When Chris Evert was hired, NBC Sports officials wanted her expertise, her ”inside tennis” perspective. While only in her third season (second, actually, since she took off last year to have a baby), Evert already has found some things just too ”inside” to talk about.
Like her relationship with struggling teen star Jennifer Capriati, a relationship that goes back 11 years.
”That`s what makes my role as a broadcaster so difficult,” said Evert earlier this week. ”I`m a friend, and she tells me things in confidence I don`t want to blab to the whole world.”
But there are things Evert will ”blab” about the 16-year-old Capriati, who has only a 16-7 match record this year after Thursday`s second-round victory at Wimbledon.
”She loves to play tennis,” said Evert. ”It`s what goes along with it that`s bothering her now. When she played the Italian Open, she was a little heavy and the press wrote she was fat. She`s lost that weight (20 pounds).
”She doesn`t like being away from her school friends. I don`t think she knows what`s reality. Is reality at home with her friends, or is reality on the (tennis) circuit with all the publicity? She lives a double life, and she`s just trying to find her reality. That`s why every time she walks on the court, she looks confused.”
Evert never had to look for her reality because, despite her early success, she didn`t join the women`s tour until she was 18. Capriati was just 13 when she joined.
”My point of reality was at home in Ft. Lauderdale,” said Evert. ”I finished high school. I was home for four or five weeks at a time. Everything happened so fast for (Capriati) when she was 13. Everything was great. But now she`s going through puberty. She`s put on a few pounds, going through adolescence; maybe she`s noticing boys.
”It`s a big change, but I don`t think she`s going through anything abnormal. She`s just probably asking a lot of questions at an earlier age than most teenage girls because of the situation she`s in. The questions I asked at 18, she`s asking now.”
But the conflict between being confidante and being reporter, which NBC wants her to do more of, has been difficult for Evert to resolve.
”This trust has been built since she was 5,” said Evert, whose father coached Capriati. ”There`s things we talk about in confidence, and I`m certainly not going to relate those to the world. But the issues that are on the table-like her losses and her weight-I feel comfortable talking about. It`s always going to be a conflict if you`re really close to somebody.”
NBC, for now, doesn`t seem to have a problem with the conflict. ”She`s been very forthcoming with her comments about Jennifer on the air,” said a network official.
– c8 Following the growing trend in sports television, Kemper Sports Marketing of Northbrook has signed a contract with ESPN to not only promote and market the Maui Invitational college basketball tournament but to produce it as well. ”It`s an area we needed to get into,” says Scott Kirkpatrick, a Kemper official and tournament director. ”We wanted to be much more of a full-service agency.”
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Kemper, which already does the same for golf tournaments, now will ”do everything, from the top to the bottom,” for the Maui Inviational, says Kirkpatrick. The two-year deal has attracted an impressive field for this year`s tournament-Duke, De Paul, LSU, Stanford, Memphis State, BYU, Oklahoma and host Chaminade.
Former Big 10 Commissioner Wayne Duke, now a Kemper consultant, helped put the field together. ”More and more TV networks are going to outside production companies,” Duke says. ”Kemper wanted to do more production. It was a good fit.”
The change of dates from Thanksgiving weekend to Dec. 21-23 also helped. ESPN now will televise six games, including three in prime time. In the past, ESPN carried five Maui contests, most of them insomniac specials. ”This is a great step for us,” says Kirkpatrick. ”We hope to give the tournament a different look.”
– Showtime carries the Razor Ruddock-Phil Jackson bout (no, not the Bulls`
coach, the Miami heavyweight with the 25-0 record) at 9 p.m. Friday. Boxing analyst Ferdie Pacheco calls it a ”crossroads” for Ruddock, who has only three losses-two to Mike Tyson-in 30 fights. ”He`s standing at the doorway of being the champ,” said Pacheco. ”But he needs to win, and win impressively.”
– Tom Hanks, one of the stars of ”A League of Their Own,” the new Penny Marshall movie based on the women`s pro baseball league that sprung up during WWII, is featured this weekend on ”This Week in Baseball” at 2 p.m. Saturday on WGN-Ch. 9. ”I could scratch pretty well, and I could spit pretty well,”
says Hanks of his role as a manager, ”but it took some time to learn how to chew.” Hanks also joins Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on ESPN`s Sunday night telecast of the White Sox-Yankees game.
– As if NBC hasn`t schlocked up the Summer Olympics enough, the network now has signed a deal with Time Warner and Coca-Cola to incorporate music videos in its nightly coverage. The songs, from such diverse artists as Eric Clapton and En Vogue, will wrap around highlights from the day`s events. Coke will sponsor them, using the time to pitch a giveaway of 20 million compact discs and cassettes in conjunction with the Games. NBC Sports executive producer Terry O`Neil said the promotion wasn`t ”a marketing scam” to attract more viewers but a programming concept. Uh-huh.
– WLUP-AM will donate two hours of programming from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday for the Better Boys Foundation Radiothon, hosted by Chet Coppock. . . . Bears broadcaster Wayne Larrivee is corporate chairman for Saturday night`s Leukemia Research Foundation awards dinner. . . . SportsChannel will have live coverage of the World Cup press conference at 10 a.m. Monday when officials will announce the 1994 schedule, the host city for the opening ceremonies and initial ticket plans.