My Weekend

I was in Cleveland this weekend to broadcast the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers for ESPN TV. For those of you young folks in
Seattle who may not know those are NBA teams. The Pistons now feature Allen Iverson. Traded after 4 games from Denver to Detroit for the much beloved and respected Chancey Billups. Both athletes have been around awhile. Billups shares the ball and has a few more years on his contract. Iverson does not share and has only a few more months on his contract. Detroit’s respected GM Joe Dumars has a plan for the future. And that future won’t include Iverson. Like everyone else the Pistons are positioning for the 2010 crop of free agents. Guys like LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh so forth. The problem is that free agents who stay home get a guaranteed 6 year deal rather than 5 and get 10.5% increases rather than 8.5%. That’s not a problem for the athlete it’s a no brainer…you stay home. Unless New York City is calling. Broadway would be a great place for a showman like LeBron James. Frankly, the rest of the league would benefit if he were to move on to the Knicks in 2010. Why? All those eyes in the northeast watching television. I’m not sure what Cleveland fans would watch if he moved on.

The game was a laugher. Cleveland put 67 points on them in the first half. This is the part of the broadcast that television producers are ready for. Pie graphs,charts,childhood stories,a text message that a player sent to a coach, live wired coaches and of course plenty of story telling from me and my partner Doris Burke. Doris is a terrific talent. As far as I know the only female doing analysis of a mens pro sport on national tv. Oh and did I mention we are on directly opposite the Academy Awards? The Burke family and Calabro families may have been the only folks in America watching. Doris gave out her Stanley Awards named after her uncle. LeBron won Best Actor although I suggested it should have been Manu Ginobili. He has a real flair for reacting to any slight contact on the floor. There is a measure of drama to the sport.