“We would like to be a better partner for the Golf Channel than we’ve been. … What I’d like to be able to do is, at least once a month, put our tour on network TV on the weekend and bring more of those casual fans back to the Golf Channel” – LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, on expanding the tour’s exposure (“Morning Drive,” Golf Channel, 8/4).
“I was constantly thinking and reading and learning, thinking about business, … but never really actually letting the rubber hit the road. … But when the Achilles happened, I was like, ‘I need to do something’” – Lakers G Kobe Bryant, on how what prodded him to partner with China-based Alibaba Group (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 8/4).
“When these guys go over to these Asian countries where they’re not there all the time and they do their unveiling of their Nike stuff or whatever it is, or their adidas shoe, it’s a monstrous thing. Kobe Bryant might be bigger there than he is here in Los Angeles” – FS1’s Peter Schrager, on Kobe Bryant’s annual Nike trip to China (“Fox Sports Live: Countdown,” FS1, 8/4).
