TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET 60-minute edition
of FSN's "National Sports Report" led with the Pepperdine
Univ.-IN Univ. men's college basketball game, followed by
Trail Blazers-Hawks. "NSR" had 5:25 of total NBA coverage.
Last night's 11:00pm ET 60-minute edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with Princeton-Duke Univ. Preseason NIT,
followed by Fairfield Univ.-Villanova Univ. Preseason NIT.
The first non-NCAA men's basketball report, at 2:15 into the
broadcast, was Jazz-Spurs. "SportsCenter" had 12:22 of
total NBA coverage. Last night's 11:00pm ET 30-minute
edition of CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" was pre-empted by
continuing coverage of Election 2000 (THE DAILY).
MSG DEADLINE LOOMS: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir notes
that MSG Network will decide by tomorrow whether to match
IMG's one-year, $52M offer to televise Yankees games next
year. Sandomir: "One reason to expect MSG to reject the
proposal -- or charge in court that it is an unfair
subterfuge -- is that it provides no guarantee of keeping
Yankee rights after 2001." But "one reason for MSG to
accept" the deal is "simple: it may be better to have the
Yankee games than to lose them" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/15).
BARKLEY ON THE BALL: Charles Barkley was a guest on the
"Late Show" with David Letterman last night. Barkley, on
76ers G Allen Iverson's rap CD: "I think most rap music
sucks. It's just a lot of noise. I don't care how powerful
you are, David Stern is the man." Barkley, on working at
TNT: "I got the greatest scam going in the world today. I
work two days a week on TNT and that's it. ... I play golf
seven days a week now and they pay me!" ("Late Show," CBS,
11/14). Meanwhile, Barkley speaks with Bob Raissman of the
N.Y. DAILY NEWS on the contracts and endorsement deals being
signed by the league's young players: "They get too much too
soon. And I blame David Stern and some of you guys in the
media. You can't manufacture superstars. After one or two
years you want to call a guy a superstar. I probably made
six or seven All-Star teams before anybody used the word
superstar about me" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/15).
ESPN LOOKING AHEAD WITH NASCAR: In Indianapolis, Robin
Miller reports that despite its final NASCAR race on Sunday,
ESPN, "providing it continues to receive proper credentials
and feeds, ... has no plans to phase out" NASCAR coverage.
"RPM 2Night" Senior Coordinating Producer Barry Sacks: "Our
plans are to cover it as aggressively as we're allowed. We
understand we won't be allowed to do our show inside Daytona
next year but we've already got a place picked outside the
track to do it" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 11/15).
NOTES: In Detroit, Mike O'Hara reports that retired
Lions RB Barry Sanders' Athletes Direct Web site, at
barrysandersdirect.com, "hit the Internet on Tuesday, with
very little new to offer." The site has the "standard fare
of opinions, comments, statistics and reminiscences"
(DETROIT NEWS, 11/15)....ESPN's Kenny Mayne said that while
ABC's "MNF" was "thought to be in some kind of rebuilding
year, its foundation is solid as ever," not because of
"who's calling the plays, it has to do with the play
itself." Mayne: "You'll recall the concern that Dennis
Miller's inclusion would detract from the game. He can
probably sleep at night, because even if Miller's lost some
people, the only way he could have really screwed up is to
have pulled the plug on the video feed" (ESPN, 11/14)....TNT
has begun pre-production on a movie about the early days of
"MNF" with actor John Turturro portraying the late Howard
Cosell. The film is an adaptation of the book "Monday Night
Mayhem" by Marc Gunther and Bill Carter. Gunther: "The story
is mostly about Cosell." Shooting on the film begins in
January (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, 11/20 issue)....FSN2 was
launched last weekend on Comcast cable systems in Ontario,
Simi Valley and Orange County, CA. The three systems reach
more than 186,000 HHs, meaning that FSN2 is now available in
3.1 million HHs in Southern CA and HI (THE DAILY). In CA,
Evan Tuchinsky noted FSN2 "still does not go to" San Diego,
HI or NV systems (Riverside PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 11/14).
