Okay, we realize we made this point recently, but it needs to be reiterated (especially since new s**t has come to light, man): We love England. Yesterday, it was the MMA fighters in drag taking out a couple drunk idiots on the street.

(This took way too long to make.)

Today, though, it’s British people trying to call a basketball game. Emphasis on “trying.” Apparently, the BBC just trotted out Mark Pougatch and Colin Murray, two reporters without much of a clue about what happens in basketball games, and let them work their way through it. It’s delightful, and the sort of thing that only British people (see: the film careers of Hugh Grant and Jude Law) can get away with without looking completely stupid. Video is after the break.

(Video via BALL DON’T LIE, which - as our English friends will remind us - is just reprehensible grammar)

Yes, we’ll bet you didn’t know Larry Bird was 5′11″, tops, or that “three-pointer” was British for “and-one,” or that all Americans use halftime to get fat. What?

By far the best moment, though, comes near the end when Pougatch and Murray bring in Chuck Swirsky, whose ease and ability to call the game quickly reminds viewers just how bad Pougatch and Murray are at the task. John Amaechi also makes an appearance, and he’s there to tell them things like how much a free throw is worth, and that’s awfully nice of him.

Even fully recognizing what a bad exhibition of sports journalism it was, though, we must admit that the whole exercise was strangely compelling, and we might even want to watch this crew slog its way through another broadcast before we take up, like, the Big Ten Network crew falling asleep during a Minnesota-Northwestern game. If the BBC guys were competent, they’d likely be boring (see: BTN), but here, they at least take us along for the learning experience.

Put it this way: for all its badness, the BBC’s broadcast, in its own way, still outshines the NBA TV’s call of the game, complete with a man apparently being murdered on air as time expires:

Huuuhhhaaagggggh!