n the national announcer because hes announcing, by and large, their teams. And now the technology lets people around the country hear it. They are

Parity has struck the NBA playoffs, where the conference semifinals are all fit to be tied. The four current series are all knotted at one game apiece -- the first time thats happened in the second round of the NBA playoffs since the league went to its current format more than a quarter-century ago. For favourites like Miami, New York, San Antonio and Oklahoma City, home-court advantage has disappeared, and now its the underdogs who can control their own fates simply by taking care of business on their home floors. A wild weekend is ahead, without question. The Heat, Knicks, Spurs and Thunder are four of the leagues top five winningest road teams this season. That probably isnt being received as great news for Chicago, Indiana, Golden State and Memphis, the lower-seeded clubs who will be hosting pivotal Game 3s when NBA playoff action resumes on Friday and Saturday. "Pretty cool. The NBAs loving it," Heat forward LeBron James said. "When it comes to the playoffs, I always continue to say no matter how many games you win or lose in the regular season, once you get to the playoffs everybodys record is 0-0. So I think its great. I think its great for our fans, I think its great for the competition that every series is tied 1-1." After a first round with only two sweeps -- by Miami and San Antonio, the top seeds in the Eastern and Western Conferences -- the tone for the second round was set pretty quickly around the league. Miami lost Game 1 at home to a wounded and weary team from Chicago. San Antonio needed a huge comeback to beat Golden State in Game 1 of their series, then saw the Warriors simply come back and take Game 2. The Knicks lost Game 1 to Indiana before evening up their matchup, and the Thunder are likely feeling lucky that theyre not in an 0-2 hole after Memphis had plenty of chances to take the opening game of their series. "When you get this deep into the playoffs, theyre all good teams, theyre all very good teams more than capable of winning at home or on the road," Golden State coach Mark Jackson said. "So Im not surprised at all. Good coaching, good playing, you make adjustments and win games. Theyve all been great games." Big fourth-quarter comebacks, first by Oklahoma City and then by Memphis, decided the outcomes of the first two games of that series, where the cumulative score right now is Grizzlies 190, Thunder 186. The first two Spurs-Warriors games were pure theatre, with San Antonio winning a double-overtime thriller in Game 1 after rallying from 16 points down late in regulation. Road teams took Game 1s in the East semifinals, with Indiana and Chicago both winning by seven. And the home teams imposed their wills in Game 2 of both matchups, New York using a huge late run to beat the Pacers by 26, and the Heat outscoring the Bulls by an unbelievable 62-20 margin over a 19-minute stretch on the way to evening that matchup with a 115-78 romp. "Anybody can beat you on a given night and playoff basketball is no different," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "I mean, everybody at this particular time is hungry even more. Nobody wants to go home so it becomes crazy basketball. Everybody is pumped up and ready to play." Then again, if you checked out how these teams fared against each other in the regular season, maybe you could have seen something as uncanny as this coming. There wasnt any real separation between the clubs then, either. The Bulls and Heat split four games against one another, as did the Knicks and Pacers, and Spurs and Warriors. The only exception was Memphis beating Oklahoma City in two of the three games they played this year -- and if they met four times, there would figure to be a chance that it could have been a 2-2 split as well. "Each team is working hard, trying to get wins," said Memphis guard Tony Allen, who was part of Bostons title-winning team in 2008. "They got the trophy on their mind so I believe that each series is probably going to go all the way to the end. You look at the eight teams that are left, all the teams have a shot." The Heat entered the playoffs as the overwhelming favourites to win their second straight title, and they remain that way in the eyes of oddsmakers even though theyll need to win one game in Chicago to reclaim the home-court advantage. Heat coach Erik Spoelstras eyes widened a bit Thursday when told that no second round in the NBA playoffs had ever opened quite this way. "Is that right? First time ever? Really? Wow," Spoelstra said. "Makes for great theatre. I know Im enjoying the other games, probably like other fans are enjoying ours. It shows how much parity there is and how little margin for error with the teams that are left. ... We had always felt there was up to six or seven legitimate, title-contending teams." The way things look, maybe theres eight now. "It looks like its the best eight teams in the NBA right now," James said. "So well see what happens." ------ AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York, and AP Sports Writers Antonio Gonzalez in Oakland, Calif., and Teresa M. Walker in Memphis, Tenn., contributed to this report. Juan Bernat Bayern Munich Jersey . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. Pierre Hojbjerg Jersey . Ryan Garbutt had a goal and two assists as Dallas snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. http://www.soccerfcbayernshop.com/kids-sebastian-rode-bayern-munich-jersey/ . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable. Sinan Kurt Bayern Munich Jersey . McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. Corentin Tolisso Bayern Munich Jersey . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. (Want more Vin Scully? Go to our The Man. The Voice. The Stories.)He has been describing baseball games to us for 67 years now. Think about that: 67. Oh, and by the way, he has gotten pretty good at it. But would you like to guess who doesnt think thats, like, the coolest broadcasting feat ever?Vin Scully. Who else?I attribute it to one thing and one thing only -- Gods grace, Scully said in a conference call on Sept. 19, to allow me to do what Ive been doing for 67 years. To me, thats really the story. Not really me. Im just a vessel that was passed, hand to hand, down through all those years.So clearly, we cant leave it to a man this humble to put his career in true historical perspective. But if you ask his peers, it wont take long to learn were not the only ones who think its mind-boggling that Vin Scully has been calling baseball games for 67 years.No one ever did any sport any better than Vin has done baseball, said his old friend, and former colleague at NBC, Bob Costas. And no one ever did whatever their best sport was nearly as long as Vin did baseball. So thats whats really unique. If the question is the greatest all-around sportscaster, he is in the argument, and maybe he wins the argument. But if the question is who the greatest baseball broadcaster is, there is no argument.So what makes Scully special? According to his friends, whats the one common theme? Hes a poet. There is the language of baseball. And then there is the language of Vin Scully, the Shakespeare of the broadcast booth.Charley Steiner, Dodgers broadcaster: I look at us, or at least I look at myself, as a reporter whos running up a sand dune, pencil in his hand, fedora on my head, PRESS attached to the ringband, praying like hell to keep up with a story -- running and just doing everything you can to tell the story as best as you can. And so, were sprinting. Vin, on the other hand, is a poet, and the game seemingly comes to him. He has a wonderful vocabulary. He is well-read, above and beyond baseball. He has the facility to come up with those words in those moments where you just sit back and your jaw drops.Ned Colletti, former sportswriter (and Dodgers GM): If he was a writer, he would be one of the greatest writers of the last century. It could be writing anything. He could be writing spiritual essays. It could be writing politics. It could be writing a love story. It could be writing anything: baseball, sports. He would be one of the greatest writers of our lifetime and the last 100 years because of how he thinks and how he uses the right word.John Lowe, longtime friend and baseball writer: I dont know if how many people know this, but he is able to read lips. ... So it was Game 3 of the 87 NL Championship Series, Cardinals at Giants. That was the Jeff Leonard show, you might remember. ... He (Leonard) hits one out. He goes around the bases, one flap down. The crowds going crazy, and hes standing in the dugout, and the crowd is pleading for a curtain call. And on camera, you see what he says to somebody in the dugout. And Vinny can read his lips and shouts, Leonard has said, Make them wait. And so Vinny says Make em wait. The Sir Laurence Olivier of Candlestick Park.Charley Steiner, on the first Dodgers game he ever broadcast with Scully:?I had finally accomplished my goal. I was going to become the Dodgers announcer. First game. You may remember in 2005, there was a horrible hurricane down there in Florida, and it was really a dicey proposition as to whether or not we were even going to play that first game. There were mud puddles in the outfield. The palm trees, some palm trees, were down. Some were just hanging on. The left-field scoreboard is dangling by a thick wire. And so, Im on the air, the new Dodger guy. Vin is to my left. And Im trying to paint this picture that the field is in disarray, and some palm trees, some big old palm trees, are down and out, some middle-aged palm trees are still kind of hanging on, and they have just planted some new ones. And I think, well, thats pretty good. And now, beginning his (56th) year ... was the voice of the Dodgers. Heres Vin Scully. So Vin kind of sits down, metaphorically speaking, kind of like Van Cliburn. He separates the tails from his jacket, and he sits down, and hes saying, You know, well, Charley, youve been talking about the palm trees, and ... the old palm trees are on the side, and theyre going to be removed. And some of them are just hanging on, and maybe therell be another season. And then theres the new ones that have just arrived. ... Pause. ... But isnt that what spring training is all about? And I said, OK, its time for me to go. I cannot play on this field.When youve done something for 67 seasons, youre bound to impact a wide range of people. From former Cy Young winners to former college classmates to commissioners and colleagues, the depth and breadth of Scullys associations is astonishing. And everyone has a memory. Here are a few more gems we collected in our interviews.Orel Hershiser, current Dodgers broadcaster, former Dodgers Cy Young winner: When you watch TV and youre grazing, theres very few voices in the world that when youre grazing ... if you hear them, you stop. If you hear Vinnys voice, you stop. You stop grazing, and you see thats an important event: Vin Scullys doing it.Jerry Reuss, former Dodgers pitcher, on getting caught up in Scullys storytelling --- during a game:?Id have to sneak back into the clubhouse while the game was going on, and then when Vin started on a story or telling something, Id be stuck there.dddddddddddd And Id say, Wait a minute, Ive got to be out there on the bench. Im not here to listen to Vin.Charley Steiner, on Scullys typically polite way of dealing with a mild pregame dinner crisis: Ill give you one little moment which I still find funny. ... They gave us some steak ... a few weeks back, and ... the meat was a little rough. And so, Vin being Vin, says to Maria, the waitress, I think we need a sharper utensil. ... I just looked at him and said, Youre good.Larry Miggins, Cardinals outfielder in the 1950s who went to Fordham with Scully:?We had an assembly at Fordham Prep and all the classes were together. He was sitting right behind me, and he reached over and grabbed my shoulders and said Larry, someday youre going to be in the big leagues. I had played varsity baseball at the time and we had won the City championship. He said, Someday Im going to be in the big leagues (as a broadcaster) and the first time you hit a home run, Ill be there to announce it and tell the world about it. We never talked any more about it, and then it happened -- in 1952. I didnt see him after the game, and I heard about it that winter when we got together with some guys in the Bronx. He got the biggest kick out of it.Giants broadcaster Jon Miller, on when he realized how good Scully was:?I remember when I was a senior in high school and my grandmother lived in Eugene, Oregon. It was about a 10-hour drive, and in the evening the Dodgers played the Cubs. I always remember even that it was the Cubs. And so I heard Vinny do this game, he and Jerry Doggett. And this was probably 1969 Id say, and I dont remember anything about the game. There was nothing fascinating about the game. It was just a regular game. But (listening to) Vinny in the car for the whole game and hearing the whole deal from start to finish, which I had never done before. I just thought it was remarkable how thoroughly entertained I was and how totally caught up into the game that I was, and how Don Kessinger came up and Vinny would weave in the story of how Kessinger decided to become a switch hitter, and how that had so remarkably changed his career, and who it was that had suggested that he try switch-hitting, and he was having so much trouble as a hitter that he felt that he had nothing to lose, because it looked like hes just gonna hit .220, and he wasnt going to be in the big leagues if he hit .220. And Don Kessinger finally hit a popup to short, and he was out. And it was just that he had pushed this guy out and told me something. Now I actually cared about Don Kessinger.Ned Colletti, on the compassion of Scully:?After I left the GM job (in 2014), I talked to Vin on the phone. And the conversation had me in tears by the time it was completed. (He said) Jamie McCourt called me (in 2006, when Colletti was hired) and told me, We just hired a man named Ned Colletti to be our general manager. What do you think? Well, figuratively speaking, Im thinking Im down in the boiler room, and shes up on the top deck. And Im thinking, Why are you asking me? But I told her that I was thrilled and excited and the Dodgers had gotten it right, with a great person and a true baseball man. And he said, You know what, Ned? I was right. ... And now this life will take you to another destination, maybe still with the Dodgers, but another chapter that will be safe and wonderful. And we will never miss you because you will always be a part of our lives and part of our hearts for all the days that remain. I had a tough time getting through it. But I was grateful, forever grateful, that he told me how he felt and didnt mind expressing it to me.Bob Costas, on the special circumstances that helped create the legend:?Hes a unique and distinctive broadcaster. But he also had, and made good use of them, unique circumstances. Hes been at this for so long that his broadcasts are simultaneously current and nostalgic. Youre engrossed in tonights game, and at the same time you are transported to your earliest baseball memories. That can be true if you are 25 or 65. ... What (also) happened with Vin is that hes a local announcer, and people always like the local announcer more than the national announcer because hes announcing, by and large, their teams. And now the technology lets people around the country hear it. They are eavesdropping on a local broadcast. ... And when he did the national broadcast in the 80s, baseball was still pretty close the national pastime. The Game of the Week still mattered. There werent a zillion games on TV and a zillion highlight shows or call anything up you want on the internet. The internet didnt even exist. So think of the rating of the World Series games. ... The last game, Game 7 of the 86 World Series, went up against Washington against the Giants on Monday Night Football -- and the football game got single digits, and the baseball game got like a 37 ... like close to a Super bowl rating. ... These circumstances, start to finish will never be recreated.ESPN.com Dodgers writer Doug Padilla and ESPN The Magazine researcher Doug Mittler contributed to this report ' ' '