ESPN’s public relations department issued a statement on Saturday afternoon denying a report that Milwaukee Bucks guard Patrick Beverley was banned from network programming.
The report, which came from Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports Friday, indicated that Beverley had been banned from appearing on any ESPN shows after the Bucks guard ejected network producer Malinda Adams from his postgame media availability on Thursday night.
“There was an erroneous report that suggested Patrick Beverley was banned from appearing on ESPN. He isn’t banned and never was,” the statement from the network said Saturday.
Beverley’s verbal altercation with Adams came after she admitted to the Bucks guard that she did not subscribe to his podcast.
Beverley’s behavior during the media scrum, as well as during the game when he threw a ball at a group of Pacers fans behind the Milwaukee bench twice, was widely criticized in the aftermath of Milwaukee’s elimination from the playoffs.
Beverley apologized to Adams on Friday, she said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) Friday.
There is no word yet on any discipline for Beverley from the NBA regarding either of the two incidents.
If the over/under on the number of betting scandals it would take a professional sports league to reexamine its gambling ties was set at 1.5, the under would have hit.
Following the lifetime ban of Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, the NBA is in discussions with sportsbook partners to figure out some changes that might prevent another scandal.
According to ESPN, the NBA is looking for ways to tweak betting menus including, "prohibiting betting on players on two-way contracts between the G League and the NBA," and "not allowing bets on the 'under' on a player prop."
However, there are concerns that limiting what consumers can gamble on might push them back into the arms of unregulated sportsbooks. For example, the kind of off-the-books bookie that took the action of Shohei Ohtani's translator, Ippei Mizuhara.
Legalized sports gambling has been spreading rapidly since the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act 2018. While 38 states (plus the District of Colombia) have legalized gambling, there are still plenty of states dragging their feet to get involved. Possibly because there are so many kinks to work out where it is legal.
In the meantime, leagues are desperate to find ways to keep something like the Porter situation from happening again because there's so much money at stake. Where once we were inundated with daily fantasy sports ads, we're now subject to nonstop legal gambling ads. Sportsbooks advertise everywhere and there's a huge push to make gambling more accessible everywhere. It's where all the money is right now, and it's new and exciting and everyone wants to be involved and no one wants to miss out.
Things like the Porter scandal put it all at risk. That's why leagues have to do whatever they can to make sure it doesn't happen again. Even if they know deep down it probably will.
The Boston Celtics finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA at 64-18. Then they rolled through the Eastern Conference playoffs, losing just two games in three rounds on their way to their second NBA Finals in three seasons. You would think things were going pretty well in Boston, but if you tuned into Get Up this morning, you might think the team was about to unravel.
During Day 2 of the conversation about Jaylen Brown being named MVP of the Eastern Conference finals, they showed a clip of Brown receiving his trophy and highlighted Jayson Tatum smiling while he clapped for his longtime teammate. This was apparently Tatum being "shocked" and not excited like his teamamtes.
This might be the dumbest ESPN segment in the Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown era. And thats saying a lot.
“When Jaylen Brown wins the award the rest of the team just goes crazy, they were so genuinely excited for him. And you did not seem to think it was mirrored in Jayson Tatum” pic.twitter.com/3LGv7lBs1w
"I think a lot of people were surprised," said Greenberg. "There was a lot of chatter online yesterday to whatever degree this is important and relevant about Jayson Tatum's reaction. When Jaylen Brown wins that award in the moment that it happens, the rest of the team just goes crazy. And you were talking about it in our meeting earlier this morning. They're all so genuinely... Look at them. They are just so genuinely excited for him and you did not seem to think that it was mirrored in Jayson Tatum."
Greenberg then turned to Udonis Haslem, who twice says he thought Tatum was "shocked." Again, the video clearly shows Tatum doing exactly what every other teammate is doing in the same video. He's touching Brown in congratulations. He's smiling. He's clapping. He has the same look on his face that everyone else does. In order to imagine this being some kind negative reaction you would have to be someone with a vested interest in the Celtics failing. Conveniently, Get Up had one of those people on set today in Udonis Haslem.
What is ESPN thinking having Haslem, who played two decades for the Heat and is currently employed by the team, commenting on Miami's most bitter rival? They're putting him on national television to sow doubt in the public's mind about how their stars feel about each other using a video of them celebrating a trip to the Finals. The fact that this came in the same episode that Haslem was worried about possibly tampering during a segment about LeBron James makes it an even more dubious decision.
While we probably shouldn't be surprised that Haslem would try to say this, it's downright amazing that Greenberg would not just humor him but set him up for it. There is literally nothing in this video that would suggest anything but joy, yet ESPN has Tatum lit up like he's being identified in CCTV footage at a burglary trial.. All he's doing is smiling!
The Ringer's Bill Simmons was among the many people to call Greenberg and ESPN out for this ridiculous editorial choice.
“Great segment Greeny. That might get us a million views online. Let’s try to keep the Tatum vs Brown storyline going heading into the Finals, Dave Roberts just texted me, he loves it!” pic.twitter.com/1ft9hPBtKE
The worst part about all this is that there is still a week until the NBA Finals start. If this is what ESPN's flagship morning show has turned to the morning after an actual Western Conference finals game we can't be far from wondering whether Tatum or Brown will demand a trade first this offseason. Sure, they've played together for seven straight years, had a ton of success and both signed max contracts at every opportunity, but maybe they want more!
Maybe Pat Riley or Alonzo Mourning can join the show to discuss trade destinations next week.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports. The news of who will get their head-coaching job is big. It’s important. It’s significant.
For sports media nerds like myself, though, the subplot to the Lakers' coaching job is much more fascinating. And that subplot is the battle between ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
There isn’t a reporter vs. reporter duel that gets more attention from sports fans than Woj vs. Shams.
The Woj vs. Shams grudge match came to the forefront early Thursday morning when Wojnarowski broke the news that the Lakers are targeting UConn’s Danny Hurley as their next head coach.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Lakers are targeting Connecticut’s Dan Hurley to become the franchise’s next coach and are preparing a massive, long-term contract offer to bring the back-to-back national champion to the NBA, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/6WPrigPvAW
Now, at the end of the day, who breaks the news is hardly that important. There’s no shame in Shams getting this one wrong. Sometimes sources aren’t accurate or a team changes its mind. Basically, s--- happens.
What made this particular Woj vs. Shams incident stand out is that ESPN’s biggest gun, Adam Schefter, even weighed in to send a message, whether it was intended or not.
“Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process,” per Woj. https://t.co/Sbs5yzXS1d
Again, whether intended or not, that sentence about Hurley being at the forefront of the search from the beginning is a direct shot at Shams.
Like I said, who ultimately breaks the news of the Lakers' next coach isn’t going to change anything. But Woj coming in to throw a bomb all over Shams's earlier report makes for very entertaining tweets and memes.
2. A brand-new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped this morning and it features an interview with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, who shares information and gives updates on the biggest news in sports media.
Topics covered include the latest developments with the NBA's future TV deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon and where things stand with Warner Bros. Discovery/TNT. Marchand also reveals what he thinks NBC's plan is for a lead broadcast team, what will happen with the Inside the NBA crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal, whether Barkley could end up at ESPN and why the relationship between TNT and the NBA deteriorated.
Following Marchand, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for our weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week's topics include new sports TV shows that are on the radar and the Yankees' dominance. Plus, we read the latest Apple reviews for SI Media With Jimmy Traina.
3. In Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts, I wrote about the ridiculous notion by some people that you need to know about the WNBA’s history in order to opine on the WNBA.
Just as nonsensical as that take is this take.
Hope all the “just talking heads” are tuned into @WNBA games tonite and tomorrow and the next nite and so on…..so they can equip themselves with a deeper sense of this league. And all of these opinions are great but let it come from watching the entire league.
Nope. You absolutely do not have to watch non–Caitlin Clark WNBA games if you do not want to. No sports fan or talking head has to watch anything they are not interested in. You are not required to have a “deeper sense of the league” to opine on general topics in any sport.
4. Pat McAfee WAS a punter, so it’s not totally shocking he’d have a good leg, but this was a hell of a pass.
5. If you missed the news last week, it was announced that ESPN sold two college football playoff games to TNT. College football released its postseason schedule on Wednesday and now we know why ESPN would pass up on airing a pair of playoff games.
On Saturday, Dec. 21, TNT will air two first-round playoff games at noon and 4 p.m. ET.
It just so happens that two NFL games will take place at the same time.
Texans at Chiefs will air at 1 p.m. ET on NBC while the Steelers visit the Ravens at 4:30 p.m. on Fox.
OFFICIAL RELEASE: The College Football Playoff has announced dates, kick times and broadcast information for the 2024-25 playoff, the first year of the expanded 12-team format.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 5, 2024
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: The longtime ABC news program, 20/20, debuted on this date in 1978. This seems like the perfect reason to post this clip that every old-school wrestling fan knows well.
