Ahead of Olympics, Splitter gets schooled in broadcasting

Tiago Splitter is ahead of the game.

He already has a prime broadcasting job.

Still, the Hawks center spent last week getting a crash course in the new craft at Sportscaster U., a program sponsored by the NBA Players Association at Syracuse University. He will put what he learned to use when he calls basketball games during the 2016 Summer Olympics in his native Brazil in August.

Splitter had hoped to play in the Olympics but right hip surgery in February while playing his first season with the Hawks put an abrupt end to such dreams.

“I’ve thought about in in the past,” Splitter said of a possible broadcast career after his playing days are over. “I had been taking to the Players Association about doing some things. In the summer, they have a lot of programs. They have broadcasting. They have coaching, front office. They have real estate. There are a lot of things that I’ve been thinking to do and thought one day I would do the broadcasting. Then I got the invitation for the Brazilian National TV and I said ‘OK, now is the time to go there and learn more and be a little bit prepared for the Olympic Games.’ Everything worked out, let’s say it that way.”

Splitter will serve as an analyst for Brazil’s Globo TV. He will work with Hortencia Marcari, inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005 and a member of Brazil’s silver medal women’s basketball team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Splitter previously worked on the Hawks’ Spanish-language radio station broadcast after being sideline during the season.

The school work included doing both television and radio broadcast at the new $18 million studio at Syracuse’s Newhouse Studio and Innovation Center. Splitter was part of a class with current players Tobias Harris, Kyle O’Quinn and Brian Roberts and former players Courtney Alexander and one-time Hawk Acie Law. They worked nine-hour days to learn the many concepts and details of the job. Shaquille O’Neal went through the program before his current television work and put the program on the map, according to Matt Park, who has overseen the program since its inception in 2007.

“We went through all parts of broadcasting – the intros, the tease, going to a break, studio debates, pregame, postgame,” Splitter said. “We did a little bit of everything but the most fun was to do the games with the play-by-play guy.”

Splitter is the first international player to take part in the program. Last week, participants worked in studio to call Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. They watched the game on a monitor for the production. Splitter called the game in English, Spanish and Portuguese – not an easy task with a play-by-play partner who could only speak English.

“I think they will find he has a good personality,” Park said. “He really wants to learn and do well. He’s got a great smile. And the knowledge, obviously. I think he’ll do great in the Olympics. … Whatever he pursues, he’s going to pursue to the best of his ability and not go halfway. I like to give guys like that credit because a lot of people would mail it in or rely on their name or playing experience. He’s obviously had job offers without ever coming to us. The idea that he wanted to learn speaks very well for a guy like Tiago.”

Splitter said the most valuable lesson was an appreciation for the work others do on the other side of a basketball game.

“What surprised me was when you see those guys on TV or yourself, you don’t think they put that much work because all you see is the result of the TV broadcast,” Splitter said to a newspaper reporter. “You don’t know how many hours it took to put together. You don’t know how many hours they scout, do reports. Now you really respect the work people put in. It’s not easy. I guess it’s like watching a basketball game and nobody knows the work (a player) puts in before the game. It’s not just a game. You put a lot of work into it (as a player).”