Saying that he lost his joy for the job, HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg asked the network to let him out of his contract five months before it was due to expire. In particular, Greenburg cited his dealings with the boxing community as a reason why he started dreading coming to work after 33 years with the network. A celebrated producer of quality documentaries and sports reality shows, Greenburg said boxing had started taking up about 70% of his job. He spent the past six months considering making the move. "Boxing just got to me," Greenburg told THE DAILY. "Every fight is its own rights negotiation. It really starts to tax on you." He complained that the boxing press, in particular, was too harsh and publicly second-guessed every decision that he made. "I hated that," Greenburg said. "That's part of the process that's so distasteful. The boxing Internet space is such a nasty venue for people that are mean-spirited." In May, for example, a boxing publication prematurely wrote that Greenburg was fired. He was especially criticized this spring when HBO's rival, Showtime, picked up the rights to the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout. He dismissed reports over the weekend that he was fired for losing big-money matches like that to Showtime. "Showtime has always been a competitor. They've never gotten to the place of HBO Sports. They know that."
LOOKING TO GET INTO PRODUCTION AREA: Greenburg will stay with HBO for the next couple of weeks -- "Nobody's kicking me out," he said -- and eventually plans to get back into the production part of the business. He plans to talk with networks about documentary ideas that he wants to develop. "I'm going to start dealing with companies for production and consulting work as early as this week," he said. "I'm going to look at companies and see if I can develop production deals. I'll see where that takes me." The resignation ends a prolific 33-year career with HBO Sports. Greenburg started as a production assistant in ‘78, eventually getting promoted to executive producer in ‘85 and president in ‘00. During his time at HBO, Greenburg won 51 Sports Emmys and eight Peabody awards. He was especially proud of HBO's ‘10 performance, when his "Hard Knocks" series with the NFL Jets became so popular; his "24/7" series expanded into the NHL with the Penguins and Capitals; and his documentaries produced "Magic & Bird." Greenburg also developed "Real Sports." "Boxing took me away from the things I love to do," Greenburg said. "In many peoples' minds, HBO Sports is boxing. That's an important legacy. But I think my legacy to HBO will be more defined by documentaries, news programming and reality shows" (John Ourand, THE DAILY).
MIXED LEGACY: ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reported no replacement for Greenburg has been announced, although HBO co-President Michael Lombardo "is likely to oversee the department temporarily until a permanent replacement is hired." Lombardo has been "directly involved in some of the network's recent boxing decisions." Greenburg's "downfall can be traced in large part to HBO losing Manny Pacquiao," and one of the reasons Top Rank Chair Bob Arum "said he made the deal with Showtime and its sister network, CBS, was because his relationship with Greenburg has badly deteriorated over the past few years." Greenburg had not told either Lombardo or fellow HBO co-President Richard Plepler "that there was a strong possibility that the network could lose Pacquiao until it was too late" (ESPN.com, 7/17). YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole noted Greenburg "had been under fire from boxing promoters ... as well as many critics for what was perceived to be a poor track record of buying fights and showing favoritism to certain promoters and managers" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/17). However, Greenburg "cited HBO's productions of Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya's bouts as having helped breathe life into boxing." Greenburg: "I love the sport; I grew up in it. We made the sport relevant when people thought it was dying" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/18).
