Tag: Turner Sports

The new ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. sports app is a good idea, but it might create more streaming problems for you

I’m honestly not sure whether those changes are good or bad.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Goooood morning, folks! Welcome back to The Morning Win. Thank you so much for rocking with us this morning. We appreciate you. Hope you’re having a great week.

I’m sure you’ve seen the news about the new upcoming partnership between ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. If you haven’t, the three companies are partnering together to launch a mega sports streaming app they’ll each own a third of.

The service is going to include the combined inventory of live sports they all have. Yes, that means every league and every sport you love will be on there. NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL. Whatever it is, it’s on this app.

We don’t know how much this will cost or what it’ll be. We just know it’ll be a monster of a sports streaming app. With all of these resources combined, it’s essentially a mini-version of cable.

Our Andrew Joesph summed it up pretty well here:

“So, basically viewers can pay for a subscription to this bundle and access the live sports that the companies are broadcasting. When streaming services started, it seemed inevitable that someone would eventually just make cable all over again and try to present it as something different. That’s what Disney, Fox and WBD appear to be doing here — but for sports only. On top of that, NBC Universal and CBS/Paramount were not included in this partnership of competing media giants.”

Andrew hits the nail on the head there. It’s always felt like, at some point, a cable-like package would come back around and reset things as everybody and their favorite cousin pulled out an individual streaming service. It’s unfeasible to think everyone would pay for each of them individually in perpetuity. We needed a reset. I think this is what that reset looks like.

But at the same time, I’m still concerned about the number of streamers people will be expected to pay for as the rights to live sports continue to get chopped up like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Just think about it. Sure, you’ll get your Monday Night Football fix on ESPN via this megastreamer. Your local Fox and CBS games should pop up there, too, considering that those networks are partnered there.

But guess what? You’ll still have to pay for Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football if you want that. And if the NFL leans and makes Peacock a thing like it wants to?  That’s an additional two streamers you may need to watch the biggest NFL games of the week.

The NBA is flirting with Amazon for its TV rights, too. Obviously, the league is working with Turner and ESPN now. The presence of this new streamer makes that unlikely to change considering that the powers that be will want to retain it to keep people on their app. But what if Amazon buys the rights to, say, the Play-In Tournament or even the In-Season Tournament? That’s totally in the realm of possibility.

I say all of that to say that while this cable-like subscription package could be good, it doesn’t completely end the streaming wars. All of our favorite things are still fragmented and, as consumers, we’re still being jerked around in the end. And, don’t forget, the only thing we know about this new partnership is that it exists. We don’t know the cost or what subscription levels we’ll need to watch what.

The streaming era is coming to a close. Whatever it’s morphing into next is on its way. All we can do is hope it’s more consumer-friendly than what we’ve got here now.

DraftKings Drama

(Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images for DraftKings)

On the other side of the corporate world of sports, there’s quite a bit of drama going on on the betting side.

DraftKings is accusing its now former (???) head of VIP Michael Hermalyn of stealing employees and trade secrets as part of a year-long plot to leave the company for Fanatics.

Prince Grimes has more details here and, as he says, it sounds like something straight out of a movie plot. The company found out what Hermalyn was doing because it tracked him using geolocation data. Yes, it’s that serious.

Here are some of the juiciest details:

“It sounds like the company tracked Hermalyn’s location using the same technology online sportsbooks use to verify bettors are in legal betting territories (or to make sure NFL players aren’t betting at team facilities). And they pinpointed him at Fanatics’ offices during times he said he’d be somewhere else.

No, seriously. DraftKings actually tracked Hermalyn’s whereabouts on Jan. 29 and 30 using geolocation and access account records, after he emailed employees that a friend died and he had to deal with that.

“DraftKings has since learned, through geolocation data and access account records, Hermalyn had in fact traveled to California and visited Fanatics offices in Los Angeles on January 29 and 30,” the lawsuit says.”

You cannot make this up. In fact, I would love to actually see a movie plot based on this.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Hermalyn was also accused of using shady means to try and invalidate his non-compete agreement after leaving for Fanatics and working up millions of dollars from DraftKings in retention payments for him and his subordinates. It’s insane.

Keep in mind that all of this is going down just before the Super Bowl. That’s obviously the biggest day in sports betting and here DraftKings is dealing with this.

Yikes, guys. I don’t really know what else to say.

READ MORE: Here’s a full breakdown on the situation from Prince

Changing names

(AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman)

Stadium rights mean absolutely nothing to FIFA if you’re not paying them. Some of the NFL’s teams are finding that out the hard way.

FIFA has changed the names of multiple stadiums around North America as we inch closer to the 2026 World Cup. It’s hilarious because the names are, well, remarkably bland.

Andrew Joesph has more:

“We’re still two years away from the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. But we’re already seeing the results of a grueling bidding process that cities and NFL owners were willing to go through in order to host these World Cup matches.

That apparently included the temporary changing of stadium names.

While we already knew that NFL owners agreed to install natural grass playing surfaces in time for 2026, they will also adhere to a FIFA policy about stadium branding. Basically, FIFA won’t let non-FIFA sponsors have their branding displayed during matches. And in the case of the U.S. — where corporate naming rights are the norm for stadiums — the venues we know are going to be called something entirely different for the World Cup.

And let me tell ya: FIFA did not put much thought into these temporary names.”

Man. Come on, FIFA. I feel like if you’re giving somebody else’s property a new name, you could at least be a bit more creative with it.

Peep the full names from Andrew here.

Quick hits: An updated NBA All-Star roster … Guests for the Usher Bowl … and more

— Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with the updated All-Star rosters now that Trae Young and Scottie Barnes are in.

— Meghan Hall has 7 guests that Usher might bring out for the Super Bowl Halftime show. I kind of hope he just does it solo, though.

— Speaking of the halftime show, here are the best memes ever from it, by Michelle Martinelli and Charles Curtis.

— This Nikola Jokic profile in the New Yorker was so cool. Here’s more from Robert Zeglinski.

— Patrick Mahomes had the highest praise for Caitlin Clark. That’s pretty cool. Here’s Robert again.

— Kahleah Copper is headed to Phoenix! Meghan Hall has trade grades for you here.

That’s all, folks! Happy Wednesday. We’re almost to the Super Bowl. Let’s get it.

-Sykes ✌️

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.

Q&A: Candace Parker talks about her new Title IX documentary, parenthood and equity in sports

Candace Parker’s new documentary debuts the weekend of the men’s Final Four.

Sometimes, one dream leads to another. And sometimes those new dreams are built on the backs of those who came before them.

That’s becoming the life of WNBA superstar Candace Parker. In 14 years as a player with the Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky, she’s more than lived out her dream of being a basketball player — she’s literally one of the all-time greats. Her career accomplishments include two WNBA MVPs, two Olympic gold medals, a defensive player of the year and rookie of the year award, two college national championships, and after helping Chicago win the title last season, two WNBA championships. The list goes on.

But now she’s also a budding star as a studio analyst for Turner Sports, where she signed a multi-year extension in September.

It’s an opportunity she called “a dream.”

It’s also keeping Parker busy this time of year. She’s in the thick of March Madness, covering the NCAA men’s basketball tournament across Turner’s family of networks. This comes a month after she and wife Anna Petrakova welcomed to the world their first child together. In two weeks, she’ll introduce another baby to the world; the very first film from her production company, Baby Hair Productions, in association with Turner Sports and Scout Productions. Titled “37 Words,” the film is a feature-length documentary that will “chronicle and celebrate the societal and cultural impact of Title IX, anchored through the perspective of Parker,” according to a press release.

Oh, and the WNBA season starts in less than two months.

It’s not lost on Parker that her impressive portfolio may not have been possible without the 37 words tucked inside the 1972 education amendments that make up Title IX. The law prevents discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and activities. And though there’s still a way to go to create true equity across genders, as highlighted by the discrepancies between the 2021 men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, there’s no denying progress has been made. That’s the story Parker wants to highlight, she told For The Win in an interview that took place just before the start of this year’s tournaments.

Charles Barkley said Kobe Bryant was almost a member of the ‘Inside the NBA’ crew and now I’m so mad we didn’t get this

Man. Kobe would’ve been perfect on ‘Inside the NBA’

Kobe Bryant had a very clear interest in media after his playing career was over with the Lakers.

He’d done work with ESPN on his “Detail” video series where he’d break down play from the current generation of NBA stars. He also won an Oscar for his short film “Dear Basketball” that was released back in 2018.

Apparently, he had another media venture that he considered once before eventually passing on it. And that was being a member of the NBA on TNT Thursday night crew.

We could’ve apparently had some mixture of Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. That’s according to Barkley, anyway.

The NBA on TNT host visited Draymond Green’s podcast and explained how Bryant had actually signed a contract to come on the show but “didn’t want to do all the other [expletive].”

Take a listen.

“He had signed with us. David Levy, my old boss, had signed him to a deal. And we were excited. We were really excited. And then he called me back a week, 10 days later…like, ‘Yeah, Kobe’s not going to come.’ I’m like, ‘why?’ Because he don’t want to do all the PR stuff. He don’t want to go on radio shows and talk about basketball. Like, well, that’s part of the gig…He didn’t want to do all that and he never came to work for us.”

That’s fascinating. It doesn’t sound like a deal was ever truly done if Bryant didn’t actually have to come on the show. But even if they were just close to making this happen, it sounds pretty incredible.

Just imagine adding Bryant to the rest of that crew. No, wait. Scratch that. Imagine just reuniting Bryant with Shaq as part of that crew. That would’ve been amazing television. Could you imagine the debates they would’ve had at that table? Man. We needed this, y’all. Absolutely needed it.

NBA fans spent their time online just imagining how incredible this would’ve been.

Report: Phil Mickelson’s agent says he is considering future career options, including TV

A report by Front Office Sports indicated Phil Mickelson’s representatives have started to look into a future for Phil that includes TV.

Phil Mickelson is a natural with an audience – whether that means he has a golf club in his hand or a microphone, or even a captive audience behind a cell phone camera. According to a report by Front Office Sports, we might see more of Mickelson as a TV golf analyst as the 50-year-old, who has already logged two victories on the Champions Tour, winds down his playing career.

Front Office Sports cited sources who said Mickelson’s representatives have started exploratory talks with interested networks.

“Absolutely, we’re always in discussions about Phil’s future,” Steve Loy, Mickelson’s longtime business partner at SPORTFIVE, told the outlet.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if in the next 12 to 24 months you might see more of Phil on the air.”

Mickelson has long shined on the air with his easy smile, quick sense of humor and lethal wedge game. He became a natural on Twitter, often adding commentary to life behind the scenes on the PGA Tour and often through a series he called “Phireside Chats.” He has also starred in at least two quirky dance numbers promoting clothing sponsor Mizzen + Main.

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As for TV? Mickelson has been a draw in all three of Turner Sports’ made-for-TV charity golf events, as the Front Office Sports report noted.

Most recently, Mickelson and former NBA star Charles Barkley beat Peyton Manning and Steph Curry at “The Match III” in November. Before that, Mickelson and Manning against Tiger Woods and Tom Brady in May 2020 (weeks into the PGA Tour’s COVID stoppage) became the most-watched golf telecast in cable TV history, averaging 5.8 million viewers.

Mickelson seemed an easy presence in the booth with Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo during CBS’ coverage of the 2020 PGA Championship, too. The question becomes how much Mickelson would command if he were to become a regular on-air personality.

One source summed it up this way for Front Office Sports: “The question is: Can anybody pay him enough? And does he want to call 10 to 20 tournaments a year?”

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‘The Match’ was the most-watched golf telecast in cable TV history

‘The Match: Champions for Charity’ was the most-watched golf telecast in the history of cable television.

Americans have clearly missed sports.

“The Match: Champions for Charity” averaged 5.8 million viewers on Sunday, according to a press release from Turner Sports. The golf match featured Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods going up against Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson and aired on TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN.

The match was the most-watched cable telecast of a golf competition in television history. Manning and Woods beat Brady and Mickelson (1-up) and helped raise $20 million for COVID-19 relief efforts.

The match was also a big hit on Twitter. It was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter on Sunday, according to Turner Sports. Bleacher Report’s social coverage of the match drew 38 million video views.

The Bundesliga soccer league has already resumed play in Germany but “The Match” was one of the first U.S-based sports events to air live since COVID-19 shut down sports leagues across the country.

Some U.S. sports leagues might resume play later this summer. The NFL is hoping to have its season start on time in the fall.

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Medalist is back on TV, but don’t expect to see Greg Norman around

Greg Norman was excited to be on the broadcast for this weekend’s match at a club he helped build. An invite never came. How come?

It’s been 25 years since Medalist Golf Club last appeared on national television, when Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf pitted then-world No. 1 Nick Price against Greg Norman, the world No. 2 and founder of the newly opened club.

On May 24, the exclusive Florida enclave hosts another made-for-TV affair with Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning taking on Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady to raise funds for COVID-19 relief.

Just don’t expect to see Greg Norman anywhere.

A spokesperson for Norman confirmed to Golfweek that the World Golf Hall of Famer was approached by Turner Sports about joining the broadcast team for The Match.

“He was very interested. Next thing he heard was that Justin Thomas had been chosen for the role,” said his representative Jane McNeillie. “That’s all we really know.”

It’s been seven years since Norman had an acrimonious and very public split from Medalist after the board hired architect Bobby Weed to make changes to the course, which the two-time major winner furiously described as “a slap in the face.” He famously removed a stuffed shark mounted above the bar in the grill room, which was replaced by a board listing winners of the member-guest including, in 2002, Norman and Andy Mill, his former best friend whose wife, tennis great Chris Evert, left him for Norman in 2006.

I asked Kevin Quigley, the president of the board at Medalist, if the club had requested Norman not be part of the production. 

“No,” he replied.

Is it a preference of Medalist that he not be involved?

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There was a lengthy pause.

“I wouldn’t say a preference,” Quigley finally offered. “We asked who would be involved and we received the answer. His name wasn’t one of them. So there’s nothing in the contract between all the parties that says Greg Norman cannot be involved.”

Of course, not everything has to be contractual to be understood by all parties. An inquiry to Turner Sports on whether Norman was approached was not answered by press time.

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When told that Norman says he was approached and doesn’t know why there was no follow-up, Quigley said, “I have no idea what happened between him and Turner Sports. I can only say what happened between us and Turner Sports. They threw out a bunch of names and Greg Norman’s name was not among them. So we assumed he was not involved.”

Had Turner suggested Norman, would the club have been comfortable with that?

“I don’t know why he would want to be involved. You can go back and I’m sure you’ve seen the stories,” Quigley said before trailing off into another long pause. “His opinion of the golf course was so low that I don’t know why he would want to go on television and be a commentator to a product that he doesn’t approve of.”

In Medalist’s early years, Norman ran the club as he saw fit, and that included making changes to the Pete Dye design on which he was either a consultant or co-architect, depending on who you believe. When members took over the club, Dye was invited back to discuss restoring what had been changed. The legendary designer was driven around the property and was surprised by what he saw. “What happened here?” he asked.

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“Greg Norman tweaked pretty much every hole,” Quigley said. “As the founding member, Greg ran the club at his sole discretion. There’s seven members on the board, he had four seats. His golf course design company did the work, his company was paid for the work, and the members were the ones paying for it. And the members didn’t want the fifth green changed, they didn’t want the bunkers moved from one side of the fairway to the other.”

Quigley says the Medalist board sent Norman registered mail inviting him to submit a proposal at the time of the restoration but received no response. “He didn’t like the idea that anyone else was touching the golf course,” said Quigley. “He had a hissy fit when it was changed. He had an opportunity. He chose not to participate.”

Medalist has earned an enviable reputation as base camp for PGA Tour stars in the last decade since Woods moved to Jupiter and joined the club. More than 20 other professionals are members, including Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Matt Wolff and Justin Thomas, who Norman believes replaced him on the broadcast team for the Tiger-Phil event. “Justin and Tiger are very close so that might have had something to do with it,” Quigley said dryly.

Norman, who lives 15 minutes away, remains on the member roll at Medalist. “As the founding member of the club, he is a member. The way the document is written, he will always be a member,” the gregarious Quigley said. “He cannot be thrown out nor can he quit. He comes around sometimes and you see him. There’s no controversy.”

Norman did make one poorly-timed visit with his grandson only to find it was member-member weekend. “We had 120 people on the range. So it wasn’t the ideal time for him to hit balls with his grandson,” Quigley said. “He was here earlier in the year. He was in the grill room, sat down and had lunch. Tiger was at a table at the same time. It was all good.”

The course viewers will see on Sunday is much closer to what was broadcast a quarter-century ago, the board president believes. “It’s not an identical restoration but we restored a lot of it,” he said. “We’ll never get it back to the original golf course but it’s a lot closer than it was five years ago.”

I asked if Norman appreciates now the work that was done. “I’ve never heard him make a complimentary comment about the golf course, but I don’t communicate with him regularly,” Quigley said.

The Medalist board will have no say in how its golf course is presented to the world. The Match is being managed by the PGA Tour and last week Tour official Slugger White spent more than four hours touring the layout and discussing pin locations in the company of the club’s professional, it’s superintendent and Olin Browne, a board member and Tour veteran. At the halfway house, the group ran into the man who has replaced the Shark as the alpha male at Medalist, Woods, who was playing with Thomas and Fowler. “They chatted for 10 or 15 minutes and Tiger was funny,” Quigley recounted with a laugh.

“He suggested to Slugger he put all the pins on the front right that way Phil couldn’t use that cut shot of his to get it in there close.”

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