THE DAILY each Friday offers our take on the performances over the past week of people and entities in sports business. Here are this week's newsmakers:
WIN: TURNER SPORTS -- TNT gets a nice finish to its NBA coverage this season with record-setting ratings for the Heat-Bulls Eastern Conference Finals. Game One of the series delivers TNT the largest cable audience ever for an NBA game, while Game Three lands the runner-up spot. The record playoff numbers definitely are icing on the cake for the net after its highest-rated and most-viewed regular season in 27 years of NBA telecasts.
LOSE: TRAIL BLAZERS -- The revolving door of GMs continues in Portland this week with the firing of RICH CHO after just 10 months on the job. Cho's exit comes one year after his predecessor, KEVIN PRITCHARD, was let go on draft night, which leads many to believe there is a serious, systemic problem with the franchise. With Owner PAUL ALLEN keeping such tight reins on the Blazers, any future GM candidate is going to have to think twice about the desirability of the job before jumping into what clearly has become a messy front office.
DRAW: FRED WILPON -- The extensive profile on the Mets owner in The New Yorker tells a terrific story of his rise to the King of Queens. Unfortunately, Wilpon made a few regrettable remarks about his star players to the magazine, erasing any good PR from the article. After what has been a tough few years for the Mets, Wilpon created even more headlines mid-week when he mentioned the team could lose as much as $70M this season. All is not lost, however, as the team is set to land a much-needed cash infusion from DAVID EINHORN, all without giving up control of the ballclub or a stake in the highly coveted SportsNet N.Y.
