Load management takes on added weight when we try to monitor the number of paragraphs and statements that can be piled on the Lakers and Clippers with the arrival of the NBA regular season.
Background buffering is how we continue to unpack LeBron James’ ongoing narrative of steps to China. How do TV partners plan to respond to all of this?
An avalanche of avoidance, if we are to believe what we are already hearing.
Maybe a studio show will talk about it superficially in pre-game/post-game banter. But why would they? If “Stand With Hong Kong” T-shirts triggered by a GoFundMe.com Project end up dotting the Staples Center crowd during Tuesday’s opener between the Lakers and Clippers, expect a see, hear and say nothing approach.
“Maybe (the James/China story) added an international touch, but if you talk about X’s and O’s, once you take the plunge, no one will talk about LeBron and his comments,” he said. said Reggie Miller, the associate analyst with Kevin Harlan working on the game on TNT. The two also have the Clippers game at Golden State two nights later for TNT.
Stan Van Gundy, one year removed from his final tenure as coach and general manager in Detroit, has joined TNT’s payroll as an analyst for its new Tuesday night package.
ABC NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy’s brother already owns the company.
“The best thing about the start of the regular season is all the stories and predictions go away,” Stan Van Gundy said, “and now we have something to look at and judge things on. basketball.
“What happened with China happened during the preseason, when no one cares about basketball at that time of year and it’s all about generating intrigue. But I agree, when the ball goes up it will be about the Lakers and Clippers rivalry because Los Angeles is now the basketball capital of the world.
Protesters hold up images of LeBron James during a rally in Hong Kong on October 15.
(Associated Press)
In addition to the Clippers and Lakers’ local TV partners, TNT and ABC/ESPN will certainly capitalize on this Hollywood remake. It is already predetermined that the four regular season matchups between the two teams with beefed-up offseason rosters will be selected for the two major network partners, including a Christmas Day gift wrap for ABC. The last two are January 28 (TNT) and March 8 (ABC).
TNT maxed out 11 exclusive picks from Lakers and Clippers appearances. The ABC/ESPN schedule includes 19 Lakers games and 15 Clippers games (only ABC and certain ESPN evenings are exclusive). NBATV adds 12 more for each team (obscured in Los Angeles).
The Clippers’ first five games and nine of their first 11 are national broadcasts on TNT, ESPN or NBATV. Same with six of the Lakers’ first eight games.
Also under the headline of how the NBA generates more revenue, the league decided that its NBATV channel can be distributed for $59.99 per year with an online subscription that does not require the user to have a TV distributor. cable or satellite television.
All out-of-market games on NBATV can now be accessed by those who have gone the Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, iOS or Android route. The NBA continues its NBA League Pass ranging from $120 to $310 per year depending on the preferred levels.
But there’s also a caveat: Lakers games on Spectrum SportsNet don’t have a local streaming service and therefore aren’t available on national streams. The Clippers stream on Prime Ticket.
For Tuesday’s opening, TNT’s popular NBA studio team will leave Atlanta and set up shop across the street from the Staples Center at LA Live to host an extended 2.5-hour road show.
So no, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley will not be in Toronto where an NBA championship banner will be raised. Instead, they will be joined by a performance by musical group Halsey as part of the trip to Los Angeles. The gang will gather at O’Neal’s new “upscale casual” restaurant at the LA Live complex, Shaquille’s, for a media after-party on Wednesday.
Not to be stifled, ESPN will transport its “First Take” team of Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim Rose to the LA Live network’s digs all this week. That includes preparing for a live show Tuesday morning, planning on enough Lakers and Clippers fans to fill a studio audience for ambiance.
ESPN’s main NBA studio show has been “reimagined,” according to the network, as a pre- and post-game team led by “The Jump” host Rachel Nichols. It will be appropriately broadcast from LA Live’s production facilities for Friday’s Lakers-Jazz game at Staples Center ahead of ESPN’s national coverage.
Imagine if TNT and ABC/ESPN could air an entire season of Lakers-Clippers broadcasts.
“I also hope they play each other when the lights are hottest in the playoffs,” Miller confessed during a TNT conference call last week with other members of the media. “We will take four clashes. Are you asking that they play with 12? »
Why not? Just 15 years ago, then-NBA commissioner David Stern once said that the ideal televised game for a championship final would be “Lakers vs. Lakers.”
In 2019, it’s more about anything that will distract from Chinese politics.
