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09/22 2010

ESPN Plans Pre-Season LeBronathon. Actual Coverage Optional.

Posted by Dan Levy.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today (via link in SBD) broke the news that ESPN is going to training camp with the Miami Heat. It’ll be like Hard Knocks, except without Rex Ryan, copious amounts of cursing, football, HBO, NFL Films production quality and Rex Ryan’s copious amount of cursing being recorded by NFL Films that’s shown on HBO. Oh, and football.

Starting at the team’s media day Monday and continuing when its training camp starts Tuesday at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., ESPN will erect a set and parachute in analysts Jalen Rose, Josh Elliott and Jon Barry and reporters including Rachel Nichols for continuous surveillance across ESPN platforms.

Wait, that sounds like ESPN is announcing a stake out, not coverage of camp. Is Hiestand reporting that ESPN is announcing that they’re going to stake out the Heat’s practices or are they going to actually get access? (Keeps reading…cuts and pastes):

While senior coordinating producer Mark Summer isn’t sure ESPN will get practice video, the mission is clear with a team he says has unbelievable story lines.

There was a quote after that sentence but honestly I’m not sure it even matters after the admission that they aren’t sure if they’ll get practice video. This is ESPN. This is the network that has a contract to show half the nationally-televised games of the NBA, announcing — via USA TODAY — that they’ll be covering the Heat in pre-season and they aren’t sure if they’ll have any actual footage.

If this report is accurate — and no reason to think it’s not — ESPN isn’t so much announcing anything as warning viewers that the LeBron coverage is about go to Favre to the sixth power. At least they’ll have a SportsCenter anchor, reporter, two analysts, a set and continuous surveillance. With all that time being filled, who’d have room for video anyway?

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Posted on September 22, 2010 at 11:04AM

 

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  1. SeattleHokie
    09/22 2010

    BYU TV. Big010 Network. The Tennis Channel. Lifetime. Why not a channel dedicated to LeBron? I would rather see a separate channel dedicated to him than ESPN devoting 89% of its coverage to him. I can’t wait trying to catch a highlight of a game and have to sit through Rachel Nichols outside a closed basketball practice talking about “LeBron had a skip in his step and was smiling on the way to the court, what could it mean?”