BILLBOARD's Gail Mitchell reported the NBA is using Kanye West's latest single, "Amazing," as the "musical backdrop" for its '09 playoffs campaign. In a new music video from NBA Entertainment, which premiered yesterday and was "released to fans online," highlights from past playoff games featuring Lakers G Kobe Bryant, Cavaliers F LeBron James and "other NBA players are sequenced against the pounding beat of the West track" (
BILLBOARD.com, 4/15).
COOL RECEPTION: YAHOO SPORTS' Chris Chase reported a trailer for "The Cooley Zone," a "web-based look at the life" of Redskins TE Chris Cooley, was "released on YouTube this week." The show is "supposed to debut this summer, but it's not exactly clear where." If producers "didn't use up all the good footage in the trailer, 'The Cooley Zone' has tremendous potential." But one person who "may not find it funny" is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, as in the trailer there is a "lot of cursing [and] boozing. Chase: "With a promise of 'behind-the-scenes Redskins action', it will be interesting to see if the NFL doesn't want fans entering 'The Cooley Zone'" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/15).
SECOND TO NONE: CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS' Ed Sherman wrote while the ESPN "mothership has a severe East Coast bias," one "won't hear that rap about ESPNChicago.com." ESPN wants the site to be a "one-stop shop for Chicago sports fans," and it has the "power to pull it off." Sherman wrote fans "can't underestimate the video component and ESPN's ability to deliver experts" like MLB analyst Peter Gammons or NFL analyst John Clayton "talking about Chicago teams." Sherman: "It would be foolish to bet against this project" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 4/15).
