The revolution will not be televised!!!

Do you remember the Nike commercials that ran in the mid-1990s? They featured the "next wave" of NBA stars in the post-Jordan era.

The viewer was shown images of such players as Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson, Kevin Garnett, Eddie Jones and Joe Smith.

"THE REVOLUTION WILL BE LED BY JASON KIDD!!!!! THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED!!!!" boomed the announcer.

I got to thinking about that commercial because I've seen some other things recently that absolutely should not be televised. Take, for example, Wednesday night's basketball game between Duke and national powerhouse UNC-Asheville.

The Dukies won that game 99-56. Did a national television audience really need to see that tilt? Was there any reason at all to believe it would be competitive? Of course not. ESPN just wanted to run another two-hour infomercial on how much they love Duke basketball.

At my apartment, the television was tuned to an hour-long Christmas special featuring the Muppets (left). It was cheesy and cliched, but hey, it beats watching Duke basketball. I like Fozzy Bear much more than I like Kyle Singler.

I see that North Carolina is on national TV tonight, too. Again. The other day, ESPN treated us to a Tar Heels' rout over mighty Oral Roberts. This evening, viewers are graced by a North Carolina romp over Evansville. Why is this garbage on TV? This is not competitive basketball.

I assume ESPN wanted to show these games in order to capture the "emotional moment" where Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford's all-time UNC scoring record. I guess we are all supposed to care about that. Guess what? I don't.

Everyone in this sports department is indifferent to Hansbrough's performance. None of us went to UNC and none of us care.

Tonight's telecast is just another infomercial in a season-long ESPN campaign to get Hansbrough named National Player of the Year. To hell with that. I'd rather watch the Muppets.

After all, Kermit T. Frog is a hero to journalists everywhere. He was right on the scene when Rapunzel let down her hair. That's an example we can all follow.