Doug Collins, who used to do this thing for the Bulls, returns to the sidelines to join K.C. Jones as the coaches for the first NBA All-Star Weekend Rookie Game, which TNT airs as part of “All-Star Saturday” at 6 p.m.
Collins, an analyst for Turner Sports since being fired by the Bulls four years ago, will be miked for the affair.
“It’ll be a three-second delay,” he jokes.
But there’s nothing funny about replacing the old-timers-oops, Legends-game with what the league hopes will be the legends of the future. Especially after some of the old-timers started to take the Legends game to heart.
“When the Legends game started, it was the old, old legends of the game,” says Collins. “They would go out, run up and down the floor and take hook shots. It wasn’t a competitive game. But when guys who still could play got in there, the game got very competitive. Which led to the injuries.”
More All-Star stuff: WMAQ Radio will carry the NBA Radio Network broadcast of the game, starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, because WMVP is airing the Blackhawks-Sharks contest. . . . SportsChannel is offering another view of the weekend’s activities with “Prime Spotlight: The NBA All-Star Game” at 4 p.m. Saturday, hosted by Bill Worrell and Calvin Murphy. . . . NBC will offer a Spanish audio version of the All-Star Game, with Armando Quintero and Jose Paneda, for those who have a secondary audio programming (SAP) outlet on their TV sets.
More NBA stuff: With the NBA at the mid-point of its first post-Michael Jordan season, Turner Sports executive Don McGuire reports TNT telecast ratings are up slightly to 1.9 from 1.8 last season. “When we renewed our most recent deal (late last year), our sense was that (the NBA) was very healthy,” says McGuire. “The goal for us was to find the right way to present the young players coming up-Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber. And while their teams haven’t matured the way their fans would like, the viewers still like to watch them play.”
Not so fast: Chet Coppock said Thursday he isn’t entertaining any offer of jumping to WGN-AM from his WMVP-AM home. “It’s a challenge for all of us,” he said of ‘MVPs new all-sports format. “I honestly think it’s going to play.” New WGN program director Tisa Lasorte said she has talked to Coppock recently, but it “was to get to know him. I don’t believe anything will come of it.” While his ratings have been miniscule since his switch to p.m. drive time, Coppock said, “No one has paused to consider I made the move to afternoons from evenings on one day’s notice. We deserve time to get this thing up and rolling.” Yes, he does.
Get well: Kenny McReynolds said Thursday he plans to return to WFLD-Ch. 32 Friday to anchor the sports on the 9 p.m. news show despite a sore back-and hurt feelings. McReynolds was injured in an ugly auto accident while returning from working Monday night’s Mid-Continent Conference telecast for SportsChannel. “I’m extremely blessed to be alive,” said McReynolds, whose car was hit by two trucks. “In retrospect, I should have stayed in Milwaukee, but I’d been on the road a lot and wanted a night in my own bed.” While receiving get-well wishes from SportsChannel officials and WFLD co-workers Bruce Wolf and Tim Morris, McReynolds said WFLD bosses were more concerned with who was going to cover the NBA All-Star Game. “But, hey,” he added, “they don’t owe me anything but a paycheck.”
Nice try: Turner Sports “may have been a stalking horse” in recent TV negotiations between the Southeastern Conference and CBS, says McGuire. While the Turner people were contacted by the SEC more than a month ago, the meeting only lasted about two hours. The league then turned around and agreed to a deal with CBS-expected to be announced Friday-covering five football seasons starting in 1996 and seven basketball seasons starting in the fall for $85 million. “We were never really active in the negotiation process,” McGuire says.
More Top Picks Bar Stools
Olympian thoughts: ABC’s two-hour “Skates of Gold” had a 10.4 national Nielsen rating with an 18 share, while CBS’s one-hour “Nancy Kerrigan and Friends” did a 13.4/22. With CBS planning on 10 nights of figure-skating coverage on its 16 prime-time telecasts, that combined rating of nearly 24 has to bring a lot of smiles to network executives. The highest-rated Olympics figure-skating telecast came in 1988, when ABC did a 30 for the ladies’ final. Two years ago, CBS had a 27 rating for the ladies’ final. . . . Kerrigan, Olympic medal or no, has agreed to host NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” March 12, with musical guest Aretha Franklin. . . . And Comedy Central-who else?-plans a five-minute movie titled “Spunk: The Tonya Harding Story” as part of a special “Bad Girls” edition of “Short Attention Span Theater” at 7 p.m. Feb. 22.
Hirings: Rich Ackerman, who has been working for a Washington radio station, has been hired by WSCR-AM as a reporter/anchor. . . . Tim McCarver is about to sign a multiyear deal-the length depending on the success of The Baseball Network-to return to ABC as a baseball analyst. He also will host prime-time specials and be a backup host for Charlie Gibson on “Good Morning America.”
Programming note: Maria Sansone hosts her second “Wide World of Sports for Kids” special at 11:30 a.m. Saturday when 1992 gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi joins the 12-year-old for “Kids on Ice: A Skating Adventure.” Kerrigan, Nicole Bobek and Brian Boitano are scheduled to appear; Harding is not. Wonder why.