studying hard before he would go on the air, but in the way of a crotchety old guy who chases neighborhood kids out of the yard. ... What stood out about Packer over the last few years was inability to project joy. He had one of the most recognizable voices in NCAA tournament history but never sounded as if he was having fun." Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post noted Packer's flaws, but ultimately came down on the side of appreciating his body of work: "Nobody has been as good at explaining and analyzing a college basketball game. .. His very presence at a game lifted its importance and made it a bigger event than if someone else was ...