Previously, I did a piece for Poynter.org on Dave Kindred, one of the top sportswriters of his generation, getting great joy out of covering the Morton girls high school basketball team.
Well, it turns out the Potters won the Illinois state title, and the team insisted Kindred be awarded with a medal.
Now that’s a first. The Dream Team never called him up to receive a gold medal.
WEEK has a feature on Dave. At the end, you’ll see him receive his medal.
An excerpt from my latest column in the Chicago Tribune.
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The Big Ten Tournament has a nifty network threesome when it comes to television this week. Three networks, CBS, ESPN, and BTN, will provide extensive coverage.
The more, the merrier from the perspective of Commissioner Jim Delany. CBS is using its A-team of Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery and Grant Hill for the semifinals and final, while Mike Tirico will call ESPN’s games.
The match of quality and quantity speaks to the power of the Big Ten. Yet as Delany schmooses with his current network partners at the United Center, he and the Big Ten face crucial decisions about their TV future. The league’s football and basketball deals with ESPN/ABC and CBS expire after the 2016-17 basketball season. Negotiations are expected to heat up soon, assuming they haven’t already.
One thing is certain: The Big Ten should be in line for a windfall. The conference will get significant increases from its 10-year, $1 billion deal with ESPN/ABC for football and basketball and 6-year, $72 million pact with CBS for basketball; It also has a 25-year, $2.8 billion deal with league-run BTN that runs through 2031-32.
However, the final decision could be more than about simply dollars and cents. Delany and the Big Ten also might have to put a price tag on the value of exposure if it decides to leave the immense reach of ESPN for the fledgling Fox Sports 1.
Delany declined to comment on the situation, saying, “We are optimistic, prepared and will work closely with our schools.”
Delany knows his timing couldn’t be better, as the Big Ten’s TV rights will be the last major sports property, pro or college, to be on the market in this decade. That news isn’t lost on Fox Sports, which desperately needs top-tier live programming for its cable outlet, Fox Sports 1. The network has struggled to gain a foothold in 1 ½ years of operation.
Fox is expected to make an aggressive bid for the Big Ten’s rights. CBS Sports Network and NBCSN are unlikely contenders in this derby.
An excerpt of my latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana:
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It’s been a somewhat volatile time in athlete-media relations. There was the nuttiness of Marshawn Lynch at the Super Bowl and Kevin Durant’s anti-media rant at the NBA All-Star Game. In Toronto, the Maple Leafs’ Phil Kessel vented that the media should be “embarrassed” by its negative coverage. Never mind that Toronto is one of the worst teams in the league.
Yet one voice on the issue was particularly troubling. And it didn’t belong to an athlete.
In an interview with Kate Fagan at ESPNW, Michele Roberts, the new executive director of the NBA Players Association, recently made headlines with her perspective of the media.
“Most of the time I go to the locker room, the players are there and there are like eight or nine reporters just standing there, just staring at them,” Roberts said. “And I think to myself, ‘OK, so this is media availability?’ If you don’t have a f—ing question, leave, because it’s an incredible invasion of privacy. It’s a tremendous commitment that we’ve made to the media — are there ways we can tone it down? Of course. It’s very dangerous to suggest any limitation on media’s access to players, but let’s be real about some of this stuff.
“I’ve asked about a couple of these guys, ‘Does he ask you a question?’ ‘Nah, he just stands there.’ And when I go in there to talk to the guys, I see them trying to listen to my conversation, and I don’t think that’s the point of media availability. If nothing else, I would like to have a rule imposed, ‘If you have a question, ask it; if you don’t, leave.’ Sometimes, they’re waiting for the marquee players. I get that, but there is so much standing around.”
Roberts subsequently toned down her comments in a follow-up interview with Sarah Kogod of SB Nation. Kogod actually tried to school Roberts about how watching players interact in the locker room is part of the reporting process.
“(Hearing) from you and your explanation for what the motives might be and how it does, in fact, enhance your ability to do your job is very helpful,” Roberts said.
However, it is a safe bet that the vast majority of Roberts’ players never saw the SB Nation story. They still were applauding her initial comments about those idiot reporters clogging up their personal space in the locker room.
If you’re in sports media, it is extremely troubling to hear someone in Roberts’ position take such an extreme stand about coverage and access. It validates many of the complaints and misperceptions athletes have in dealing with reporters. If the leader of the Players Association says it’s stupid, why would the players think otherwise?
An excerpt from my latest for Poynter.
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J. R. Moehringer spent more than 100 hours with Alex Rodriguez. He saw him in a Batman costume during a New Year’s Eve celebration with his children. He was with him on a day in New York when he met with the new Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred. And then he accompanied him on a visit to the surgeon who worked on his hip.
They had numerous intimate conversations that carried on into the night. At times, it got to be too much—for Moehringer.
“I told him, ‘Alex, I’m tired. I’ve got to go home,’” Moehringer said.
Yet despite almost unlimited access, Moehringer decided not to use one quote from Rodriguez in his riveting 12,000+-word piece on the disgraced star in the March 2 edition of ESPN The Magazine.
Ironically, it all began when he sought a quote from Rodriguez for an ESPN The Magazinestory he was doing on Derek Jeter, said Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize winner. He used a Rodriguez quote on his teammate for that story and struck a relationship in the process. Eventually after several off-the-record lunches, Moehringer inquired if Rodriguez would be willing to be the subject of an extensive profile on the eve of his return to baseball this spring.
“It was up and down,” Moehringer said. “They pulled out for at least a month. His people didn’t want him to do it. But he overruled them. He liked where we were going [from their conversations].”
Moehringer embarked on the project full-time in December. He says he was “stunned” by the volume of access.
“I don’t know if I had that kind of access to [Andre Agassi],” said Moehringer, who assisted the tennis star in writing his bestselling autobiography, “Open.” “It was a gradual process. It probably never would have happened if I just said, ‘Let’s go,’ and hit [the record button].”
My latest Chicago Tribune column is on happy day for Craig Sager after a rough 11 months.
From the column:
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Craig Sager, the man who has sports coats in every color with the possible exception of conventional black and navy, had a choice in mind for his return to the NBA sidelines. After an 11-month battle with leukemia, he planned on a blood orange selection for TNT’s coverage of the Oklahoma City-Bulls game Thursday. That is the color of the disease.
However, there was a problem. The coat is made out of linen, which hardly is the fabric of choice to be wearing in frigid Chicago. Plus, it no longer fit properly since he still is working to replace the 50 pounds he lost during his ordeal.
So the long-time sideline reporter reverted to his roots for plan B. The native of Batavia and graduate of Northwestern will be donning a coat made of red and black, Bulls colors.
“I grew up watching them,” Sager said. “My heart goes to the Bulls.”
Sager, 63, has been looking forward to this day for a long time. The 33-year veteran of Turner Sports knows it isn’t going to be just another game.
“The fact that I haven’t been allowed in an arena for 11 months…It’s going to be a different experience,” Sager said.
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One coach in particular stood out. Sager often has been on the other end of San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich’s infamous, irritated to the point of uncomfortable, in-game interviews. Popovich’s beef, though, always has been with the league, which makes the interviews mandatory. The coach’s personal feelings toward Sager were a different story.
“He sent so many cards and notes,” Sager said. “One of them said he missed seeing me and that he felt we made a great team. That’s pretty special.”
Sager, though, doesn’t expect any special treatment from Popovich when he does his first Spurs game. “If he’s nice to me, I wouldn’t know what to do,” he said.
My latest column for the Chicago Tribune is on Jeff Van Gundy and Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.
You also can access the column on Twitter at @Sherman_Report.
From the column:
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Jeff Van Gundy usually operates without a filter. Whatever thought pops into his brain often does a beeline straight to his mouth.
But the outspoken NBA analyst says he might have to switch on his rarely used internal censor when it comes to discussing Tom Thibodeau‘s shaky relationship with the Bulls.
“I’ve been asked by (Leon Rose of CAA, the firm that represents Thibodeau) to tone it down a bit,” Van Gundy said this week.
In the wake of Derrick Rose’s latest injury, the coach’s future likely will be brought up during ABC‘s telecast of the Clippers-Bulls game Sunday. Mike Breen, Van Gundy, Mark Johnson and Doris Burke will be on the call. Everything seems to be on the table for a franchise that Van Gundy says “feels snake-bit.”
Previously, speculation about Thibodeau’s status provoked Van Gundy to rail about Bulls management during an ESPN telecast of a January game in Dallas. He alleged the Bulls were leaking stories “to undermine” Thibodeau.
The Bulls quickly fired back. Van Gundy said Bulls general manager Gar Forman, who was at the game, berated him at halftime. “He called me a bunch of names,” Van Gundy said.
Two days later, John Paxson, the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations, told the Tribune the remarks were “pathetic” and alleged that Van Gundy “was trying to protect his friend.”
Van Gundy said the incident resulted in him receiving a call from Thibodeau’s agent.
“He asked that I not say anything bad about (Thibodeau’s relationship with the Bulls). It was getting people upset,” Van Gundy said. “I told him I have a job to do, but at the same time, I don’t want to do anything to hurt Tom.”
I wrote about Mike Greenberg, author, for the Chicago Tribune.
From the column:
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Everyone has their idea of a dream job. Even those people who already have dream jobs.
For the last 15 years, Mike Greenberg has teamed with Mike Golic for the popular “Mike & Mike” morning sports talk show that airs on ESPN Radio, ESPN2 and locally on WMVP-AM 1000.
As great gigs go, Greenberg’s has to rank right up there. Greenberg, though, covets something else: Being a full-time novelist.
“My dream life would be to get up in the morning and drops the kids off at school,” Greenberg said. “Then I would go to a nice, comfortable office and write all day. I don’t see that happening in the foreseeable future.”
For now, Greenberg will have to settle for being a part-time writer. He recently came out with his second novel, “My Father’s Wives.”
Greenberg’s story is about a successful businessman who is trying to come to grips with the possibility that his wife is having an affair. In an effort to reconcile his own life, he visits the six ex-wives of his late father.
In the new age of social media, Greenberg actually had to tell people that the book isn’t based on his father, who has been married to his mother for 54 years. And no, his wife isn’t having an affair.
“The idea is purely random,” Greenberg said. “Once I was seated at a dinner in Los Angeles next to a guy who said his father had six wives. He said, “Mother’s Day is the most expensive day of the year for me.’ When he told me that, I said, ‘There’s the (main) character.’ I never met the guy before and I haven’t seen him since.”
It was going so well. And this was so unnecessary.
Yet perhaps it was inevitable.
As readers of this space know, I am a big Keith Olbermann fan. Part of his brilliance comes from an ability to summon outrage like nobody else in the business. Pity those who become the target of his wrath. Complete obliteration.
Unfortunately, Olbermann feels the same need to confront people who troll him on Twitter. If you follow his feed, you know his retorts can get fairly personal.
Monday, Olbermann went over the line with a series of tweets regarding Penn State. ESPN sent him to the sidelines for the rest of the week.
Clearly, the network wanted to send Olbermann a message. Hopefully, he got it.
Olbermann needs to confine his outrage to his television show. Forget about Twitter. It isn’t worth blowing his second opportunity at ESPN over some tweets.
My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana is on MLB’s initial efforts to deal with the pace of play issue. It’s a start.
From the column:
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Of all the suggestions being made to speed up baseball, this one might be the best.
Inspired by watching the Oscars, Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports fired off this tweet last night:
“Instead of a pitch clock for baseball they should just bring an orchestra that plays with more fortissimo when the pitcher is lagging.”
Now that would be awesome. When the pitcher circles the mound for the fourth time because he’s deathly afraid of throwing that next pitch, fire up the orchestra to let him know he’s about to be pulled. Neil Patrick Harris, or specifically his writers, could have used a relief pitcher at the Oscars.
The Oscars, though, always will draw big ratings no matter how long it drags on. The same can’t be said for baseball.
That’s why Major League Baseball took some steps last week to speed up the game. The changes include strict policies to get the games started immediately out of commercial breaks and requiring batters to keep at least one foot in the batter’s box in between pitches.
Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe wondered how that regulation will play with a certain Red Sox slugger.
“Red Sox fans are familiar with the routine. David Ortiz takes a pitch, then takes two steps out of the batter’s box. He taps each cleat with his bat, claps his hands, and adjusts his helmet before stepping back in and taking a few practice swings.
“Sometimes Big Papi will go for a little stroll and adjust his batting gloves, especially if he disagrees with the umpire’s call. The process can take up to 30 seconds.”
Those 30 seconds times 500-550 plate appearances equals viewers tuning out on baseball. For all the talk about the rules changes being aimed at the young demos, it also focuses on old geezers like myself. I have plenty of avid sports fan friends who tell me they no longer can sit through an entire baseball telecast.
MLB’s ratings for the All-Star game and postseason are at historic lows. While some teams do strong ratings at the local level, who is to say they wouldn’t be even bigger with a more palatable product?
MLB knows it can’t continue to sustain an average game time of 3 hours, 2 minutes and climbing. And that’s brisk compared to Tampa Bay (3:19 per game) and Boston (3:17). The numbers are even worse during the postseason with some dreadfully dull 4-1 games pushing four hours.
Last night, John Maggines asked on his PGA Tour Network radio show whether the Back 9 Network had the shortest tenure of any new channel?
While the answer appears to be no, the Back 9 seems to be right up there.
Just in case you were wondering what happened to Ahmad Rashad (above video). Apparently, his presence wasn’t enough to save the Back 9 Network.
Monday, the Back 9 Network announced it was suspending operations after less than six months on the air. It issued this statement:
“Due to a temporary shortfall in capital, Back9Network has suspended its operations. Management and the board of directors are planning next steps and will continue their efforts to secure long-term, operating capital. The company will keep the public informed with any new developments.”
Maggines, who hosted a show on the Back 9, was among those blown out Monday. He has reason to be upset.
When the Back 9 Network debuted in late September on DirecTV, it billed its focus on the lifestyle of golf. Said Scot Thor, Senior VP of Programming:
“While we will certainly pay attention to professional golf’s leaderboard, our coverage will focus on the lifestyle of the game where golf enthusiasts are spending their time and money — the courses and resorts they can play, the latest fashion, gadgets and equipment, and the behind-the-scenes stories that will highlight the personalities and characters that make golf so much fun. We’re dedicated to introducing lifestyle entertainment to the game of golf while respecting its values and traditions, and we’ve brought on some incredibly talented people to emphasize the depth, humility and humor in the game.”
At best, this concept was going to be extremely challenging to pull off. You see, there’s something called the Golf Channel, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. For all the talk about lifestyle, golf fans tune in primarily to watch tournaments. The Back 9 Network didn’t have any tournaments.
However, if Back 9 execs were motivated to try, they needed to give their concept much more time. It took the Golf Channel several years to finally gain a foothold.
If the money wasn’t there for Back 9 to make that kind of commitment, then why bother? It seems as if the network tried to play the toughest course in the world with only an 8-iron in the bag.