Filed under: Media Watch, FanHouse Exclusive, Sports Business and Media
CHARLOTTE -- Those old, iconic CBS Sports jackets are long gone from Billy Packer's closet. The premier college basketball television analyst for three decades doesn't own a video or DVD of any of his games, either.
And that Emmy Award Packer won in 1993?
"He's probably using it as a doorstop,'' cracked his son, Charlotte radio personality Mark Packer.
Billy Packer is more likely to display his prized Picasso ceramics or Barbazon art than a faded photograph with some basketball player or coach. He is neither sentimental nor nostalgic about a career he refers to almost dismissively as a "hobby."
Nearly three years after he left CBS following the NCAA championship game between Kansas and Memphis in 2008, having broadcast 34 Final Fours with NBC and CBS and more tipoffs than he would ever care to count, Packer is focused on private business ventures in a life that remains active away from the cameras and lights.
No, he doesn't long to return to broadcasting. Nor does he spend much time watching basketball. At any given moment, his TV is just as likely to be turned to the Food Network as SportsCenter.
"I like the chef battles,'' Packer said as he turned off a cooking show he was watching one day last month.
But Packer still follows the sport that has in many ways defined his life. That has not changed for the former Wake Forest point guard and assistant coach-turned-broadcaster.
"I have a passion for the history and the value of the game and its direction,'' Packer said. "I will say this, not to be in a bragging fashion: I do understand the game. I would not be averse to debate the status of basketball with anybody.''
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Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/01/12/retirement-hasnt-quieted-billy-packer/
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