I think Nantz has real vocal talent. And I think he expresses that talent most perfectly in his college basketball work: he's very smooth in calling normal plays, knows how to get excited without getting overwrought in big moments, and plays off of Raftery really well. It's a shame that he and Raftery didn't become CBS's #1 pairing years ago. (I reckon there's an alternate universe in which CBS kept the NBA rights and Nantz could have become a legendary NBA talent.) I don't think Romo is as good a football partner for Nantz; for all of Romo's great analytical qualities, his babbling style doesn't bring the best out of Nantz. And the same can equally be said for Nantz and Faldo in golf, except that Faldo's analytical prowess isn't anywhere near Romo's.
I don't think you can get to be where Nantz has gotten in the business without being a networker and a politician par excellence. What I think rubs people the wrong way most about Nantz - myself included - is that Nantz's on-air personality reminds you of this indisputable fact more than most if not all of the top commentators of his or probably any other generation. And you can see hear this most obviously at Augusta National. Other good golf commentators (e.g., Pat Summerall) manage to call The Masters sounding respectful and reverential; Nantz sounds oily. Or, if you prefer, he sounds like
a smug, self important asshole.
So, while I've always thought
@johnmd20 is totally off base in refusing to acknowledge any of Nantz's talent, I can still appreciate his take on Nantz if I concede that for some people, personality is the most important factor in a commentator. And between his oily/political qualities and his cheap puns at the ends of important games/tournaments, Nantz's personality doesn't make him sound like someone I'd want to spend a lot of time with in a pub, to put it charitably. For random reasons I wound up going down a YouTube rabbit hole last night and watching some of Rich Beem's career highlights, and when Beem made his final putt to win the PGA Championship in 2002, Nantz's first words were "Rich, and famous." That seems about as good an epitaph for Nantz's career as anything I can come up with, doesn't it?