EVERY once in a while, ESPN provides a wink and a clue as to what it would be like if its primary purpose was to pay attention to sports as opposed to promoting all things Disney.
Thursday night “SportsCenter” co-anchor John Buccigross, over clips of that night’s Cavs-Wizards — video that included LeBron James making a 3-pointer — noted, “LeBron’s not really a good 3-point shooter, but he appears to be because we always show him making them.”
Fabulous!
At 34 percent, James isn’t in the top 100 among NBA 3-point shooters. But only a genuine sports fan would appreciate such info. Those viewers were dismissed or discounted by ESPN 14 years ago, when Disney took over.
Anyway, here’s hoping that nothing bad happens to Buccigross. Here’s hoping that an intelligent take on matters doesn’t cost him.
*
Name a tradition that money can’t buy.
Interesting, that both Louisville and Stanford made tonight’s women’s Final Four. Louisville is nicknamed the Cardinals, for the bird, and Stanford’s the Cardinal, for the color. Naturally, both teams for years have worn red and white.
Recently, though, both teams have bowed to a more modern tradition, adding a black uniform. The Harvard Crimson, Duke Blue Devils, St. John’s Red Storm and Rutgers Scarlet Knights also now wear black uniforms.
Speaking of modern traditions, tonight’s first game on ESPN, Louisville-Oklahoma, will begin at 7. UConn-Stanford will start sometime after 9 p.m. (Hollerin’ Mike Patrick, with the play-by-play).
And the MLB season opener, Braves at Phillies, will be tonight, first pitch sometime after 8 on (and for ESPN2). The forecast for Philadelphia this afternoon is 63 and sunny, roughly 20 degrees colder at night.
And the Mets currently are holding an online ticket auction for their “Opening Day,” which is actually a Monday night game. Minimum opening bid per ticket ranged from $525 to a low of $210. Charming.
Friday, during SNY’s open to Red Sox-Mets, Ron Darling said this about Citi Field: “This is such a gift to the fans of the Mets.” Yeah, a gift.
*
By the time he’s done serving as Craig Carton‘s Beavis, Boomer Esiason also will be known as a professional creep.
Last week on WFAN, Esiason told a caller that his Jets days were diminished greatly because he was coached by, ugh, Rich Kotite.
But in Esiason’s three non-winning seasons with the Jets, Kotite was his coach only in 1995, when in 12 games, Esiason threw 15 interceptions. Of course, losses, like interceptions, rarely are one person’s fault.
That’s the point. Not once did Kotite ever publicly blame Esiason or any player for the Jets’ miseries. He always accepted the blame. And on those rare days when the Jets won, he gave all the credit to his players.
Regardless, Esiason should stick to the doo-doo, pee-pee and crotch-talk with Carton. Their audience can’t be old enough to remember when Esiason played.
*
Why is it that so many folks who should be easy to root for make it so difficult?
You’d think that a guy as small and as bold and as talented as Nate Robinson would be among the easiest Knicks to root for in the pathetic Cablevision Era. But Robinson’s mindless, me-first conduct makes that impossible.
In Jozy Altidore, the U.S. National Soccer Team has a 19-year-old striker with enormous talent, the kind that could last two World Cups. In Wednesday’s qualifier over Trinidad & Tobago, seen on ESPN2, Altidore scored all three goals, all off feeds — two of them brilliant — from Landon Donovan.
Yet, after all three, Altidore just wanted to celebrate and demonstrate on behalf of himself; you would have thought he scored all three all by himself. The ESPN commentators, of course, didn’t mention that.
*
ESPN is now as predictable as a hangover, and nearly as nauseating.
Thursday, when the Jay Cutler-to-the-Bears story broke, ESPN didn’t take credit for the scoop, nor could it — not right away.
But those conditioned by ESPN’s ways and means knew that soon ESPN would toss in some nonsense that could cause blurring in the minds of fools. Thus the story soon became “ESPN’s John Clayton confirms” the Cutler trade story.
Two days earlier, after a Memphis newspaper broke the John Calipari-to-Kentucky story, ESPN soon followed with an “ESPN’s Dick Vitale confirms” the story.
That’s what ESPN does. And if not for so many newspaper columnists also being on ESPN’s payroll, ESPN would take a beating for that, among many other things.
ESPN last week did have an original report. An ESPN radio affiliate was given credit for the scoop that Southern Cal basketball coach Tim Floyd was leaving to coach Arizona. That scoop turned up wrong.