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This article from Sports Illustrated highlights the rise of Victor Wembanyama, a 7'4" teenager who has entered the NBA with immense fanfare and high expectations. Wembanyama has been compared to basketball greats like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and he has already shown his ability to live up to the hype. As a modern big man, Wembanyama possesses a unique skill set that includes three-point shooting, playmaking, and dominant performances in the paint. He is currently playing for the San Antonio Spurs, where he is being developed under the guidance of coach Gregg Popovich and former player Manu Ginóbili. The article emphasizes that while Wembanyama has already achieved early success, the Spurs are focused on his long-term development and are allowing him to learn and grow through his mistakes. Wembanyama himself is determined to surpass conventional expectations and make his own mark in the NBA. [Extracted from the article]

I don't know, maybe it's because his pretend Lions are so unbeatable, but Ollie seems to have a far better handle on the real Lions losing than I do. I remember a few years ago, Ollie, my wife, Lizzy, and I took her dad, Kevin, out to a pizza dinner for the old man's birthday, and in the car on the way over I was telling Kevin about how wild a Lions fan Ollie had become I - way more than me, i I explained, I he's really kind of out of control - i and then we parked the car and got out and I put on my striped blue Detroit Lions winter hat and Ollie put on his striped blue Detroit Lions winter hat, and Kevin looked at us both and said, "Wait a second, here! FATHERS, SONS AND SPORTS B My 7-year-old son and I are in New Jersey, and we're about to witness a miracle. b It is a crisp December day, the sky is Honolulu blue and the Detroit Lions are going to win the game. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the coverage of sports events in mass media in 2017, and it mentions former television industry executive Tom Spock, sports broadcasting-related rights fees, and the popularity of sports viewing on mobile devices such as smartphones. Online streaming television services are examined, along with social media, cable television bundles featuring à la carte (pay-only-for-what-you-watch) pricing, and over-the-top (OTT) programming.

The article discusses various changes involving the ways that sporting events and games are broadcast and consumed as of 2016, and it mentions the potential use of virtual reality equipment in the television viewing process, as well as the revenue generated by athletic events and leagues such as the National Football League and college football in America. Streaming television services such as Roku Inc. are examined, along with the cable television industry and on-demand viewing of sports.

The article examines the history of negotiations leading up to the May 2, 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Particular attention is given to how both sides debated over topics such as drug testing, the division of revenue, and the broadcasting rights for the fight.

The article focuses on sportscaster Van Earl Wright. Wright's celebrity as a sportscaster for the cable television network Cable News Network (CNN) in the early 1990s due to his enthusiastic and idiosyncratic announcing style is discussed. Wright's 2207 decision to leave sportscasting for work at a drug rehabilitation facility is examined. His subsequent unemployment and return to sportscasting in 2013 Atlanta, Georgia for broadcasts of high school football games are considered.

The article presents a profile of sportscaster Joe Buck of the Fox Broadcasting television network. Buck's relationship with his late father Jack, also a noted sportscaster and the impact the impression of nepotism had on his subsequent career are considered. Buck's attitude towards sports, which he views as part of a job he enjoys rather than a dominant force in his life, is examined.

The article examines sports-related developments in mass media in 2011. Noteworthy mass media products on sports or unusual use of media by athletes are considered. Topics discussed include the baseball fiction "The Art of Fielding," by Chad Harbach, the end of the television program "Friday Night Lights" and the prime time broadcast of mixed martial arts competition by Fox Broadcasting.

The article discusses the history of the Indianapolis 500 automobile race from 1940-1949, focusing on its revival from 1946-1949 after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway racetrack was closed from 1942-1945 during World War II. The purchase of the racetrack by Tony Hulman Jr. and his management of the event are discussed. The first television broadcast of the event in 1949 is noted. A list of winning drivers in the decade and various statistics from the event are offered.

The article examines the U.S. national soccer team and its performance in the 2010 World Cup tournament. The team's 2-1 overtime loss to Ghana in the first round of elimination play is discussed. The high television ratings for broadcasts of the team's games in the tournament are examined. Speculation is offered on whether coach Bob Bradley will continue in that position, and as to whether the U.S. team will continue to improve in international play.

The author offers opinions on the Masters golf tournament. The tournament's reputation as one of golf's most traditional events is said to contrast with the actions of the Augusta National golf club in managing the event. It is noted that the club's members have approved frequent changes to the Masters, involving the design of the golf course, the standards for eligibility for competitors and the television broadcasting of the tournament.

The article presents an overview of surprise finishes and dramatic moments which have been seen in games in the 2010 National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, which is also known as March Madness. In the article the author offers opinions on the tournament and its future, and on teams and players that are competing in the tournament. A discussion of the tournament's possible expansion and of the end of its 11 year, $6 billion television contract with the television network CBS is presented.

The article focuses on sportscasters Al Michael and Bob Costas. The two men have won a combined 26 Emmy Awards and are among the best-known persons in their profession. They are both studio hosts for the NBC Television Network in its broadcast of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. Each man expresses a deep enthusiasm for that assignment.

The article focuses on the 1979 Daytona 500 NASCAR stock car race. The race is considered one of the major events in the growth of NASCAR. A blizzard affecting much of the U.S. led to high ratings for the television broadcast of the event on the CBS Television Network. A final lap accident between leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough resulted in a victory for Richard Petty and a fist fight between Yarborough and Allison's brother Bobby, shown live on the broadcast.

The article discusses John Skipper, the president of the ESPN Inc. sports and entertainment firm, and it mentions skipper's Achilles tendon injury, sports commissioners, and expected changes to the sports television model in 2016. Employee layoffs at ESPN Inc. are mentioned, along with the departure of television sports personalities such as Bill Simmons and Colin Cowherd from ESPN Inc. Business success and corporate revenue are examined, along with parent company Walt Disney Co.

The article discusses the 2008 season of the Major League Baseball team the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies haven't won a World Series since 1980 and were the only team in the National League to have more losses than the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 2008 World Series had issues with a game running past 1am, bad weather, and bad television ratings. However, the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays in 4 of the 5 games.

The article examines the 1958 National Football League (NFL) championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. The Colts won the game 23-17 in the first overtime contest in the league's history. The game is commonly credited with sparking pro football's enormous growth in popularity, especially on television, that began in the 1960s. The roles of Colts players John Unitas and Raymond Berry are described.

This article discusses how Golf Channel has stunned the sports world in January 2006 by announcing a 15 year contract to become the exclusive cable home of the Professional Golfer's Association of America (PGA) Tour. The channel will provide early round telecasts of every tournament and full coverage of 13 events. Current Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) analyst Nick Faldo was wooed by Golf Channel in a multi-million dollar deal to lead Golf Channel's coverage. INSET: Truth and Rumors.

The article examines the popularity of the National Football League (NFL) player draft. The incongruity of a major sports events with little action is cited. Retired NFL executive Ernie Accorsi describes it as the league's second biggest event behind only the Super Bowl. Potential draftee Dwayne Jarrett, ESPN producer Jay Rothman, draft forecaster Mel Kiper, and fans are presented preparing for the event.

This article presents the author's memories and thoughts on the evolution of football in America, and the Super Bowl in particular. He feels the sport was ideally suited to the fast-paced consumerism of the post-war years, and of the emerging medium of television. He recalls that it was brash and charismatic Joe Namath who brought the Super Bowl to the level of national obsession.

This article discusses the upcoming World Baseball Classic and Major League Baseball's (MLB) marketing strategy. With U.S. baseball approaching a saturation point, the MLB is seeking expansion into new global markets and the cultivation of new fans. The starting times and the schedule have been set, not with the U.S.audience in mind, but with other countries like baseball-mad Japan given top consideration. INSET: Handicapping The Top Eight.

Presents a list of upcoming sporting events and sports-related programs on television including a Major League Baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox, the Professional Bull Riders Nassau Open, and a UEFA Champions League Soccer match between Chelsea and Liverpool; Others.

This article discusses the growing popularity of lacrosse in the United States. Twenty years ago lacrosse--in shorthand, lax--existed as a niche sport, popular in and around Baltimore and parts of New York State and New England, with most of the top players developed on boarding school campuses. Now the number of youth-league players in the U.S. aged 15 and under is estimated to be 186,000, more than twice what it was in 2001. The explosion is similar at the high school level, where no other team sport has anything close to lacrosse's rate of growth. Two African-American midfielders, Johns Hopkins's Kyle Harrison and Ohio State's Regina Oliver, are among this season's best college players, a striking development in a sport long associated with pedigreed preppies. Equipment sales are rising by at least 10% annually, and a 2004 survey of 400 sports-industry executives identified lacrosse as the pro niche sport most likely to bust out. The game is even penetrating the consciousness of Joe Fan. While in 2002 you could have found precisely three nationally televised lacrosse games, all collegiate, on network and cable, this year NBC has already aired the All-Star Game of the indoor National Lacrosse League and will cover the NLL Champion's Cup final on May 14, 2005; the just-launched network ESPNU will add 10 regular-season games to ESPN's NCAA championship coverage; over the summer ESPN2 plans to air a game of the week from Major League Lacrosse, the outdoor pro league, for 12 weeks; and cable newcomer CSTV is airing 22 college games, men's and women's, in all divisions. Notably, lacrosse has broken out of the East and planted its flag all over the country. INSETS: The New Breed;Warrior Culture.

This article previews a list of the top 25 sports bars in the United States according to "Sports Illustrated." Today there exist multistory Shangri-las of sport, cavernous, cacophonous places that hum with televisions of all kind. To watch a game at one of these sports theme parks is to have, in the words of John Pierce, who oversees the marketing of the ESPN Zones for Disney Regional Entertainment, "an immersive sports dining experience." On a recent NFL playoff Saturday at the Baltimore ESPN Zone, the flagship location which opened in 1998 and serves a half million customers a year, fans were gathered at tables and booths and in big cushy recliners--Recliners! At a freakin' bar!--staring up at a curved 16-foot-by-13-foot screen like so many teenagers parked at a drive-in. If that weren't enough stimulation, one flight up, 10,000 square feet of sports video games buzzed and blinked. Is this what sports bars are about: roving packs of tourists, de facto day care and an in-house gift shop, all in a space so large and amorphous that at any given time it takes 200 employees to run the place? Can it be a sports bar when there's such a bewildering array of visual and aural experiences that spontaneous conversation is all but impossible? In sum, can a sports bar be a place where nobody knows your name and, what's more, likely never will? Undoubtedly, people will continue to flock to the megabars, which will continue to multiply. And this is a good thing--such places fill a niche and provide an "event" atmosphere. But at the same time, there will always be more intimate places, rich with character; they may just be harder to find amid all the blinking neon lights. At its best, a sports bar is like a petri dish. You put all these people together, you put the games on, and you see what happens.

This article presents reactions to the shift of college football games from Saturdays to any day of the week, in order to accommodate television coverage. Last week, for the second time this season, ESPN aired games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. How does it feel to go a month without playing on a Saturday (Louisville)? What's it like to suit up on three Tuesdays (Toledo)? How does it feel to miss two days of school on the road, then arrive back on campus at 5 a.m., sore and bleary-eyed, to be told by your coaches that you'd better make it to all your classes that day if you know what's good for you? To find the answers to these and other questions, we embarked on a four-day, four-game college football odyssey. Nov. 9: Toledo at Northern Illinois. "On the one hand," Northern Illinois student Aaris Berry complains, while tailgating with fellow members of Sigma Alpha Mu, "we've got the university president taking out an ad in the school paper, telling us the team needs us to be at the game. On the other hand we've got professors scheduling quizzes during night classes, making sure we don't go." "A lot of kids are blowing off classes anyway," adds frat brother Marquis Naylor. "I mean, this is Toledo." Tuesday Night Lights, as Chryst sees it, are a means to that end, though not everyone shares his enthusiasm. In a dank stadium hallway after the game, I offer condolences to Novak on his eighth loss to Toledo, then ask him how he feels about playing on this night of the week. "I'm totally against it," he says. "I love the exposure, but I just don't think Tuesday night was meant for college football. We get so entranced by this thinking that it's such a big deal to be on TV, but we're prostituting these kids a little bit." INSETS: Boise for Breakfast;One Foot In the Door.

This article focuses on sports announcer Chris Berman, who has worked at ESPN since the network was created in 1979. When the television began using the cable to shoot up, sports was the purest product it could find. Sports were everywhere, and so were their voices, which no longer dispensed with verbs but used them promiscuously, along with adjectives, adverbs and all manner of gallivanting orthographic fauna up to and including the lyrics to the collected works of Edison Lighthouse. And some of those voices--hell, most of those voices--were loud. Chris Berman--universally beloved and even widely respected across the sprawling campus of ESPN in Bristol, Conn.--has come into work this summer's day. People drop by the table, including Tony Valentino, who, like Berman, has worked at ESPN for 25 years, which is all the years that there's been an ESPN. Chris Berman was right there to learn from it, a child of the old television come to prosper in the new, the line between sports and entertainment, between sports and journalism, between sports and everything else, hopelessly blurred in him, all the fine distinctions drowned out by the sheer ubiquity of his voice. Now, as ESPN celebrates itself with an endless series of specials (the silver anniversary show will be telecast on Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. ET), reminiscences, award shows, best-of lists and enough soft-focus valentines to make Ken Burns look like a director of splatter films, Chris Berman's voice is right there in the middle of most of it. The network's become such a brand name that it's hard to believe it ever was simply an acronym: Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. And the E seems to be beating the everlasting H out of the S these days.Nevertheless, as the voice and face of ESPN, Berman has become the loud, shambling exemplar of a boisterous revolution. Broadcast television raised the generation that abandoned it for cable. INSETS: Anchors Array;But Serious Ley, Folks.

This article is the first in a four-part series on globalization in sports. The dominant piece of wall art in the main lobby of the league's New York City headquarters doesn't depict Shaq dunking, Jordan levitating or Iverson dribbling--it's a monstrous map of the world, festooned with LED digital clocks for various time zones. The 61-year-old Stern and his lieutenants are happy to traffic in numbers: The league will broadcast this week's Finals to 205 countries in 42 languages. Globalization--the buzzword that describes the ever-increasing exchange of goods, services and information across borders--has become the way of the world for American sports leagues. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol dismisses the notion that American fans will clamor for cricket and rugby broadcasts, the way overseas sports fans demand more baseball. And though the traditional economic model suggests that as more people compete for jobs, wages will fall, as sports continue to grow globally, international television rights increase and tributaries of revenues turn into flowing streams, salaries for athletes, particularly outside the U.S., are likely to continue rising. INSETS: DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH;MATTER OF IMPORTS;DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT SPORTS.

This article discusses the efforts of hockey player Jarome Iginla through the 2004 season and playoffs for the Calgary Flames. The family name, in the Yoruba language of his Nigerian forebears, means big tree. Iginla story number 1: Last January he gladly autographed one of his jerseys and offered it as the prize in a Shaw Cable TV company raffle to benefit the family of company maintenance technician Jack Wylie. Iginla story number 2: On the eve of Game 7 of the Flames' first-round playoff series against the Canucks, Iginla and some teammates walked into an Italian restaurant in Vancouver. Throughout this display of brilliance, Iginla formed an almost mystical connection with Philadelphia Flyers captain Keith Primeau, who, a few time zones away, seemingly matched every surpassing Iginla moment with one of his own. There is a wonderful story here, but few in the U.S. know about Iginla, who plays on a team from a Canadian city of 900,000, a team that had missed the NHL playoffs for seven straight years and was hardly ever on television in the U.S. Before the 2004 playoffs Calgary had appeared on ESPN2 only 11 times and ESPN once since Iginla's rookie season of 1996-97.

Televised poker tournaments are making stars in the world of poker. T.J. Cloutier, one of the last real road gamblers, stands up suddenly and reaches across the felt to shake hands. He is done in again, another bad beat in a never-ending series. This time, with only three players left at the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker tournament in Los Angeles, he had pocket jacks to the Dot Com Kid's 7s, and all-in -- his chips pushed into one confident pile -- he watches as the young millionaire, a 10-to-1 underdog, nailed a third seven on the turn. The Dot Com Kid, the impeccably dressed Paul Phillips, now has only tournament veteran Mel Judah to contend with for a first-place prize of $579,375. Phillips didn't mean to retire strictly to a life of cards, but these deep-money tournaments, swelled by an explosion of "stationary targets," as Phillips politely calls the amateurs, has made it unlikely he will ever take up golf, as he keeps promising. As he stares down Judah, it occurs to Phillips that the difference between first and second, $285,825, is a lot of money to be playing heads-up for. Poker seems to be nothing more than a form of God's mischief, everybody's belief in math or telepathy or game theory just an invitation to disaster. The treachery of these probabilities, which allow an Internet player like Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Spring Hill, Tenn., who never sat at a live table in his life, to win the last World Series and $2.5 million, is daunting. But then it sinks in, and you can see it in the crimson flushing cheeks of the Dot Com Kid. Judah's 7-high straight, as improbable as it is, breaks his 6-high. Phillips stares at the table just for a second, both amazed and amused by God's idea of mischief, then reaches across the felt to shake Judah's hand.

There were menacing glares and vulgar words, the threat of violence cutting through the climate-controlled air. Alas, the action took place not on a 50-yard indoor field but in a hotel conference room, where contentious team owners berated one another over various issues, including whether to retain commissioner Jim Drucker. It was an unsettling introduction for David Baker, the rookie owner of the Anaheim Piranhas, whose first thought was, What have I gotten myself into? After a similarly mean-spirited meeting the previous year in Orlando, Joe O'Hara, then the owner of the Mass Mauraders, had floored Drucker with a punch to the face in a hotel lounge in the Disney World compound. 'Not our finest hour,' remembers Arizona Rattlers vice president Gene Nudo, who witnessed the blow. Fourteen months later in St. Louis, with Drucker's head figuratively on the chopping block this time, it was Baker, a former politician, who found himself holding the swing vote. Drucker would serve out the finalyear of his term, and without knowing it Baker had made an indelible impression. After Drucker chose not to accept a contract extension, the owners turned to Baker, a massive man with even bigger ideas. The 17-year-old league has credibility (no fewer than 10 owners of other major pro sports franchises own or hold interests in Arena teams), exposure (a TV deal with NBC and teams in eight of the top 10 U.S. markets) and stability (a collective bargaining agreement with its players' association that lasts through 2010). After last season the New Jersey franchise was moved to Las Vegas, the Toronto team was folded and the Colorado Crush -- Baker had recruited Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets, to buy a team -- joined the league as an expansion club.

Mark Burnett may revel in the great outdoors most days, but today his corner office hard by the Santa Monica Freeway is shuttered against the Los Angeles (Calif.) glare. Burnett is in everyday command mode, but something is missing: his hat, the brown-felt Akubra that gives him a vague resemblance to Indiana Jones -- minus the coiled whip and the damsel in distress -- when he is in the field producing the 'Eco-Challenge' and 'Survivor.' Burnett's 'Eco-Challenge,' conducted in exotic corners of the globe every year since 1995 and brought to TV audiences in dramatic miniseries fashion by, in succession, MTV, ESPN, Discovery and USA Network, spawned a whole sport and several ancillary industries, from adventure-racing gear manufacturing to corporate team-building events. There Burnett revealed his long-term goals: 'Eco-Challenge,' then TV, then movies, with lots of money made along the way. When many top racers decided to do Don Mann's Beast of the East race in Alaska instead of the 'Eco-Challenge' in Borneo three years ago, Burnett lured them back by promising to pay expenses and airfare, an offer no underfunded adventure athlete (which is to say, all of them) could refuse.

Once every month or so, somebody will track down Jim Foster and ask his help in going public with a new sport, breathlessly pitching the novelty game as the next great thing. These would-be Naismiths know the story of how Foster, then a marketing executive with the National Football League (NFL), watched an indoor soccer game 22 years ago at Madison Square Garden in New York City and sketched out the skeleton for Arena football on a manila envelope. On one side are football (outdoor), baseball, basketball, auto racing, golf and hockey; on the other side, soccer, tennis, lacrosse, track and others too numerous to list, each capable of generating occasional buzz but rarely much more than that. Arena football could go either way. It has quietly survived in the face of considerable odds for 17 years, a high-scoring, full-throttle hybrid of football as we know it, played on a 50-by-28 1/3-yard field surrounded by padded hockey boards, with nine-foot-widegoalposts and towering end zone netting that is very much in play. In the last four years the game has raised the stakes by moving to bigger markets, enlisting wealthier owners and, most important, signing a unique contract with NBC that puts the Arena Football League (AFL) on national television on Sunday afternoons from February through June.

Remembers Roone Arledge, a pioneer in sports television who helped revolutionize the way sporting events are broadcast, following his death in December 2002. Biographical information; How he developed the way in which the Olympic Games were televised; Creation of 'Monday Night Football' and 'Wide World of Sports,' two of the longest running programs on television; How he is remembered by colleagues and friends.

Suggests several measures to improve baseball. Nomination of a candidate for commissioner of Major League Baseball; Elimination of baseball's antitrust exemption; Significance of launching an all-baseball digital television channel.

Discusses the success of the Canadian men's hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. How the team handpicked by Wayne Gretzky won the gold medal, after defeating the United States in the championship game; High television rating for the game on NBC in the U.S.; Thoughts of the players involved in the game.

The article presents questions and answers related to speculation on the future of consumers' subscriptions to cable television (TV) with bundling of cable channels and the broadcasting of sports with details on the cable TV channel ESPN, the effect of sports on media, and the relationship between national TV networks and sports.

Reveals that the National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) won the broadcast rights to five Olympic games, between 2000 and 2008, thanks to Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports. Revenues generated by networks in televising the Olympics, 1980 through 1992, with projections for 1996 through 2008; International Olympic Committee (IOC). INSETS: Sites unseen (Proposed sites for future Olympic games);NBCreamed (NBC winning Olympic rights over other networks).

Focuses on the efforts of Rupert Murdoch to merge sports and show business at Fox Television. Deal with promoter Don King for the bout between Mike Tyson and Buster Mathis Jr; Ongoing contract with the National Hockey League; Effects of Fox TV's National Football Conference coverage on its ratings.

Focuses on the decline of television ratings for the National Hockey League (NHL). How ratings have dropped while attendance has risen; Why hockey was popular in 1994; The effect of lower salaries on the hockey players; Efforts of Fox Incorporated to make hockey games more viewer-friendly; How TV ratings can be considered an indicator of the league's popularity.

The article presents information on sports and athletes in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner Larry O'Brien imposed a fine of 10,000 American dollar on Donald T. Sterling, owner of the San Diego Clippers, for allegedly maligning the integrity of the league. The Colts football team defeated the Patriot 23-21 at the Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Nielsen's ratings of the telecast of Clemson's 22-15 victory over the Cornhuskers on NBC is higher than the ratings of ABC when it telecast Pitt's victory over Georgia.