The Orlando Magic in Berlin

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – It’s been a little more than 40 years since the NBA China Friendship Tour, a six-week extravaganza when the NBA league office (the great Matt Winick, yours truly) and friends (Red Auerbach, Pete Newell, Ed Badger, Bill Blair) played host, coach, trainers and tour guides to the Chinese National Team as they visited the USA back in September of ‘85 in hopes of improving their game.

Long story short, as we say, the tour bounced from home base (Queens College, NY) to Princeton, NJ, Hempstead, NY, West Lafayette, Indiana, Beloit, Wisconsin, Lower Merion Township (Philly, PA),  Washington DC and Springfield, Massachusetts to take part in training camps underway for each NBA team bouncing basketball in close proximities to those towns. (That included: NJ Nets, NY Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, Washington (then Bullets; now Wizards) and the Cleveland Cavaliers at the annual Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame game in Springfield.

It was at Beloit and the Chicago Bulls training camp where we first saw Michael Jordan in person.

That tour was the beginning of the modern day NBA “going global.” Yes, there were plenty of prior examples, like Auerbach taking teams to train in the former Yugoslavia, or the Bullets playing a pair of exhibition games in China in 1979 as a part of “Ping Pong Diplomacy, but the NBA China Friendship Tour was a true beginning to then-Commissioner David Stern’s “one day at a time” method of moving the NBA closer and closer to worldwide awareness and prominence in the sports world.

The reason this story is the lead item to this week’s missive?

The NBA continued its efforts with a pair of Global Games in Europe with the Memphis Grizzlies playing the Orlando Magic Thursday in Berlin, Germany (118-111, Magic) and then a game Sunday (Noon ET) at 02 in London. The game in Berlin allowed the Magic brotherly tandem of Franz and Moritz Wagner to play in front of their home country fans for the NBA’s first regular season game in Berlin.

What seemed like a mountain to climb in 1985 is now a full-speed global lay-up of regular season, preseason and summertime clinics, not to mention the FIBA and USA Basketball efforts all over the world. Nowadays, a quarter of the NBA rosters are filled by international players, and as you’ve read in this column before, many of those players are the very best in the league.

Come NBA All-Star Weekend, we’ll see a team of international All-Stars compete against a couple of USA-based All-Star squads in what could be the beginning of an improved All-Star Weekend. Come February 13-15, it’ll all be on display in Los Angeles (Intuit Dome).

In August 2027, the FIBA World Cup (32 teams) will be contested in Qatar and in 2028, the Olympic Games will be played in Los Angeles.

David Stern’s vision when he watched the 1985 Chinese National Team warming up at Queens College has been fulfilled ten times over, and in such a relatively short timeframe. It’s a damn shame Stern (passed away in Jan. 2020), and FIBA’s (Executive Directors) Stankovic (passed away March 2020) and Patrick Baumann (died suddenly in 2018, at age 51) aren’t around to see this day come.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The University of Miami will play Indiana University for the College Football national championship on Monday. As part of the alternate coverage of the event, the ACC Network will deliver extensive on-site studio programming surrounding the Hurricanes bid for the title, which coincidentally will take place at Hardrock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The pre-event coverage will be highlighted by appearances from North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick, who will join the network’s coverage as a special guest analyst.

Belichick will contribute analysis on ACC Network’s signature football studio show ACC Huddle, offering fans his unmatched perspective on championship preparation, in-game strategy and postseason success, complementing ACC Network’s established roster of analysts throughout National Championship weekend.

Sunday – Championship weekend coverage gets underway Sunday with the head coaches news conference, featuring Miami head coach Mario Cristobal and Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti previewing the National Championship matchup.

At 8:00pm ET, ACC Huddle Championship Preview airs on ACC Network with anchormanTaylor Tannebaum being accompanied by analysts Mac Lain, Eddie Royal and Jimbo Fisher to break down every angle of the Hurricanes–Hoosiers showdown. Immediately following, a special edition of the ACC Network Football Podcast debuts at 9:00pm ET, hosted by former Florida State quarterback EJ Manuel and former Georgia Tech captain Roddy Jones.

Monday – On game day, ACC Network will celebrate with more than seven consecutive hours of live programming from Hard Rock Stadium. Coverage begins at 5:00pm with Inside ACCess at the National Championship, hosted by college football reporters and ACC insiders Andrea Adelson and David Hale.

ACC Huddle at the National Championship follows at 6:00pm ET, with over 90 minutes of in-depth pregame coverage. Tannebaum hosts alongside Huddle analysts Mac Lain—who played in the 2016 CFP National Championship with Clemson, Virginia Tech Hall of Famer Royal, 2013 national championship–winning head coach Fisher and eight-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick. The coverage also features ACCN host Kelsey Riggs Cuff, ACCN college football analyst Tom Luginbill, and College Football Hall of Famer Mark Richt, the legendary former Miami quarterback and head coach.

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: With the Indiana Hoosiers and Fernando Mendoza making an unexpected journey to the CFP national championship game, the most frequent media day question was the typical “how does it feel” and “what about your return to Miami?” After three or four iterations of that subject came up on media day, the topic finally got around to tickets. With Miami playing a home game and Indiana fans traveling as if the game’s outcome depended on it, ticket prices are in the stratosphere – the $6,000 to $16,000 range.

Putting the questions together, Mendoza answered: “I would say it feels great. Tickets are definitely a problem because there’s so many family members that want to come to the game. However, I’ve attempted to not let it sink in so I can stay in the present moment.

I kind of stay in the football mindset that I want to stay in. Although that — there’s so many externalities to this game, playing Miami in Miami, that you can get wrapped up in all the emotion. However, I want to keep it focused on football and really kind of force it to not sink in,” he said.

It can sink in next week or the week after, but I just want to focus on football right now to give my team the best chance, and that’s the same with all my teammates.”

GOTTA HAVE HEART: Golfing legend Sir Nick Faldo is heading home, from Cleveland to England after successful open heart surgery. Said Faldo in a January 16 social media post: “Headed home. After two weeks in Cleveland, Nick Faldo, and his wife, Lindsay, are on their way home following a successful, scheduled preventative open-heart surgery to repair his enlarged aorta, performed by world-renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Lars Svensson at The Cleveland Clinic. We are deeply grateful for Dr. Svensson and his exceptional medical team. Nick is now looking ahead to returning to his golf course design work and to the Masters Week in Augusta, GA, where he will be celebrating “Six back in ‘96.” Home never felt so good.

THIS JUST IN: From The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry to Boston College to Penn State to the professional NWSL’s Portland Thorns to the USA Women’s National Team to – now – Manchester City, Sam Coffey (daughter of former NY Daily News columnist Wayne Coffey) is getting better and better to the point where she’ll be a team leader for both Man City and the USWNT. From Man City’s (Swedish-born) manager Andree Legertz: “There’s something with American players which I really like,” he said. “Their energy. [Sam Coffey] has leadership in her, an intensity in how she’s playing and training. That is something that can help us grow. She’s a great passing player, covering a lot of ground in defending. Aggressive. There’s a lot of things in her that will fit well in our team.”

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: This week, world No.1 pickleball player Anna Leigh Waters announced she was joining Nike, making Swoosh history as the 18-year-old is the brand’s first sponsored pickleball athlete. Get ready for Air Lob Anna Leigh.

PARTING WORDS & MUSIC: Last week, just before post time, the world learned of the passing of Grateful Dead guitarist/vocalist/legend Bob Weir. I placed two of his songs from his final appearance (60 year anniversary at Golden Gate Park) in the main section of last week’s missive.

This week, I’ve had a little time to process Weir’s passing and wanted to put one more music post up in memory of Weir, Jerry Garcia and the Band. This acoustic clip is from 1987. It was a seven song set (all online) and it concluded with Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door the Bob Dylan song that seems so fitting. Joan Baez joined Garcia and Weir on stage and I make note, she just celebrated her 85th birthday on January 9th.

The post TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Jan 18 appeared first on Digital Sports Desk.

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

PROVIDENCE – The date was October 12, 1989 and the assignment was to be a one-man, one day advance team for the NBA as the Orlando Magic were to play their first game ever the following day. NBA Commissioner David Stern was in route to attend the game and, as always, Stern was willing and very able to do as many interviews as possible, TV one-on-ones, small group gatherings with the local assembled print media in the pressroom – you name it, he’d do it.

David was “an ace in the hole” for his “crack” PR staff and I was ready to run him through the gauntlet at Orlando’s brand-spanking new O-Rena. It was great.

With a bit of local intel from the Magic’s terrific PR staff (Alex Martins), a schedule was drawn up to catch as many of the local TV broadcasts as time would allow. The stations worked together – a bit – to slide live drop-ins and share in the wealth.

I don’t think Stuart Scott knew all of that as he was working at WRAL-TV in Raleigh at the time. But, he was soon to be on our radar.

Stern did his duty and the Orlando Magic won the game. A terrific start for the NBA expansion team – one of four that came into the league – alphabetically – in 1988 and 1989. Charlotte and Miami in 1988 and Minnesota and Orlando in 1989. We made the rounds for all four cities, a two-man NBA traveling band over many of the years as the NBA began to stretch its legs in terms of media coverage and worldwide popularity.

Just a few years later, it was Earvin “Magic” Johnson on center stage as the 1992 NBA All-Star Weekend was scheduled to be played in Orlando and for the second year, I was named to run point for our growing PR department by NBA PR guru Brian McIntyre, the guy with Bunn Award Hall of Fame skills. In an attempt to set a huge stage for Magic and the Magic organization, we all combined with the NBA events and attractions group to stage an incredible weekend.

There were countless planning trips down to Orlando – all with flights packed with kids, sometimes tots, all anxious and excited to visit Disney World. For those flights, the Bose (noise-cancelling) headphones and plenty of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd were packed to counter the crying and carrying on for little ones with altitude adjustment issues and painful ears. I felt for them, but there’s no child who can out-scream “Kashmir” or “When the Levee Breaks.”

The more trips, the more I noticed a WESH-TV 2’s sports reporter. Yes, Stuart Scott had moved to Orlando for a better gig on the WESH-TV news team, and he was good. He stood out amongst the relatively small media mass of Orlando, one where a guy named Christopher Russo had yet to go canine.

Leading up to the All-Star Weekend, I asked Stuart if he needed anything “special,” and more or less opened the door for any request. Earvin could only do the main podium interviews, and he was his usual amazing self, but I had the keys to Commissioner Stern’s busy schedule, and, aside from the obvious NBC Sports requests, in my eyes after observing Stuart over months of reports, the young reporter out of North Carolina had earned a little extra – call it, ‘treat him like family,’ love and an audience with Stern. That was a considerable “get” for a local broadcaster.

There’s no great punchline to this intro. Stuart Scott had earned the respect of all of the Magic players and their opponents, and his talent was noticeable to anyone who watched him work. He had yet to coin the phrase, “Cool as the other side of the pillow,” but that’s what he was – every single night. He was just a pleasure to work with and he generally appreciated the give-and-take. And, that’s the way we rolled for quite a long time. We worked at many an NBA game, and even in London where the Magic played the Atlanta Hawks at the very first NBA London Games (1993). Stuart and Shaquille O’Neal – the NBA Rookie of the Year in ‘92-93 – had developed quite a nice relationship. Shaq seemed to enjoy his time with Stuart, rather than think of it as work.

Stuart eventually became, “Stu,” to most of us, and he advanced his career by accepting a job with ESPN where he was among the opening night newscasters on ESPN2, the mothership’s attempt to be “cool.” It quickly became obvious, with Keith Olbermann on-set and on-air in a goofy leather jacket, and at that point in time, “Stu” was the only thing “cool” about ESPN2.

Scott was eventually promoted to the “A” team at ESPN and there he was hosting the main newscast at the NBA Finals. He had developed a rapport with so many of the rank and file NBA players, it was never difficult to coordinate an interview as the players liked him and enjoyed his rock solid style of conducting business. It was a joy to be a small part of as Stuart truly commanded the NBA airwaves. It seemed like Stuart Scott was growing up with the NBA, with pro basketball in Central Florida and, then, with a national following of sports fans.

To take a rather corny line from Forrest Gump, Stu and the NBA were like peas and carrots. Then – just like Forrest’s Jenny – the roof caved in and we heard the news of Stu’s battle vs. cancer.

It was a body-check in the gut, and it knocked the air right out of our bodies, minds and spirits. It wasn’t fair.

It never is.

Time moved along, just as it did for our other NBA Family insider – TNT’s Craig Sager – and both Stu and Sager courageously battled cancer and are now etched in our psyche with their mind-blowing, tremendous, courageous speeches at the ESPYs.

That brings us to the “Boo-yah,” A Portrait of Stuart Scott – a must watch documentary available on the ESPN app. In addition to extensive interviews with Stuart’s surviving family and his pillars – his daughters – there is quite a bit of entertaining original footage coming in the “never seen before” fashion.

Film producer Andre Gaines told The Hollywood Reporter he had “easily” 400 to 500 hours of footage to use for his ESPN 30 for 30 installment, much of which Scott shot himself … of himself.

That includes what became Gaines’ poetic documentary ending scene, first dug out of the archives by the documentary’s producer Ryan Lohuis. I will not spoil its impact.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Who needs another retro/alternate team uniform? Raise your hands. Anyone?

“Through multiple Winter Classics and of course our club’s 100th anniversary, we’ve done a lot of retro and vintage style jerseys, but Stadium Series presented an opportunity to do something really unique,” said Boston Bruins President Cam Neely. “We’re introducing a new team uniform that combines Bruins toughness and snarl with some really dialed up components and coloring. These sweaters are going to look great under the Sunday night lights.”

The Bruins’ Winter Classic jerseys feature a variety of new brand marks and design elements:

Sunshine Motif: In addition to the primary gold color, the jersey features debossed sun rays on the sleeves and on the hem loop label, which also features “BOS” – Boston’s airport code – a nod to the road warriors. (Who knew #1)?

Football-Inspired: The main “Boston” wordmark on the front of the jersey is akin to the New England Patriots styling, an intentional nod to the game being hosted in an NFL football stadium, and features a lock-up treatment with the Bruins’ crawling bear logo. The crawling bear – traditionally a secondary brand asset – is bigger and more prominent for the Stadium Series. (Who knew #2)?

Bear Claw Slash: One side shoulder features a new secondary mark, an iconic varsity B with a bear claw slash to signifying the grit and toughness that have been synonymous with Bruins hockey for more than 100 years. The slash graphic element appears throughout the uniform, including on the jersey, helmet, and pants. (Who knew #3)?

Love For New England: The inside neck collar features the abbreviations of the six New England states as a reminder that the Bruins are proud to represent their region no matter where they play. (Who Knew #4)?

That’s four “Who Knews,” a new Winter Classic record.

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: The FIFA World Cup draw took place a couple of weeks ago and, as the ping-pong balls fell, it brought New England one of the highly anticipated matches with Norway vs. France. Norway’s team is an up and coming world competitor with striker Erling Haaland leading the Norwegian football team. Haaland is considered one of the top players in the world. He plays for Manchester City in the English Premier League and is celebrated for his exceptional goal-scoring ability to allow Norway to make their first major tournament appearance since 2000.

They’ll face France, considered to be one of the favorites to lift the coveted World Cup trophy, especially after their strong performance in the preceding tournaments. They exhibit a powerful blend of experienced players and exciting young talent, making them a formidable contender.

France won in 2018 and finished as a 2022 finalist. Les Bleus will be a serious contender yet again with its treasure trove of talent. Superstar forward Kylian Mbappe is entering his prime and Ousmane Dembele just won the Ballon d’Or. Other star options in attack are Desire Doue, Michael Olise, Bradley Barcola and Rayan Cherki.

Now, the bad news: An early inquiry into purchasing tickets for the big FRA vs NOR game resulted in some astronomical prices. A single ticket was listed at $2,158 (by tournament sponsor VISA) in a promotion which included a few bells and whistles (VIP stuff). A pair for the FRA vs NOR game? $6,700 bucks, and I’m not sure that includes parking fees at “Boston Stadium,” as they scrubbed Gillette right off the marquee.

Somehow, the tickets will sell. But, who can afford them?

THIS JEST IN: You might celebrate Christmas. Then there’s Festivus – the George Costanza/Seinfeld publicized “Festivus for the Rest of Us.” And, now for the Rock ‘n Rollers. there’s “Goosemas.”

Goose the Band (Google it, if you haven’t heard of them) plays back-to-back concerts on an annual basis and has tagged them as “Goosemas.” It’s a bit of a goof for a band that prides itself on not taking themselves too seriously but over the past for or five years has established themselves at the No. 1 Jam Band on the circuit.

While Jam Band sort of catches all aspects of the music, Goose is very hard to categorize. They were originally tagged as Indie Rock and they self-describe the band as “Indie Groove,” they’ve evolved into pure musical and theatrical mastery. The band hails from Wilton, Connecticut, and they formed in 2014. Theyve had some line-up changes over the years but solidified under the three original members in guitarist and vocalist superb, Rick Mitarotonda, while keyboardist and vocalist Peter Anspach keeps up the rapport with the growing fan base (sometimes referred to as “Creatures.” Bass player Trevor Weekz (often spelled Weeks and he went with a WEEKS New York Rangers jersey when at The Garden) holds down the sound nearly as well as The Who’s late bass man John Entwistle who is sometimes considered the all-time best. Like Entwisle, Weekz plants himself on stage and barely moves any part of his lower body while working magic with his hands and bass guitar, usually a Elrick Gold Series bolt-on 5-string or his Modulus Quantum 5-string; Godin A5 fretless 5-string; ’70s Fender Jazz Bass; or maybe an Elrick Master Series 35”- scale, single cutaway 5-string; or the patented and go-to Fender Tony Franklin Fretless Precision Bass after graduating from his first bass guitar – a used, Japanese-made Fender Jazz Bass with EMG pickups. Drummer Cotter Ellis plays a non-stop back beat making everyone wonder how he doesn’t simply tire out. Mitarotonda and Anspach handle most of the song-writing.

Goosemas 2025 at Providence (Photo by T. Peter Lyons)

While Goose has now played sellout shows at Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks in Colorado and Madison Square Garden in New York amongst all the other great venues, this veteran Goose fan (tipped off years ago by my Phish-loving neighbor) sees a band constantly evolving, constantly creating, constantly improving and finding a new niche that attracts fans of all genres and all ages.

Mitarotonda’s guitar playing has mesmerized all of his fans, while his voice remains so rock solid. It’s hard not to go too far with comparisons, so I won’t, but Mitarotonda has the whole package of guitar chops, the solid voice and exquisite song writing skills. He stands center stage and commands his audience in a smooth, natural way – simply being his cool self – nothing more, nothing less. Mitarotonda is the superstar of this band and he was born to be a musical legend.

Goosemas 2025 (night one) was incredible, almost indescribable, but I’ll try. Tagged as “Barnaby Glimpse’s Show Upon Time: A Phantom Menagerie” which was fictionally staged in the year 1734, the theatrics conjured up the craziest nights of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras mixed with a real menagerie of dancing creatures, hundreds of balloons and inflatable objects, all bouncing around a Providence venue (Amica Mutual Pavillion … the AMP) that must have a new high for an electric/power bill today. All the theatrics were backed by incredible guitar, bass and drum-driven “grooves” that made the buildings’ floor look like it was a giant waterbed moving up and down with two or three thousand fans packed together for one giant dance-off in one giant dance hall. Goose was fabulous.

During the early stages of Friday night’s show, Goose debuted Pink Floyd’s “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” as a first-time cover, featuring Ellis on lead vocals and adding Stuart Bogie on woodwinds during their first set. Bogie’s sax playing was a wonderful addition to the band.

The show closed as Ellis subtly exited the stage, soon to be followed by Weekz which allowed Mitarotonda and Anspach a finely lit stage to deliver their debut cover version of Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain.”

Anspach exited, leaving only a lone vocalist and guitarist in Mitarotonda who upon hitting the last note, slowly walked over to the Ghostlight on stage and turned it off.

What a finish.

Stunning.

EDITOR’S NOTE: At approximately 4:13pm on Saturday, there was a mass shooting on the campus of Brown University in Providence, where this column originated from on Friday. Police and authorities are reporting two fatalities and multiple people (at least eight) injured and in critical condition.

In hindsight, and looking back about 24 hours, the joy of life during a peaceful weekend and attending an entertaining rock show turns to helpless feelings of sympathy for the families of the victims, some possibly not even notified as of this writing from nearby Boston on Saturday evening.

Brown is such a wonderful school and the City of Providence a gem amongst East Coast small towns. May God Bless the victims of this senseless crime with hope police, FBI and first responders quickly apprehend the perpetrator of this crime.

The post TL’s Sunday Notes | December 14 appeared first on Digital Sports Desk.

KANSAS CITY – (Source: Official News Release) –  DDSports – doing business as – ShotTracker, a revolutionary sports technology that captures rich performance data via sensors and provides statistics and analytics with sub-second latency, today announced a new round of financing by Hearst Ventures, the venture capital unit of Hearst. The $2 million investment by Hearst Ventures is in addition to an $11 million USD investment led by Evertz Technologies Limited (Evertz) and Verizon Ventures, which was announced earlier this year. It completes the current funding round for the company.

Early funding for ShotTracker came from a group of investors, including the late David Stern, former NBA Commissioner and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, among others.

“We are proud to have brought on Hearst Ventures as our latest investment partner,” said ShotTracker Chief Executive Officer Bill Moses. “Their expertise and knowledge of the media partnerships space will be pivotal as we refine and grow not just our offering to NCAA men’s and women’s basketball programs, but to broadcast partners as well. That broadcast integration has been the most requested element for our technology and we feel will be a key for our growth in the coming years.”

“Our goal with ShotTracker from day one is to go beyond the work we do with our partner schools,” said ShotTracker Co-Founder and President Davyeon Ross. “This investment, on top of our work with Evertz and Verizon Ventures, gives us a much wider runway and a greater opportunity for scaling success of our business going forward. We will continue to focus on our platform for NCAA men’s and women’s basketball, but additional opportunities are now coming into focus that will make this partnership very important for us.”

ShotTracker brings elite-level, real-time analytics to the court. The company’s patented technology tracks data in three parts: a ShotTracker-enabled ball, sensors on players’ jerseys and court sensors that map the court in 3D. Data is processed through the company’s proprietary algorithm displayed on the ShotTracker app and dashboard and is also integrated with Evertz’s cloud-based live production solutions. The real-time data can be used to automate camera productions from remote locations and can be licensed by media and sports data companies and will be enhanced by all the innovation Verizon is bringing through their cutting-edge work in 5G.

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