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NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal took to his podcast The Big Podcast with Shaq this week to talk about how he was thinking about throwing his hat in the ring to purchase the Phoenix Suns. The rumored front-runners include former Disney CEO Bob Iger, billionaire Elon Musk, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. After seeing Bezos' name, Shaq decided to bow out completely. "I was open [to the idea of purchasing the team] until I saw the initials JB. Let me tell you something, you don't mess with James Brown, you don't mess with Jeff Bezos," Shaq said candidly. "When the boys come on stage, get your a** and go. So, Jeff said he wants it and a couple of other heavy hitters said they want it. I'm not even gonna put my name in the bucket on this one."
Wasserman, the global sports talent agency founded and led by entertainment and sports executive Casey Wasserman, is acquiring The Montag Group, home of many big name sports broadcasters including Bob Costas, James Brown and Jim Nantz. The deal combines Wasserman, which represents top athletes like the National Basketball Association’s Russell Westbrook and Major League Baseball’s Giancarlo Stanton, with the firm founded by Sandy Montag, the longtime agent of late football coach and broadcaster John Madden.
Magic Johnson: I’m shocked and saddened to hear about the passing of an incredible actor, leader, and man, Chadwick Boseman at the young age of 43. He shined in numerous roles including Jackie Robinson in “42”, James Brown in “Get On Up”, and notably King T’Challa in “Black Panther”.
Before “NBA Inside Stuff” was a show, it was a pilot, and before it was a pilot, it was an idea, created inside the offices of NBA Entertainment. It was 1989. The NBA was finishing a decade of promising growth. In 1980, NBA Finals games were infamously aired on tape delay by broadcast partner CBS. But the rivalry of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had propelled the league forward, and the singular star of Michael Jordan was poised to push it to new heights. As the league prepared negotiations for a new network television deal, they conceived a pilot for an unnamed show. It featured a young broadcaster named James Brown, then with CBS Sports, and sought to marry two things. “Sports with pop culture,” said Don Sperling, then a top executive at NBA Entertainment.
Armstrong's prayers were answered seven years after the murder of Lorenzen Wright on Nov. 9, 2017. Acting on a tip, Memphis Police went to a lake in Walnut, Mississippi. There, in the murky red clay water, they found a gun believed to be used in the killing. James Brown: How unusual is it to find a key piece of evidence some seven years later? Toney Armstrong: That's the needle in the haystack. They found the needle in the haystack. …and for them to be able to recover that gun is -- is a pretty remarkable feat. Although, Kelvin Cowans had broken up with Sherra Wright, he thought she would be happy when the gun was found. But he didn't get the reaction he expected when he called her to celebrate.
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Kelvin Cowans: I say, "Hey, the police have done this great thing. They found the gun that killed Lorenzen." Kelvin Cowans: We got on the phone and she wasn't happy about it at all, and -- James Brown: Really? Kelvin Cowans: --and that bothered me. That -- that was when I first started to believe that, you know what, maybe I haven't been looking at grief, you know, all this time. Maybe I've been looking at guilt. After finding the gun, the case took an unexpected turn. On December 5, police arrested Billy Ray Turner in a convenience store in Collierville, Tenn.
“It’s really quite amazing what he’s done,” said Glenn A. Fine, the former inspector general of the Justice Department, who was drafted out of Harvard in the 10th round by San Antonio in 1979 but did not try out because he won a Rhodes scholarship. “And after these two games, it looks like he has a pretty good chance to stick.” At least 10 Harvard players have been drafted by the N.B.A., according to university records. Five were drafted in the 1970s, including the sportscaster James Brown, one of the nation’s top high school prospects in 1969. Brown was taken by the Atlanta Hawks in the fourth round in 1973, but did not earn a roster spot. In 1985, forward Joe Carrabino was drafted in the sixth round by the Denver Nuggets and guard Bob Ferry, the brother of the Duke star Danny Ferry, was taken in the seventh, by the Hawks. And in 1987, Keith Webster was drafted in the seventh round by the Utah Jazz.
Barkley joined James Brown of CBS Sports for a conversation about the lockout, state of the NBA, playing with other superstars, football and the NCAA tournament. Chuck's take on the owners' stance was simple: "They're going to get the deal they want, or we're not going to play at all ... they've drawn a line in the sand." That's what most have said about how the owners have approached the negotiations. They don't want to just win by 40. They want to throw a touchdown on the last play and spike the ball while dumping Gatorade all over David Stern. They want it all. And Barkley seems to understand that side of things, especially in terms of competitive balance. "They have a fair very argument because we want our small markets to be competitive," he said.
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