Why on earth is Ocho dropping $1,500 a game on courtside tickets for every Miami Heat match-up? No, not just because the NFL season has ended and he has more free time on his hands. It’s not even because he is a Heat superfan.
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Like everything that Chad Johnson does, this too is a well thought-out decsion. And there’s a plan behind it. And he’s willing to drop good money on learning something new in order to excel at it.
It goes without saying that Johnson has excelled at everything he’s pursued seriously — be it torching defenders in the NFL or making waves in sports media with Nightcap. Now, his next goal is…doing color commentary. And true to his nature, he wants to not just do it but do it well, like Stephen A. Smith.
Yes, Nightcap will continue, but the numbers aren’t expected to be the same due to the offseason. Which is why Ocho is dropping those big bucks to upskill himself. His reasoning is simple — the closer he is to the game, the sharper his understanding of it.
That’s why he’s decided to sit courtside for every Miami Heat matchup after the All-Star game.
The logic behind this is simple — the better the knowledge, the better the analysis. As he told Shannon Sharpe in a recent Nightcap episode, getting courtside is the best way to get as good as the top pros when it comes to NBA broadcasting and analysis.
“Now that football season’s over, guess where I’m gonna be? I’m going to use some of this Nightcap money and I’m going to sit court-side… next to the Heat’s bench. That’s only $1500. That’s feasible for me for the rest of the season after the All-Star break, where I can get a better understanding of the game by watching it up close… So that I can sound like you, I can sound like Stephen A… Give me three weeks. Watch how I sound.”
He may have been bantering with Unc on the show, but we think the Nightcap co-host may is serious about this, if his recent conversation with Greg Olsen is any indication.
Johnson is looking up to Olsen for advice
Earlier this month, Fox’s color commentator, Greg Olsen came on as a guest on Nightcap’s live show in New Orleans. While most know Olsen today for being an ace sportscaster, very few know that he started broadcasting after a 14-year-long career in the NFL.
Considering Olsen’s uber-smooth transition post-retirement, Ocho wondered how Greg did it. And most importantly, Johnson asked Olsen if someone like him with no formal communication experience could make it as a color commentator.
“Listen, I have watched you transition from playing the game to doing color commentary. Obviously, your work ethic and your discipline has allowed you to do it. Now, I’m thinking about someone in my position who has never done anything of that magnitude. Is that possible in any way that I could learn, if I can minimize my cursing a little bit, to do color commentary? Or is that something you think I should stay away from?”
Of course, networks tend to pick former players for commentary to complement the play-by-play. But that’s in the sport they had been active in, not a different one. That’s why Johnson had those doubts.
Olsen, however, had no doubts. He ncouraged the Nightcap co-host as he believed that Ocho ticks most of the boxes [love, knowledge, general awareness of the game] for a color commentator. The only thing Ocho would need to work on would be the ability to be concise and impactful considering the challenges and constraints of a live TV broadcast.
That said, it’s hard to imagine the Nightcap co-host being serious throughout a game. We love Ocho for his unfiltered opinions and goofiness. A formal setting unfortunately may strip it all away—something even the GOAT, Tom Brady is struggling with.
