LOOK: Anson Carter reps Michigan State hockey on national television

LOOK: Anson Carter was repping MSU on TNT

Anson Carter is one of the most decorated players in Michigan State hockey history. From 1992-96, Carter patrolled the wing in East Lansing, scoring 106 goals and getting 72 assists, for 178 total points, while being an All-American.

Carter went on to have an 11-year NHL career. Post playing, Carter now resides on the main desk for TNT’s NHL coverage.

In one of the latest shows, during the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers post game, Carter was repping his alma mater.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on Twitter @Cory_Linsner.

Arizona night golf course Grass Clippings announces par-3 league with Bleacher Report

The first fully lit golf course in Arizona is now home to a high-stakes team golf competition.

The first fully lit golf course in Arizona is now home to a high-stakes team golf competition.

Grass Clippings Rolling Hills, which turned on the lights for night golf Dec. 1, 2023, has quickly made a name for itself. Several celebrities and golf influencers have visited the course, Good Good staged the Desert Open the week of the WM Phoenix Open – an event carried live on Peacock – and the tee sheet is packed from 8 a.m. with start times as late as 9:40 p.m.

The course aspires for more, with a restaurant and a music venue on property in the works.

Next up: a par 3 golf league dubbed the Grass Clippings Open.

It’s described as “a two-person scramble golf tournament, showcases a blend of competitive spirit and diverse entry paths. The event begins with a no-stroke, 18-hole qualifying scramble, from which teams emerge to join the final lineup of 75 teams. These selected teams then engage in a gripping 36-hole tournament over two days, adhering to a no-stroke, 2-person scramble, low gross format.”

The golf course, which plays as par 60 during the day but is a par 54 at night with every hole set up as a par 3, has quickly become just a cool place to be, capturing the continuing rise in the popularity of golf and offering something no one else is.

“It’s right because the stars aligned,” Scott Hebert, the directory of agronomy at Grass Clippings, said. “We got the funding, we got the backing, we have the energy, the creativity, the ideas, you know, everyone’s on board with it. It’s a young group of guys as the founders that have been pushing for this dream for a long time and they’ve been able to gather the support in the community.”

This new league was founded by Jake Hoselton, Jimmy Hoselton, Connor Riley, Pete Wilson and TJ Forster.

“The Grass League is unlike anything out there right now,” Bleacher Report General Manager Bennett Spector said. “Our mission is to connect with golf fans on a human level and the electric par 3 format means anyone and everyone has a shot at taking home the massive cash prize. It’s like the World Series of Poker for golf.”

The action will be shown on Bleacher Report’s website and app as well as truTV and Golf Digest. The first event is scheduled for April 17-20.

The plan calls for 20 franchises divided by regional markets including Phoenix, Scottsdale, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Michigan, Tampa Bay, New York and Canada.

Registration for tickets and players will open in March.

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NBA fans were baffled when CNN Sports (of all outlets) reported that the Bucks hired Doc Rivers

This whole saga is incredibly bizarre!

After the Milwaukee Bucks suddenly fired head coach Adrian Griffin, NBA champion Doc Rivers emerged as a leading candidate to replace him.

Despite the winning record in Milwaukee, Griffin’s departure wasn’t exactly shocking. Rivers, who was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers until last season, makes plenty of sense as his successor. Rivers was already serving as an “informal consultant” for the team, per The Athletic.

What baffled everyone, however, is that the first outlet credited with breaking the news was CNN Sports. Even though CNN is a trusted news outlet, it isn’t a desk known for its sports department.

So what exactly happened here? How did basketball insiders like Adrian Wojnarowski (currently Rivers’ colleague at ESPN) and Shams Charania get scooped by an outlet that doesn’t have much of a sports presence?

During a broadcast of NBA on TNT, host Adam Lefkoe relayed that CNN Sports was reporting that Doc Rivers was accepting the head coaching gig with Milwaukee.

Jamal Crawford, the longtime NBA player who is now an analyst on the show, immediately asked Lefkoe to confirm that the outlet was indeed CNN. How is this possible? Others had the same question. Here is more from Awful Announcing:

“This Doc Rivers report is the first time CNN Sports has been mentioned as a thing in literally decades. CNN Sports Tonight, the highlight show alternative to SportsCenter from Turner, hasn’t aired since 2001. CNN was linked with the Sports Illustrated brand before the platform was taken over by Bleacher Report sports content in 2013. In fact, all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports branding had transitioned to Bleacher Report in the last several years before it literally just rebranded to TNT Sports earlier this month.”

A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports later reported, however, that the news was fully vetted by CNN before it was passed along to TNT.

It is important to note that CNN and TNT are both owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. But at the time of the broadcast, there was nothing on the CNN Sports website that mentioned Rivers.

Perez was told this was likely due to CNN’s coverage of the GOP primary in New Hampshire.

As noted on Twitter/X by New York Times reporter Kevin Draper, a CNN Sports correspondent named Coy Wire appeared on NBA TV (also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) to confirm that Rivers was hired by Milwaukee.

Draper added that he was also told by a CNN spokesperson that all of the reporting went through their “editorial process” at the network.

Later in the night, CNN Sports eventually published a story that credited “a source with knowledge of the conversations” but the reporting had no byline.

But this was far from the end of the story and the confusion continued.

Chris Haynes, who is widely considered the network’s top basketball insider and news breaker at NBA on TNT and Bleacher Report (which is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) refuted the report.

He claimed there is “no agreement” yet in place for Rivers to take over as the head coach of the Bucks. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports also reported that there is no agreement in place.

So what exactly happened here? Was this a giant miscommunication or was CNN Sports the first publication to break this news? Basketball fans had a lot of questions.

Social media reacts to Kenny Smith’s new-look beard

Social media reacts to Kenny Smith’s new-look beard ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks vs Miami Heat game on TNT.

The NBA in-season tournament has been underway, with many of the big matchups televised on TNT with Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Earnie Smith, and former Tar Heel [autotag]Kenny Smith[/autotag] providing pregame, halftime, and post-game commentary.

The crew known for usually picking fun at one had another viral moment centered around Smith. Pointing out the obvious, last week Shaq asked Smith about his facial hair in a hilarious way about half of his beard missing.

Well, tonight, Smith came prepared, displaying a new-looking beard, and it had social media in a frenzy. Smith spoke about Draymond Green, who was recently suspended for choking Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert.

Though Smith made some powerful points about Green running out of apologies, his new-looking beard took some of the attention.

Let us look at how social media reacted to Smith’s new-looking beard.

Charles Barkley surprised an emotional Ernie Johnson with news he was a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee

Charles Barkley delivered some incredible news to Ernie Johnson during Thursday’s coverage of The Match.

In one of the coolest sports moments you’re likely to see this week, TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson got surprised with some major news by a close pal.

While Johnson broadcasted 2023’s iteration of The Match, his longtime co-worker and good friend Charles Barkley informed him out of nowhere that he was being inducted into the 2023 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Johnson looked a bit awestruck and was deeply moved by the news, as Barkley said he was honored to tell his good friend about this career achievement.

The new inductee took a second to process the news before sharing his gratitude at the achievement in what made for an incredibly wholesome moment of sports television.

Johnson has always seemed like one of the sports broadcasting world’s true class acts, and it’s great to see him honored in such a way.

While he probably just thought he was showing up to set to talk about golf, Johnson instead got quite a wonderful surprise about his three-plus decades in the field. It’s one of those really sweet moments you can’t plan.

Steph Curry works with Butch Harmon, Klay Thompson watches Tiger Woods videos ahead of The Match in Las Vegas

Curry and Thompson will take on Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce this Thursday at the Wynn in Las Vegas.

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NBA greats Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors are taking on NFL legends Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs in the latest edition of The Match this Thursday at the Wynn in Las Vegas.

Mahomes teamed up with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen last time around, losing to Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Curry has also played in The Match series, losing alongside Peyton Manning to Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley.

Although those two may have some scar tissue, their teammates are making their Match debut.

Kelce claimed he’s around a 10 handicap when talking with the media Tuesday. As for Thompson, he’s somewhere in the double digits.

Curry, on the other hand, has serious game.

He’s played on the Korn Ferry Tour, has finished inside the top 10 in two of the last three American Century Championships at Lake Tahoe and has now sought advice from one of the best golf instructors in the world.

Lynch: The Match proves golf can be a fun product, without trading virtues for vulgarity

Butch Harmon has helped the likes of Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, and has been dubbed more of a life coach than golf coach.

Curry is hoping to implement some of Harmon’s practices when he tees it up later this week.

“For me, it’s that fine balance of not getting information overload and having 800 swing thoughts in your head,” Curry said. “Up until last summer, I never got any teaching or coaching. You have to understand how to apply whatever information you’re learning on the course, which is a totally different experience. Just trying to keep things as simple as possible.

“Butch gave me one little swing thought that I’ll probably talk about on the telecast if I hit a good shot, give him a shout-out. Just trying to build a little of confidence but not overcomplicate just being an athlete out there.”

Thompson reiterated Curry’s point of not overcomplicating things, but he did admit he’s been doing some research on YouTube.

“I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube. Last night I watched Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy’s tutorial on scoring shots. I learned some things. I’ve just been trying to pick up tips from the pros.

“Haven’t watched any basketball the last few weeks, just all golf stuff. Lots of Tiger highlights, too.”

The Curry/Thompson vs. Mahomes/Kelce battle will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday. It will be televised on TNT, truTV and HLN and streamed on Sling TV.

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The TNT scorebug predicted the Panthers-Bruins game-tying goal right before it happened

The TNT scorebug for Bruins-Panthers predicted a game-tying goal before it even happened.

During Sunday night’s Game 7 between the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers, the TNT scorebug predicted a major moment right before it happened.

As Boston led Florida at home with just a minute and a half to go, the TNT scorebug announced that the Panthers had scored a goal even though Florida was still down by a point.

Well, about half a minute later, Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour knocked in the dramatic equalizer to send the game into overtime.

In what was just likely a technical glitch, the TNT scorebug actually spoiled the seismic game-tying goal before it even happened.

The TNT scorebug really called it. The 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs have had plenty of intrigue so far, but it’s going to be fascinating to see all the reasoning for what exactly the scorebug knew that we didn’t.

All we’re saying is that the next time a scorebug predicts a score before it happens, we really need to keep score at home.

Shaq made a hilarious promise after Dillon Brooks dressed like Stone Cold Steve Austin

And that’s the bottom line because Dillon Brooks said so!

Before his Memphis Grizzlies took on the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, Dillon Brooks pulled up in a rather interesting fit.

The forward was dressed in a black vest (no shirt) and had jorts on in the pregame tunnel. If we didn’t know any better, Brooks was paying homage to the “Texas Rattlesnake” — “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, famed former WWF/WWE wrestler.

In reaction to Brooks’ fit, Shaquille O’Neal made quite the promise on Inside the NBA. O’Neal maintained that if the Lakers don’t qualify for this year’s playoffs, he will wear precisely what Brooks did on the last edition of the TNT program later this spring.

Oh, that’s a pretty enticing prospect:

With the Grizzlies defeating (and trolling) the Lakers 121-109 and Los Angeles without LeBron James for the foreseeable future, O’Neal will probably have to fulfill his promise. At 29-33, the Lakers are currently in 12th place in the Western Conference. After a rollercoaster season, it doesn’t seem like they have much hope of climbing up the ranks.

One might say, “that’s the bottom line.” But we’ll wait for O’Neal to take the first steps.

Jamal Crawford got a hilarious popcorn bath to begin his NBA on TNT career

Popcorn, anyone?

The NBA on TNT crew got the popcorn popping to welcome Jamal Crawford to its Tuesday night lineup.

With the three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year winner joining Shaquille O’Neal, Candace Parker and Adam Lefkoe for the NBA’s Tuesday night slate, he got a very fun bit of new guy hazing.

While he was on set for a segment, Crawford found himself the victim of a popcorn dump for the ages.

He took it in stride as anyone does who gets pranked on the show, and he’ll no doubt find himself being pranked in the future. It’s part of what makes this show so enjoyable.

Well, that’s quite a welcome for the studio newbie. Crawford will be a great addition to the Tuesday night crew, and he’ll certainly be thinking of a way he can get the rest of his new co-workers back with a prank of his own.

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Charles Barkley, months after flirting with LIV Golf, agrees to mega-deal with TNT

“I’m blessed to be able to do live television for a living.”

Charles Barkley has a new contract with TNT that a report says will pay him well north of $100 million, and possibly as much as $200 million, over 10 years.

Barkley, 59, had discussions with the LIV Golf Series back in July but told Golfweek at the event in Bedminster, New Jersey, that “they haven’t offered me anything.”

He added: “My number one priority is Turner, and I’m not gonna keep Turner in limbo. So that’s my priority. They’ve given me everything I have.”

Barkley’s mega-deal was reported by the New York Post, which noted that he’s currently making about $10 million a year.

It was at the pro-am event in New Jersey in July that he played some golf but also talked contract terms with LIV.

“I’ve got friends on both tours, it was great to see some of my friends I haven’t seen in a minute like Brooks [Koepka], Bryson [DeChambeau], Pat Perez, I wish these guys great success,” Barkley explained. “I’m gonna support LIV. I’m gonna support the PGA Tour.”

The Post reports that when Barkley was talking with LIV, he had not yet started negotiations with Turner, who has Shaquille O’Neal on a long-term deal and announced the re-signings of studio host Ernie Johnson and analyst Kenny Smith this week.

“We’re all a big family — Ernie, Kenny and Shaquille are brothers to me — and I wouldn’t still be here if it wasn’t for them and all the amazing people who work on our show,” Barkley told the Post. “I’m not gonna lie, though, this is a life-altering deal … and I’m blessed to be able to do live television for a living.”

Golfweek’s Adam Woodard contributed to this article.

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