A bidder paid $28,000 to have lunch with NBA Commissioner ADAM SILVER, "exceeding the online charity auction’s estimate by $3,000." Charitybuzz PR & Social Media Manager MERYL SCHRANK said that the winner and final bid "weren’t immediately identified by the website," which conducted the auction. Silver wrote in an email, "We better serve lobster." The auction was "conducted on behalf of the Ad Council," at which NBA Exec VP/Social Responsibility & Player Programs KATHY BEHRENS is a director (BLOOMBERG.com, 5/22).
HAWAIIAN PUNCH: Deadspin on Thursday reported that the Univ. of Hawaii athletics department "could not verify" that Clippers interim CEO DICK PARSONS played basketball there. NBA Exec VP/Communications MIKE BASS said that Parsons "had played on Hawaii’s freshman team" in the '64-65 season. Parsons spokesperson ED ADLER in an email wrote Parsons "has never said that he played varsity, that he lettered, or that he was a good player." He added that Parsons had "never claimed on his résumé to have played varsity basketball or to have played for four years" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/23).
OLLIE, OLLIE OXEN FREE: UConn men's basketball coach KEVIN OLLIE "has a new five-year contract." He will make $2.8M in the first year, then $2.9M, $3M, $3.1M and $3.2M. He will also "earn a $200,000 retention fee each year, so if he stays for the length of the contract, he is guaranteed" $16M (HARTFORD COURANT, 5/23). In Hartford, Jeff Jacobs writes the extension is a "wise deal" struck by UConn AD WARDE MANUEL, who "might be the biggest winner of all in this." Ollie "got what the market demanded" and is now "ninth on the list of college coaches" (HARTFORD COURANT, 5/23).
LOBBYISTS AT WORK: The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has "singed with Cornerstone Government Affairs to lobby for issues related to agriculture, animals and transportation." PRCA is "also signed with Gattis Consulting, where it spent $15,000 on lobbying" in Q1 (POLITICO.com, 5/22)....Comcast is "waging a campaign of shock and awe for its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable by fielding one of the biggest lobbying teams ever seen" in DC. The company "has added seven lobbying firms to its roster since first proposing the deal earlier this year" (THEHILL.com, 5/22).
NAMES: The NBA on Thursday launched five flash mobs to promote the #NBAPlayoffs. The flash mobs took place in the four Conference Finals cities and N.Y. (
THE DAILY)....Former Northern Kentucky AD
SCOTT EATON, who “admitted last month that he stole $311,215” from the school, has “agreed to serve up to 10 years in prison” (
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 5/23)….Celebrities attending Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 include actor
ICE-T, Colts QB
ANDREW LUCK, actress
FLORENCE HENDERSON, singers
LEANN RIMES and
MARTINA MCBRIDE, comedian
JEFF ROSS and rock band
LIVE (
INDYSTAR.com, 5/23)….Two days after “getting hit in the head by a foul ball, a young Braves fan notified the Braves Thursday that he was home from the hospital and feeling much better” (
AJC.com, 5/22)….Late Nike co-Founder
BILL BOWERMAN was among 15 people Wednesday inducted into the National Investors HOF (
OREGONLIVE.com, 5/22)….Fifteen-year-old
MATT NADEL, the “youngest pro blogger on MLB.com,” is working on his first book, “
AMAZING AARON TO ZERO ZIPPERS: AN INTRODUCTION TO BASEBALL HISTORY” (
SI, 5/26 issue)….Padres Dir of Scouting
BILLY GASPARINO this week was profiled in the N.Y. Times’ The Upshot real estate feature. Gasparino in ’10 bought a house “less than a mile from the beach” in the Venice neighborhood of L.A. for $810,000. Gasparino and his wife,
JENNA, now are selling it for $1.35M, a 67% gain (
N.Y. TIMES, 5/22)….Orioles Exec VP/Baseball Operations
DAN DUQUETTE’s wife,
AMY, gave birth to
COLT LEBLANC DUQUETTE on Thursday morning (
TWITTER.com, 5/22)....Fox Sports will honor the U.S. Military this Memorial Day weekend with a series of vignettes across a variety of Fox Sports networks, including FS1 and its RSNs (
Fox).
