It's a mystery. Obviously Cuban wanted to shake up the broadcast because I'm sure tv ratings have continued to fall. He did a similar move a couple years ago by bumping Ortegel to radio for the entire season. But why let him go now? Something must have happened.

I love Harper and won't miss Ortegel much, but he deserved some sort of nice sendoff.

I loved Ortegal. He was consumate pro and made any game worth watching. Maybe it was health related and they wanted to keep it quiet? He is older than you think.

.....he can do that folks!

Just a complete guess here, but I wonder if Cuban wanted to get younger at that position. Cuban is always enamored with new and trendy technology that helps market the Mavs (Facebook, twitter, etc...). Followil(sp?) follows these, but Bob always seemed lost when the discussion turned to something like this.

Again, just a guess.

As a Rockets fan living in the Metroplex, I have always enjoyed Followill/Ortegel and what they bring to the table.
You can tell they both love basketball and they are positioned nicely in that middle ground between overboard and subdued.
Every NBA fan should order League Pass at least once just to experience out of market broadcasters and possibly, as in the case of the Mavs, gain appreciation for your local team.
The Timberwolves broadcast team sounds like two guys talking in a library or discussing floral arrangements.
On the other end of the spectrum, Austin Carr of the Cavaliers broadcast is out of control and sounds like Mr. T.

i remember watching jim durham and bob ortegal during the three j's, jim cleamons, chris gatling era and i always thought ortegal did a great job.

cuban probably wanted a younger voice, but ortegal was a pro. i didnt know that he has never played or coached, so even more impressed that he was a color commentator for 25 years.

He has coached at Drake I thought.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/columnists/barryhorn/20110211-horn-why-mark-cuban_s-decision-to-replace-saint_bob-ortegel-makes-little-sense.ece

quote:

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Ortegel, who is 70 years old, sat in a Mavericks television analyst’s seat since Nov. 26, 1988. He officially lost that seat this week in a silly game of musical chairs orchestrated by owner Mark Cuban.

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He coached for several years.

I seem to recall that he was also a big wheel (CEO or something) at Chuck E Cheese Pizza.