Posts Tagged ‘ESPN’

Playoff time brings out the very worst in Kobe Bryant when it comes to dealing with the media.

He’s notoriously known for his smug and snarky answers during this time of the year and Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke called him out on it following Game 3 of the Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets Western Conference 1st round series.

Here’s J.A. Adande of ESPN.com explaining the incident:

Props to Plaschke for not backing down to Bryant. The 23-year-old Bryant probably wouldn’t have laughed it off but Kobe, now 33, has finally matured to the point where he can laugh at himself every now and then.

ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons isn’t shy when it comes to broadcasting his sports gambling picks.

Gambling is normally a topic of discussion on his The B.S. Report podcast, which if fine and dandy unless you end up having a direct impact on the final outcome.

Earlier this year, Simmons said on his podcast that he was betting on LeBron James to win the 2012 NBA MVP award.

Little did Simmons or ESPN know that the NBA would send him a voting ballot for the 2011-12 NBA season — which he filled out last week on The B.S. Report. On the podcast, he voted for James (duh) as MVP.

It appeared this blatant conflict of interest was going to fly under the radar until Business Insider grilled ESPN about their gambling policy:

“Bill had never received a ballot before and didn’t find out he had one until two-thirds of the season had passed. By that time he had made multiple MVP bets, two of which he had discussed on podcasts. He ended up withdrawing his MVP vote to avoid the perception of any conflict.”

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Bill Simmons took his B.S. Report podcast on the road earlier this week and interviewed Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston.

During the hour-long discussion, Cuban made a homosexual joke towards Simmons regarding in-game entertainment at basketball arenas. Carly Carioli of The Boston Phoenix has the specifics:

The atmosphere turned even weirder when Cuban began telling the story of how he’d almost fired a Mavs employee for encouraging Dallas fans to do the wave. Cuban hates the wave. “I’d rather have 60 minutes of Kiss Cam,” he said, to laughs. Simmons has long been on record as being a fan of the Kiss Cam — he’s even jokingly suggested that it become its own TV show — and piped up in favor of it. “I like the Kiss Cam,” Simmons said.

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Nothing like two good teams and a hint of drama to help drive up TV ratings.

According to ESPN, ABC’s broadcast of Sunday’s Miami Heat vs. Los Angeles Lakers game was the network’s most-watched non-Christmas Day regular season NBA game ever with an average of 7,037,000 viewers and a 4.3 rating.

Viewership was up 37 percent (5,120,000 viewers) compared to last season’s game between the Lakers and San Antonio Spurs during the same weekend.

Locally, the game earned a 9.6 rating in Los Angeles and a 13.9 in Miami.

When nationally syndicated columnist and ESPN poker personality Norman Chad was selected to jury duty, he did what any person in 2012 would do — gave play-by-play on Twitter.

Chad, AKA “Juror #7,” was rebuked by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laura Foland Priver Wednesday for tweeting during a burglary trial.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Chad tweeted two dozen times between Jan. 11-12. The judge was eventually tipped off that Chad was tweeting and he was dismissed from the case.

“He made a mockery of our system,” Priver told Chad’s attorney. “I’m disturbed by this behavior. Once the information is out there, it’s out there forever. The public who sees these tweets is going to think this behavior is OK.”

Chad received a warning despite the fact that communicating during a trial is a misdemeanor in the state of California.

It’s the end of an era at ESPN as nationally syndicated sports radio talk show host Jim Rome is leaving the network at the end of the month and is taking his television show, Jim Rome is Burning, to CBS Sports Network, according to The Big Lead.

Rome’s contract was reportedly up at ESPN and he was presented with a multi-year offer to stay at the network. Prior to JRIB, Rome was the host of Talk2 on ESPN2 from 1993-1998.

“Jim has been a valuable part of the ESPN family for most of the last two decades. We wish him the best of luck in his new endeavor,” ESPN said in a statement.

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Magic Johnson‘s commute during the NBA season just got a whole lot easier.

ESPN’s Kia NBA Countdown show is moving to the network’s Los Angeles Production Center at L.A. LIVE. In previous years, the show originated from New York City and ESPN’s headquarters in lovely Bristol, Conn.

Joining Johnson this season are Michael Wilbon, Jon Barry and newcomer Chris Broussard. Gone from the mix are Stuart Scott and Hannah Storm, as the show won’t have a traditional host, according to the USA Today.

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With another exciting weekend of football right around the corner, I had to share this great new Monday Night Football commercial that targets the Latino community.

When the NFL returns to Los Angeles, it should use this commercial as an example on how to attract a wide and diverse fanbase.

If “So What Do You Do, Jay Mariotti” wasn’t enough for you, we have more from our exclusive interview with the former Around the Horn contributor and Venice resident.

In Part II, Jay Mariotti discusses in greater detail his relationship with Alison W., his departure from ESPN and what’s next for the opinionated sports columnist.

Did your legal troubles affect your relationship with your daughters? What did they initially think when they found out you were arrested?

The only call they allowed me to make from jail was to my oldest daughter. She kept her cool and she said, “Dad, this isn’t you.” They knew I was living out here now and they didn’t know who this woman was. It saddens me but to this day, the relationship is great. One is still in college at Syracuse. She’s overseas in London on an exchange program. The other one is working at McGraw-Hill. Great relationship and they understand everything. But they trust their dad.

Did they read the book?

Yeah. I told them it was coming. They knew a lot of the book would be about Chicago. This is only 10 chapters out of the 23. I think some of the bits and pieces might have shocked them, especially this last time around.

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Former Around the Horn contributor Jay Mariotti managed to avoid jail for the second time Tuesday when he pleaded no contest to stalking and assault charges.

The Los Angeles Times has the details on the plea deal for the Venice resident:

“Under the plea before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Dabney, all five counts — including three felonies — faced by Mariotti will be reduced to misdemeanors, officials said.

At a preliminary hearing in July, Mariotti was held to answer on charges that included felony stalking, corporal injury on a spouse or domestic partner, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order.

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