MINOR COVERAGE: Celtics G Greg Minor, on his son,
Khalid, featured on SI's cover to highlight a story on pro
athletes having children out-of-wedlock: "It's horrifying.
What's he going to feel like 15 years from now?" (BOSTON
GLOBE, 5/9). Len Elmore, attorney/ESPN basketball analyst,
was the Guest Columnist in Sunday's N.Y. DAILY NEWS and
wrote on the paternity issue. Elmore: "I am particularly
frustrated with African-American male athletes who, despite
their lives of privilege, fail to understand and heed the
mistakes of the past while continuing to repeat them. ...
They bear a greater responsibility to be role models, not to
our children, but their own" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 5/10).
NOTES: In L.A., Century Communications began carrying
Fox Sports West 2 on most of its cable systems in the
evenings and on weekends, leading to a full-scale launch on
July 15. The move leaves Comcast, which mainly serves
Orange County, as the only "major holdout" not to carry FSW
2 (L.A. TIMES, 5/8)....In Toronto, William Houston wrote
that while "Hockey Night In Canada" relies heavily on
tradition, the show "arguably, needs a new star." Houston
added that its declining ratings "may also be attributable
to the show's predictability. ... To reach new viewers, the
show needs fresh ideas" (GLOBE & MAIL, 5/9)....ESPN has
dropped the X-Venture outdoor event from its X Games.
Research showed that the X-Venture earned 20% lower ratings
than other events (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 5/9)....In N.Y.,
Maria Ricapito profiled SLAM magazine and called the title,
with a circulation of 192,000, "the People magazine of
basketball." SLAM Dir of Advertising & Promotion Ronnie
Zeidel: "We're not the hoop magazine for the 45-year-old
couch potato. The most important thing to these kids is
basketball, fashion and girls -- in that order" (N.Y. TIMES,
5/10)....With ESPN's "SportsCenter" approaching its 20,000th
broadcast, Phil Mushnick questioned some of the network's
recent research and statistics and wrote, "Too many
SportsCenter staffers, past and current, in front of the
camera and behind the scenes, don't know what the heck
they're talking about. ... And these days, more time is
spent writing one-liners and hunting for same-day clips of
athletes who showed off for the TV cameras so they might be
seen on SportsCenter" (N.Y. POST, 5/10)...."The SportsJerks
NBA Tour," a six-part series on Comedy Central, premiered
Saturday. Co-Producer Danny DeVito said that "SportsJerks"
could evolve into a regular series in which its two
characters follow other sports (N.Y. POST, 5/9).
