Albert Will Have Leading Role

It will be announced next week that Marv Albert will be TNT’s lead NBA play-by-play announcer next season, probably paired with Mike Fratello. Albert will work one of TNT’s Thursday night doubleheader games each week, plus the All-Star game and the playoffs, including the Western Conference finals.

The conference finals will all be on cable next season, when the NBA’s new TV contract kicks in.

Albert on Thursday said he couldn’t offer any details about his new deal but said he was thrilled with the prospect of remaining in the Turner family.

Bill Walton is likely headed for ABC-ESPN and is expected to be paired with Brad Nessler or Brent Musburger on the No. 1 NBA announcing team.

Snapper Returns

Steve “Snapper� Jones will rejoin Albert and Walton for Game 2 of the NBA Finals after missing Game 1 because of his daughter’s high school graduation.

As for Jones’ future status, he said, “When we finish the season, we’ll go from there. It’s week to week.�

Said Walton: “My contract is word to word.�

Retorted Bob Costas: “You must be the wealthiest guy this side of Bill Gates.�

Amazing Weekend

Just think what’s on tab this weekend. The NBA Finals, War Emblem going for a Triple Crown in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, the finals of the French Open, and the Senior PGA Championship--all on NBC, plus World Cup soccer, the Stanley Cup finals, the Buick Classic, the LPGA McDonald’s Championship, interleague baseball and more.

Oh yes, there’s also that pay-per-view fight in Memphis, Tenn., between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis.

In case anyone is interested, the $54.95 telecast, a joint production between HBO and Showtime, is available in 50 million homes in the U.S., plus another 500 million in 130 other countries.

HBO’s Jim Lampley and Showtime’s Bobby Czyz will call the fight. HBO’s James Brown is the host, Showtime’s Jim Gray the reporter.

This will be a particularly busy weekend for Gray, who will stop off in Memphis after working tonight’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals for NBC and then head on to New Jersey for Game 3 Sunday.

Of the fight, Gray said: “You would have to say that on either fighter’s best day, Mike Tyson is the better fighter. However, we have not seen Mike Tyson’s best day for almost a decade.�

A Great Moment

Tom Hammond, the host of NBC’s coverage of the Belmont, said, “This is the ultimate for thoroughbred racing. It’s maybe one of the most exciting moments that a sports fan can experience.

“I know the last Triple Crown in 1978 when Affirmed beat Alydar may be the greatest race of all time; certainly the greatest one I’ve seen. The anticipation leading up to the race and then the moment when they turn for home will be something special.�

ESPY Nominations

Phil Jackson may not have received any votes for NBA coach of the year, but when the ESPY nominations were announced in Hollywood this week, Jackson was the only coach from the NBA in the coach of the year category.

And Shaquille O’Neal was the only NBA player in the best male athlete category.

The ESPY Awards will be televised live from the new Kodak Theater in Hollywood on July 10.

Another Sports Channel

Plans have been in the works for some time now to launch the Tennis Channel--the channel has already lined up seven women’s tournaments--and now comes word of a College Sports Network, expected to go on the air sometime early next year.

The channel is the brainchild of Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg, co-founders of the Classic Sports Network, which is now ESPN Classic. Their new channel will focus on the more minor college sports.

Eye Trouble

ESPN’s Stuart Scott is back to work and covering the NBA Finals but says he is facing more eye surgery because of an injury suffered April 3 while working out with the New York Jets.

Scott, a high school football star, was preparing to do a three-part series on what it’s like to go through a mini-camp when he was hit in his left eye by a football thrown by a high-powered pass-throwing machine. It split the cornea and lens. What was particularly scary was that Scott suffered a detached retina in his right eye in 1989 after getting hit with a basketball.

“I was using only my left eye,� he said before Game 1 Wednesday. Since the mishap, he has had to use his right.

He said he now sees well enough out of his left eye to read a teleprompter, but his vision in that eye is not what it used to be. That’s why he’s facing more surgery.

Short Waves

The U.S.’s next World Cup game, against co-host South Korea, will be televised live on ESPN2 at 11:30 p.m. Sunday. A replay of the U.S.’s victory over Portugal will be shown by ESPN Classic Saturday at 6 p.m.... ESPN got a 2.85 national rating for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals Tuesday. The telecast was the network’s most-viewed and highest-rated NHL contest in nearly three years, and its best finals’ opener ever, but the L.A. rating was only a 0.7.... Good sign for baseball: Fox, which began its Saturday baseball coverage last weekend , averaged a 2.7 national rating with a 9 share, a slight increase over last year’s opening weekend average of 2.5/8.... NBC probably won’t get much of a rating for the men’s final from the French Open on the West Coast. It’s being shown here live at 6 a.m. Saturday’s women’s final will be on at a more respectable 8 a.m.

ESPN recently fired Jason Jackson for violations of company policy. Word is it was for sexual harassment. “I did not sexually harass anyone,� Jackson told the Miami Herald, although he admitted he made “comments that had sexual overtones on occasion--me being my colorful self at times. My wife said I should change that.� Jackson, who was on both TV and radio, had been at ESPN since 1995.... ESPN has canceled “Unscripted With Chris Connelly.� It will go off the air June 28.... ESPN’s “Mohr Sports� moves to a new time slot--Tuesdays at 5 p.m.--next week.

Aileen Eaton, the late legendary L.A. boxing promoter, will be the topic of tonight’s “Life and Times� show on Channel 28 at 7. Son Mike LaBell and rival promoter Don Fraser will be the featured guests. Eaton is being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame posthumously this weekend.... Harvey Schiller, former president of Turner Sports and former executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, has been named president and chief executive officer of Assante’s U.S. operations. Assante is a Canadian sports management company.

Radio Daze

As one might expect, local sports-talk radio stations have been giving blanket coverage to the Lakers.... Besides regular contributors Alvin Gentry and Brian Scalabrine, Arnie Spanier’s guest on KXTA (1150) Thursday included Shaquille O’Neal, Elgin Baylor and David Stern.... KXTA has been airing a “Laker Insider� show with Rich Marotta and Marques Johnson from noon-3 p.m. for more than a week. It sure beats the “Kiley and Booms� Fox network show.... On today’s “Laker Insider,� Spanier will fill in for Marotta, who has a boxing commitment. Tonight at 9, Marotta will do a special “Neutral Corner� show previewing the Tyson-Lewis fight, and then he’ll do a special post-fight show Saturday night at Yankee Doodles in Santa Monica.

Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian were planning to be back at the Fox Sky Box restaurant at Staples Center today from 1-5 p.m., but McDonnell said Clear Channel, which owns Laker flagship station KLAC (570), claimed that was an infringement of its radio rights.