Van Gundy on when to turn off the Rockets and other NBA games
Jeff Van Gundy has warned us about the dangers inherent in watching the Rockets on television (“I would encourage every child to turn this off,” he said while Houston was getting rolled by the Cavaliers last week). But yet we continue watching, even through melodramas such as the Wednesday night foul-fest against the Pistons.
And, truth be told, Van Gundy was slightly less disdainful during a conference call this week to promote ABC’s new Saturday prime-time NBA games that he will call along with Mike Breen and Mark Jackson.
“Like Cleveland had a really bad night (in a Monday loss to the Warriors), the Rockets against Cleveland had a really bad night,” he said. “I didn’t think in particular that they showed a lot of fight in that game when it was going bad for them.
“Unfortunately, in many instances that we’ve seen this year in the NBA, that’s the norm for a lot of teams, not just the Rockets. When it doesn’t go well, you have to bring some fight, even though, hey, everyone has been humbled in this league. No one is above getting their butt kicked.”
In what continues to be a down season for the Western Conference, however, the Rockets are almost certainly headed for the playoffs, albeit for a short stay. And they have shown some improvement of late, Van Gundy said.
“Early in the season, they appeared to be frankly at times disinterested. I think now they’re playing better,” he said. “They’ve been injured. (Donatas) Motiejunas continues to be out, which I think is a huge loss to them. Josh Smith, who they lost to free agency, I think it’s a loss for them. So I think their front line depth has been hurt by both of those things.
“(Dwight) Howard is playing really well, but then they have a great perimeter player in ( James) Harden. I thought the Ty Lawson thing would work out great. It didn’t so far, or it hasn’t so far, and so right now they’re clearly going to be a playoff team, and depending on the match-up, they’ll be a dangerous one.”
The Saturday night prime time NBA series on ABC premieres this week with Cavaliers-Bulls and includes Rockets-Bulls on March 5. Settlement expands options for MLB viewers
While some details remain to be worked out, Major League Baseball fans will benefit from an out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit against MLB over the pricing and availability of the MLB.TV out of market streaming package.
As part of the agreement, reached just before the case was about to go to trial in New York, the price of a full MLB.TV package will be reduced to $109.99 for this year, a drop of $20, and MLB will offer single-team packages beginning at $84.99, with annual increases not to exceed 3 percent of that year’s cost of living increase, whichever is greater, through the 2020 season.
MLB by the All-Star Game break must offer a “Follow Your Team” o package that will allow customers who are paid subscribers of a regional sports network — in the case of the Astros, Root Sports Southwest — to watch what would previously have been blacked-out telecasts on MLB.TV.
In addition, attorneys in the case said, the agreement “requires MLB to implement by the All-Star Break, a “Follow Your Team” variant of MLB.TV, which — for the first time in any major professional sports league—will allow consumers to watch a chosen away team’s telecast even when that club is playing an “in-market” team.
“This new product, which will cost only $10 more than the MLB. TV package, will enable authenticated subscribers —individuals who are paid television subscribers of the Regional Sports Network (RSN) that carries the in-market club — to watch what, up until now, would have been ‘blacked out’ telecasts.”
Comcast and DirecTV have agreed to the Follow Your Team plan, and MLB has pledged that at least two of the other major providers (AT&T U-verse, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS) will follow suit.
The agreement also stipulates that MLB will work with providers, including DirecTV, to provide in-market streaming for authenticated subscribers to their regional sports networks, including Root Southwest.
MLB also will allow single-club programming purchases by Comcast and DirecTV subscribers through the Extra Innings television package. Neither Comcast nor DirecTV, however, are required to offer single-club programming for sale. If they do so, however, all teams must be available.
Four DVRs, no waiting
If you missed NFL Network’s compilation of NFL Films plays from Super Bowl I between the Packers and Chiefs, the channel will rebroadcast the program at 7 p.m. Friday. Last week’s three-hour telecast, which featured interviews with current and former players along with the game footage and the NBC Sports radio broadcast, drew an average audience of 558,00 viewers. Friday’s telecast will be 90 minutes and will be limited to the actual game telecast, minus the extraneous bells and whistles. … “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” returns at 9 p.m. Tuesday on HBO with segments on potential conflicts of interest within college sports team medical staffs on clearing injured players for return to the field, a profile of new world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury and on marijuana use by NFL players for pain management. … Rachel Nichols will host a new NBA weekday program titled “The Jump” premiering at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 19 on ESPN. … Big headline in my email basket: Mike Francesa Tells Katie Nolan He Is Leaving WFAN. First line of actual email: He’s leaving at the end of 2017. … Jim Ross, a favorite of Houston wrestling fans dating back to his days calling matches from the Sam Houston Coliseum, returns to the air March 4 as part of AXS TV’s weekly New Japan Pro Wrestling cards. … James Harden will join former Rockets teammate Jeremy Lin and Stephen Curry of the Warriors in a television spot promoting Chinese New Year. … William Shatner will narrate “The Colorful Montreal Expos,” in which former players trace the history of the former National League team, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, on MLB Network. … The NFL these days dispenses with words and relies on graphics to relate its weekly Nielsen ratings update. Fortunately, the numbers speak for themselves: 31.5 million viewers for Chiefs-Patriots on CBS, 3.7 million for Packers-Cardinals on NBC, 36.7 million for Seahawks-Panthers on Fox and 43 million for Steelers-Broncos on CBS.