Making the rounds on the NBA, Skip Bayless, Lakers and KCAL, and Jason La Canfora.
The NBA nearly had a big weekend with three game 7s. Instead, it has only one with Lakers-Denver after Chicago and Atlanta blew opportunities to take their series home for the grand finale.
Losing Chicago, the No. 1 seed, was a big blow for the networks and the NBA. Even without Derrick Rose, the Bulls have more drawing power than Philadelphia. Also, I don’t see the 76ers giving Boston much of a series. The 76ers might be the worst team ever to win a playoff series. Yes, I’m bitter in Chicago.
Go Heat: Let’s see, which team will the networks and the NBA be rooting for in the Miami-Indiana series? I expect commissioner David Stern to show up in a Heat jersey.
More Skip: Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman has an interview with native son Skip Bayless. The First Take star insists he loves the Thunder even though his hometown thinks otherwise:
I want to make it very clear that contrary to unpopular opinion in the state of Oklahoma, I am a huge Thunder fan. I’m obviously a native Oklahoman born and bred, and when I die, I’ll be Sooner dead. I still love the state as much as I love my mother who lives in Oklahoma City.
I root for the Thunder, and yet from the distance I offer constructive criticism. I don’t trust the Westbrook-Durant dynamic in crucial playoff games. Russell Westbrook seems like a fine kid but he is a two guard masquerading as a point guard. I don’t think he wants to do it, and I think in their heart of hearts, they don’t want him to be their point guard, and it just happened and he has to try to be. And yet in pivotal situations, I don’t trust his instincts because his instincts are mainly to shoot it.
Good-bye: Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County-Star writes that after 35 years, the Lakers will be leaving KCAL. Next year, they begin their deal with the new Time-Warner sports outlet in LA.
Carlisle writes:
It’s still sad to see the Lakers leave broadcast TV altogether by dumping KCAL, and leaving its original cable TV home, a network that came into being primarily to show the Lakers.
Carlisle also writes how Fox Sports West is handling the break-up. Not well:
While KCAL has remained rather civil about its breakup, Fox’s relationship with the Lakers has been on the rocks most of the season. Earlier this season, Fox did what heretofore would have been unthinkable: It showed two Angels games on FS West and farmed the Lakers out to Prime Ticket (the channel originally known as Fox Sports West 2 and was later given the name of FSW’s predecessor).
The Lakers had always taken precedence over any other team when Fox had conflicts. But now, since the Angels have a contract with FS West and the Lakers no longer do, Fox had few qualms about sending Kobe Bryant and his friends off to another network.
Not only that, but have you noticed how the little watermark logo in the upper-right corner of the screen that used to say “FS Lakers” has been replaced with the more generic “FS West”?
It’s like an estranged father saying “I have no son! You are dead to me!”
Decision: CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus tells Michael Hiestand why the network decided to hire Jason La Canfora as its insider, dumping Charley Casserly in the process. Hiestand writes:
“Charley was terrific,” says CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “But when I watched Jason, I was amazed at the information he developed. I was looking to be more aggressive seven days a week.” La Canfora also will work on the CBS Sports Network cable channel and cbssports.com. CBSSN, says McManus, “will relatively shortly be doing greatly expanded NFL programming” — with a Sunday pregame show “a possibility.” As for La Canfora’s role on CBS’ pregame show, “we haven’t decided yet. We’re not locked into anything.