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Lauer discusses being laid off from
Bobcats due to NBA lockout |
Former Bobcats radio announcer Scott Lauer is a "living example" of the NBA lockout's "ramifications, the kind of collateral damage that people overlook as they obsess over the players and owners," according to Kevin Lincoln of GQ. The Bobcats
laid off Lauer last month "as a cost-saving measure" during the lockout, now in its second month, and he discussed the situation in an extensive Q&A:
Q: Have you gotten any more indication of whether you'll be back when and if the lockout ends this season?
Lauer: There were three things that were said to me during that phone call: Number one, the team is going through an organizational restructuring; number two, my position was eliminated; and number three, that they would like to have me back to call the games when there are games. And that was it.
Q: Have you gotten any sense of what the prevailing mood is among the NBA staffers, people like you who remain on the periphery of this discussion but are affected just as much as the players and owners?
Lauer: From what I understand, there are only four out of the 30 teams that have laid off employees. Some maybe only laid off a couple, other teams have laid off from a dozen or so. Most teams have been quite loyal to their employees: 26 out of the 30 teams have protected their employees.
Q: What do you think announcing for radio brings to the sport that TV broadcasting might not?
Lauer: On TV, you're just trying to enhance the picture; with radio, you are your own director and producer. You're saying what you want, when you want to, you're creating imagery, you can tell stories when it's appropriate, when you have time.
Q: So what are you up to now as you wait to see if the lockout passes?
Lauer: I'm keeping my eyes open, but when you're dealing with a specialty unique skill set, which I possess and that's something that I've done all my life ... there are only so many jobs. I'm a radio play-by-play broadcaster for an NBA team, and there are only 30 of those jobs in the world, and those jobs don't open up often (GQ.com, 8/9).
