Rumors

John Mellencamp has taken Pat McAfee to task for his foul-mouthed rant on the Knicks’ celebrity fans that attended Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night in Indianapolis. “The Knicks/Pacers games have been very entertaining for anyone who likes basketball or sports. I attended Game 4 in Indianapolis,” Mellencamp, the Hall of Fame singer-songwriter and Indiana native, wrote on social media.

New York Post

“It’s been a great honor to be out here,” he says. “There’s only one place I’d rather be — French Lick.” On the next beat, the opening notes of John Mellencamp’s 1985 song “Small Town” drop in, and the viewer is treated to three minutes of classic Bird highlights spliced with shots of his Indiana hometown, while Mellencamp sings about having “a ball in a small town.” If you were a kid who happened to collect the “NBA Superstars” VHS tape upon its release in 1990, it’s possible you watched this moment, say, 200 times. Such was the power of its simple premise: NBA highlights set to popular music. “Even Bird admitted he loved it,” said Don Sperling, a former executive producer at NBA Entertainment.

The Athletic

Or, as the voice-of-god narrator would say at the beginning of the film: A fusion of music and sports like never before. “Nobody had composited one video of the best players in the league, set to really high-end, copyrighted popular music,” Sperling says. If you have seen “NBA Superstars,” you know that part of its charm lies in its soundtrack, which is catchy, well curated and sometimes kind of weird. The film begins with Janet Jackson’s “Control” scoring a montage of Magic Johnson highlights, transitions to Mellencamp and Bird, and then pivots to Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” for Michael Jordan, an explicit nod to the song’s association with the movie Top Gun and Jordan’s ability to fly (especially in slow motion). But then, there’s Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”; an instrumental track from Greek composer Yanni (“Looking Glass”) that scores a Dominique Wilkins reel; and a Billy Joel ballad from 1986 (“This is the Time”) during a tribute to older NBA players from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

The Athletic

David Bonderman, a Texas billionaire who paid $7 million for the Rolling Stones and John Mellencamp to perform at his 60th birthday in 2002, has been identified as the fourth and final potential buyer to tour the Warriors' facilities, multiple sources have told Bay Area News Group. Bonderman's tour this week completed the examination part of the sales process, a source said. Now the Warriors, who have been scrutinized for the better part of June by potential buyers, will wait for offers. Bay Area News Group has now at least partially identified the four bidders. In addition to Bonderman, a Wall Street financier, they are a group led by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, another one led by 24-Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov that includes former Lakers' superstar Magic Johnson, and one including Mandalay Entertainment chair Peter Guber. All four have had access to the Warriors' records and toured the facilities and each is expected to submit binding bids.

Oakland Tribune