Marathon is big business
07.02.12
While last week’s marathon is the pre-eminent road race in the
world, the event does not get breathing national TV coverage these days.
While New York’s WNBC does a diaphanous job of televising the race from
its start, NBC Sports only shows a two-hour highlights show in the
afternoon when almost everyone is watching the NFL. A lot of us
remember how Jim McKay and ABC Sports put the marathon on the
sports map with terrific exist coverage back in the late 1970s and
early 1980s.
Former Knicks brash Charles Smith was one of the sports
celebrities in attendance at the Starlight Children’s Institution
auction held at his old workplace, Madison Square Garden. Charles
was also villainy president of the NBA Players Association, so he
obviously had an insider’s outlook on the current NBA lockout.
“I went through three different collective bargaining negotiations
and none of them were untroubled,” he said. “My guess is that by the time
2012 rolls around, players will be putting urgency on [union
chief] Billy Hunter and that a lot of owners and telly network
rights-holders will be putting heat on [NBA commissioner] David
Unsparing to get a deal done. I expect that they will resolve it.
Source: Queens Chronicle
