Astros Owner Jim Crane this week said that U.S. Bankruptcy judge Marvin Isgur "isn’t going to give" CSN Houston a "third strike when it comes to reorganization delays." In Houston, David Barron noted Isgur last week "granted attorneys for the Astros-Rockets-Comcast partnership a second extension, through Aug. 7, to prepare a plan of reorganization for the financially troubled network." Crane: "Hopefully when we go back there’ll be some activity because he’s (Isgur) not going to give us any more extensions" (CHRON.com, 7/8).
OIL MONEY: The Oilers have reached a multiyear extension with Corus Entertainment that will keep the company as the exclusive radio-rights holder of the team. The deal also will keep CHED-AM as the flagship station of all Oilers radio broadcasts and the home to "Oilers Now" with Bob Stauffer through '20. CHED-AM has been the home of Oilers radio broadcasts since '95. The broadcast team of Stauffer and Jack Michaels will return (Oilers).
OFFSEASON IS THE ONSEASON: GRANTLAND's Bryan Curtis wrote the last five offseasons in the NBA have made league insiders "indispensable." League insiders in recent years have reported on Heat F LeBron James’s free agency; Rockets G James Harden's trade; the "Dwight Howard sweepstakes;" and now, moves for James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, and Jason Kidd. Combine that with an "uptick in interest in the league and it’s safe to say the NBA writer is a bigger star vis-à-vis his peers than he has ever been in the history of sportswriting." Everyone "is a national basketball writer" in this era. The "old penalty for getting beat on a story was that your editor called." The "new penalty is that your Twitter followers remind" you that Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN's Marc Stein, USA Today's Sam Amick, and the "rest are outhustling you" (GRANTLAND.com, 7/7).
TIGERS' LAIR: In Baton Rouge, Ross Dellenger notes Cox Sports Television is starting "LSU Gameday Live," which will precede all 12 of LSU's football games and will air each Saturday at 11:00am CT. CST Marketing & Promotions Manager Chris Jackson: "That’s the feel we want -- ESPN GameDay but an LSU version. A lot of Xs and Os. A lot of behind the scenes access you don’t ever see. Pretty much all access" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 7/9).
