bandwagon sports analysts

[Don]

This is something in sports that really annoys me. If you look at say the NBA Playoffs, the Celtics are a heavy underdog against Cavs, and now against Magics, and if they get to Finals against Lakers they'd be the underdog too. Yet when the Celtics win suddenly all the guys who analyze this stuff on TV/ESPN/whatever are all going 'yep I totally saw it coming' even though all those guys picked Cavs to win in 6 and Magic to win in 5.

Now I don't mind bandwagon fans, and I'm one of them too because nobody pays me for my opinion on sports teams so I figure I don't have to be hold accountable to for making these statements. But you'd think if you're supposed to be an expert in the field, getting paid to say these things you should at least stick to your prediction. Now I don't mind analyzes on why the earlier prediction turned out to be wrong, but no you didn't see this coming. I think the odds in the Lakers vs Pistons finals match was like 8 to 1 if you bet on the Pistons since the Lakers were heavily favored, and apparently every guy saw it coming but failed to capitalize on such great odds for such an obvious thing! I mean if I really saw that coming, I'd quit my job as an analyst and bet on the Pistons. I don't even think it's illegal to bet on sports if you're an analyst since you don't actually have any inside information anyway.

I don't follow hockey very much, but I think one conference has the 4, 6, 7, and 8 seed advancing and the final is 7 vs 8? Do hockey analysts all claim they saw that coming too?

[Zeus]

What, you want them to actually NOT go along with the hype? Isn't that their job?

[Don]

I don't think it's related to hype. For example Cavs and Lakers are obviously favorites both in stats and popularity, and Magics are pretty high up too. So saying "I knew all along Celtics was going to win" actually is going against the hype. I mean I don't expect them to say 'Oops I was wrong to call this' but it's really annoying that these guys want to always sound like they're never wrong.

I mean okay if you're John Hollinger that picked Celtics over Cavs in 6 you can say 'see I told you so! hahaha!' That's certainly within his right since he made the right call. But for all the other 99% of the guys that picked Cavs over Celtics I don't want to hear them about how all along they really knew the Celtics were the team to beat.

[Don]

Actually that reminds me, I saw a guy said that if you make a guaranteed and it was wrong, you should be forbidden from making any guaranteeds for the next 5 years. This applies to any player, coach, owner, or guys you pay to get professional opinion from. Of course this really means a guaranteed, like I pick Lakers to win in 5 that's not a guaranteed (there's no expectation that I'm always right) but if I say "I guaranteed Lakers win game 1!" then that counts against me if I turned out to be wrong.

[Julius Seeker]

It happens in MMA and K-1 as well among the fanbase.

It is funny to see hardcore K-1 commentators like "The Voice" Michael Schiavello throwing insults at Alistair Overeem (the top Heavyweight MMA striker who entered the K-1 tournaments) and then taking the complete opposite stance of "what a huge entry into the ranks of K-1" when Overeem took third place in the tournament.

For winners "I knew it all along", I am guessing it's just so they don't sound like they know everything, and can anticipate everything.

[Don]

I think it's funny when you got an upset but everyone saw it coming. That by definition wouldn't be an upset if everyone saw it coming!