BIG changes coming, nationally and locally.
Cablevision/Madison Square Garden this week – probably today – will name longtime HBO Sports president Seth Abraham to its newly-created position of Chief Operating Officer, according to highly-placed sources.
Abraham’s new position will place him second, behind president Dave Checketts, in The Garden’s hierarchy.
Abraham, 22 years with HBO and largely responsible for its
growth as a national cable sports presence, is expected to oversee all entertainment, TV and sports operations within The Garden, with the exception of the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty.
Ross Greenburg, VP and executive producer of HBO Sports and another force behind the network’s rise as a sports programmer, likely will ascend to Abraham’s vacated throne at HBO.
An MSG spokesperson yesterday declined comment. HBO did not return calls.
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IT’S oddly fitting that one of Bobby Knight’s lesser sins – real and alleged – now serves as the final straw. But it was inevitable, given that Knight just didn’t get it, even if Indiana U., pretended that this time, as opposed to the last five or six times, he saw the light.
I don’t know exactly what happened in this latest and final episode. Both sides – the plaintive IU freshman and Coach Knight (or just plain “Knight,” to some) – tell equally compelling and dubious tales.
But you knew the end was nearing as Knight seemed to be working out of a shirt drawer marked, “Special Occasions.”
Had you noticed that every time Knight stood in front of TV cameras to respond to complaints about his comportment, of late, he never wore one of his regular TV shirts, the ones with the logo of the sneaker company he endorses prominently displayed? Lately, he always seemed to manage to find a generic, logo-less shirt whenever he was facing public heat. Or returning it.
Could it be that this was another case of Knight’s twisted sense of respect and allegiance?
Regardless, Knight’s closing hassle as IU coach reinforces a previously held conclusion:
No matter how disrespectful this freshman was – and he seems to have been less innocent than the undergrad who doesn’t look for the open man coming off of a screen – Bobby Knight, Coach Knight or just plain Knight demanded unconditional respect in public, while often giving none in exchange. And he demanded discipline from everyone except himself.
As the end neared, he left us with little room for sympathy. Only with the arrival of the end could he become a sympathetic figure. That was the only way it could be. Those, after all, were his terms.
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NICE work from CBS yesterday after the Raiders’ Regan Upshaw was flagged for a brainless and dangerous late hit to the knees of Colt QB Peyton Manning.
After revisiting the foul in a replay, CBS was ready with tape of Upshaw, last week, wiping out Charger QB Ryan Leaf with a late hit, a foul that brought Upshaw a $7,000 fine.
Still, bad football productions continue to freshen up the same old mistakes, especially those of inattentiveness.
Marshall-Michigan St., on ESPN, Saturday, was about over. MSU had the ball and a 10-point lead with under three minutes left. It might’ve chosen to kill the clock, but instead drove for a TD and a 17-point lead.
Marshall then used its remaining timeouts, apparently aggravating MSU Coach Bobby Williams, before scoring a TD on the game’s final play.
As this unfolded, ESPN’s Steve Levy noted the tension and suggested that it will be interesting to see how/if the two head coaches greet each other at game’s end. And that was why many viewers stuck around.
But when the game ended, ESPN went to a closeup of MSU running back T.J. Duckett, then to some taped highlights, before throwing it to golf. There was never even a clue that anyone in the truck was paying attention to Levy or to what had happened in the game’s final minutes.
Incidentally, ESPN’s partner network, ABC, must not have paid attention to the end of Marshall-MSU, either. ABC’s college football studio show gave the game’s full-screen (plus details) final as 34-17. It was 34-24.
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TIGERMANIA continues to have its silly, gushy side.
Saturday, playing in the Canadian Open, Tiger Woods beaned a teenage spectator with a pushed shot. He checked the kid out, they exchanged some pleasant words, then Tiger flipped the kid a make-nice souvenir ball.
The commentators on ESPN were absolutely overcome by this act of kindness. This, too, we were told, is why Tiger’s special. One watching golf for the first time would’ve thought that such an act by Woods was well above and even further beyond, that all other pro golfers don’t much care if they nearly kill someone.
However, most pros, having nailed someone in the gallery, show similar concern, then make nice in a similar manner.
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HBO’s “Real Sports,” tomorrow night at 10, includes a segment on sports-related charity fraud, focusing on the dubious application of donations made to Sammy Sosa’s Miami-based foundation.
Some good things happen to the Mets in September. Bob Murphy was born on Sept. 19, 76 years ago. Don’t forget to send a card … Lookalikes: Reader Alan Karr submits ESPN’s Lee Corso and Mel Brooks.
Because nothing on TV can be what it is – these days it always has to be something else, in addition – HBO’s “Inside the NFL,” in addition to its weekly picks from its panelists, now addresses those of CNN/SI’s NFL show panel. HBO, CNN and Sports Illustrated are all owned by Time-Warner. So much for HBO being commercial-free.
What’s all this media shock and fuss over last week’s MTV Video Awards show turning into a softcore porn fest? If the media would stop embracing the WWF for its popularity and begin to take some hard looks at why it’s popular – especially among male children – Thursday’s MTV show would’ve seemed like “Sesame Street.”
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WHAT happened to the original intent of the NFL’s replay rule? Remember how it was instituted only as a means of reversing egregiously wrong calls?
Another absurd application of the rule was in full view, yesterday, when, with 1:18 left in the first half of Giants-Eagles, play was stopped for over three minutes by a replay official in order to take a microscopic look at whether a receiver’s knee had touched before picking up a couple of more yards.
Neither team seemed to even know what was being reviewed, and the game, which never should’ve been stopped in the first place, resumed after a lengthy delay to review (and uphold) the kind of play that technically can be reviewed after every whistle – if someone’s in that kind of mood.