EBERSOL ANGRILY DEFENDS "NBA ON NBC'S" NON- COVERAGE OF LEWIS

     NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol defended the network's
decision not to mention the Wall Street Journal story on the late
Reggie Lewis, which suggested that Lewis' heart condition may
have been caused by cocaine abuse.  Ebersol says the article was
"absolutely wholly lacking in substantiation, unbelievably
unfair.  I'm totally embarrassed for them.  It was really wrong -
- disgraceful.  And you don't cavalierly throw it on the air,
saying, 'Here's a story someone wrote this week.'  Our power in
television is enormous.  We shouldn't abuse it."  Ebersol is
"incredulous, in part because he wonders how something could have
gone unnoticed by those who cover the NBA," a point N.Y. Post
columnist Peter Vecsey made on WFAN yesterday  (Michael Hiestand,
USA TODAY, 3/15).  See THE DAILY, 3/14.