Bill Clement : Table Tennis :: Oil : Water
By curt from August 19, 2004
First, some background: Bill Clement played in the NHL for 11 years, and even made the All-Star roster. He now provides commentary and analysis on ESPN and ABC for hockey and charges $5k-$10k for corporate/motivational speaking events. I can respect his hockey playing/analyzing prowess and will concede that he has general speaking talent (although I can't verify this personally). However hockey is not table tennis.
Admittedly, I didn't have much of a problem with his commentary at first. Although it didn't give me any extra knowledge of the game, it was servicable. After watching the second game, though, hearing that that China dominates table tennis after every third point was getting a bit old. Also, you only need to say "Zhang Yining is the No. 1 seed" three or four times for me to understand that she's the No. 1 seed.
What particularly bothers me, though, is a comment he made as Zhang was wrapping up her game 4 win to take the match: "Zhang Yining is the mongoose of table tennis."
...
Mongoose!? What!?
A quick Google (NASD: GOOG) search provides this quote: "The mongoose, then, is a clever little creature with a deadly ability to look after itself in the wild. Let us respect it for its power while admiring it for its lovable antics."
I can understand a need to be clever and deadly (metaphorically speaking) in sporting events, but I still wouldn't use "lovable antics" to describe Olympic athletes.