Rock-Solid Stones Takes Off
Who is the most dominant, authoritative analyst in all of sports?
It is not John Madden on the NFL, Tim McCarver on baseball, John Davidson on hockey or Johnny Miller on golf. It is Dwight Stones. Who? He’s the Californian who once high-jumped 7 feet 8 inches and has been the one and only field event analyst for almost 20 years. “I am pigeonholed. There is no one coming along,” says Stones, ultimate expert by default.
When Stones speaks, the audience listens, despite the fact that once you get beyond Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, there are very few marquee athletes in the field events. And as the U.S. Olympic track and field trials reach their conclusion this weekend, Stones will be front and center on NBC today and Sunday.
He made his television debut on CBS 19 years ago with zero experience, sometimes actually analyzing the same meet in which he was competing. He made his Olympic debut in 1984 in Los Angeles, then covered the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics in 1988 and 1992.
By his own admission, Stones was a TV natural. (He does not suffer from false modesty.) He had been a communications major at Long Beach State and later became a motivational speaker, which probably helped him on television. “If you speak with authority, no one questions you,” he says. “If you mispronounce a name, but do it three times, it will be accepted.
“All the training in the world cannot prepare you for the first time when the (TV) light goes on. You must have a good relationship with the camera. You can’t seem fearful.”
An endless stream of failed football analysts, all the way back to Joe Greene, would agree. Stones is confident to the point of being cocky, but the cockiness does not project on television, blurred by Stones’ depth and articulation.
Stones describes his formula as a mix of personal and anecdotal knowledge about the athletes. “But you also have to have an eye for the events, notice little things,” he says. That was evident earlier this week when he remarked on an unnoticed faulty step by a competitor. Replays proved him correct.
Stones is so proficient on television that ESPN throws him the live microphone on about a 5-second notice. NBC will do the same thing this weekend and also during the Olympic telecasts, when field events often will become at least small segments in prime-time coverage. Stones’ quick, decisive style should be especially useful then.
NBC wants track and field host Tom Hammond to interact with Stones during Olympic telecasts, but that can be risky. The question that many in the home audience supposedly are dying to ask can come across as too elementary for the informed viewer. If someone in the audience doesn’t comprehend who Joyner-Kersee is by now, is it too late to explain?
“I make certain assumptions (on background) about the ESPN audience,” he said of the cable television audience that watched the trials Friday.
NBC will wrap up the track and field trials today and Sunday from 11-3 p.m. (with diving trials mixed in), and Stones says he will adjust his commentary a little in expectation of speaking to a larger, but less informed, network audience.
He envisions this weekend’s trials wrapup as packing more drama than most Olympics events. “The competition is so strong, and if you qualify (three in each event), you are a winner,” he says. “You will be able to tell your grandchildren you were an Olympian.”
That analysis is an example of Stones’ ability to capture the big picture, which he splices with historical references to past field event stars.