After Taking the Money, NBA Looks for a Push

When Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports, sat behind a microphone in Newport Beach on Thursday, riffing on the NBA and money grabs and deals with the devil, he wasn’t referring to Mark Cuban’s new $1-million giveaway reality show.

Goren was talking about the NBA’s experiment with its future -- a television contract that sacrifices major-network security for a bigger cable payout.

“You compromise yourself as a league,� Goren said during a panel discussion at the World Congress of Sports seminar. “In effect, the NBA, in their last negotiation, went around to four networks and from four networks they heard, ‘Uh uh, too rich for our blood. We ain’t gonna lose money on your deal. Go somewhere else.’

“And they went somewhere else and made the deal with the devil. They took short-term cable money -- good money, they got the money they wanted -- but their viewership has eroded ever since.�

After the 2001-02 season, the NBA left NBC for a three-tiered, cable-heavy contract with ESPN, TNT and ABC. Midway through the deal’s second season, NBA ratings are up on ESPN and TNT but down on ABC, which put LeBron James against NASCAR two Sundays ago and managed half the Subway 400’s national rating.

“My goodness gracious,� Goren said. “LeBron James’ network premiere a couple weeks ago, in the middle of winter, did a 2.4 household rating on ABC. On an NBA game of the week.

“Those numbers are minuscule compared to what the NBA had when they had a deal with NBC, when they got promotion on Thursday nights during ‘Friends’ and that powerful NBC lineup. They walked away from all of that and took the money. But anybody can do that. What about the long-term [effect] for your league?�

After four months of here-this-Sunday-gone-the-next scheduling, ABC begins its NBA stretch run this weekend, offering live NBA coverage every Sunday through the end of the season. This Sunday, ABC rolls out a doubleheader featuring the Dallas Mavericks at the Houston Rockets at 10 a.m., followed by the New Jersey Nets and the Lakers at Staples Center at 12:30 p.m.

Meanwhile on Sunday, Goren’s network serves up another round of NASCAR, the Nextel Cup UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 from Las Vegas at 11:30 a.m. NBC will show the Los Angeles Marathon at 8 a.m.

Those viewing options again:

Fox: People driving.

NBC: People running.

ABC: Shaq, Kobe, Yao and Dirk.

If the NBA can’t hold its own in that group, it might be time to call back the devil’s people, do another lunch.

Available on television this weekend:

TODAY

* Stanford at Washington

(Channel 7, 3 p.m.)

With a victory, Stanford will become the first team to complete a Pacific 10 Conference season 18-0. Which would sound a lot more impressive if the Pac-10 had more than two teams worthy of the NCAA tournament.

* UCLA at Oregon

(Channel 2, 1 p.m.)

To put it another way, UCLA has lost its last five games, hasn’t won on the road since Jan. 10, will probably lose this one in Eugene -- and will still qualify for the Pac-10 tournament if eighth-place Washington State loses to fourth-place California, or ninth-place Oregon State loses to USC.

* USC at Oregon State

(Fox Sports Net, 5 p.m.)

Backing into the conference tournament (continued): USC, 7-10 in conference play, can finish 7-11 and still reach the Pac-10 tournament if Washington State or UCLA loses.

* North Carolina at Duke

(ESPN, 6 p.m.)

In this week’s Sports Illustrated, Will Blythe, former Esquire literary editor, writes that the North Carolina-Duke basketball rivalry “is Ali vs. Frazier, the Giants vs. the Dodgers, the Red Sox vs. the Yankees. Hell, it’s bigger than that. This is the Democrats vs. the Republicans, the Yankees vs. the Confederates, Capitalism vs. Communism. All right, OK, the Life Force vs. the Death Instinct, Eros vs. Thanatos.�

Also, it’s a matchup of the ACC’s first-place team, coming off its worst home performance in 42 games, against the ACC’s fifth-place team, 8-7 in conference play.

* Memphis Grizzlies at Clippers

(Channel 5, 12:30 p.m.)

Wonder if Kobe Bryant will be watching.

* Mighty Ducks at Pittsburgh Penguins

(Channel 9, 4:30 p.m.)

Remember when the NFL champion used to play an exhibition game against college all-stars? This is the NHL version. The defending Stanley Cup finalists take on the AHL all-stars.

* Montreal Canadiens at Kings

(Fox Sports Net, 7 p.m.)

Did the Kings really shut their window of opportunity when they failed to capitalize on the height of Gretzkymania in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals against Montreal? Let’s see. Thursday night, with the Lakers idle, the local college teams scuffling and baseball just starting exhibition play, the playoff-contending Kings played defending Western Conference finalist Minnesota to a 1-1 tie -- and in this newspaper, the game report could be found on page D12.

SUNDAY

* Los Angeles Marathon

(Channel 4, 8 a.m.)

The women are given a 20 1/2-minute head start and the men are told to catch them if they can. When does NBC turn this into a weekly reality series?

* San Jose SaberCats at New York Dragons

(Channel 4, 3 p.m., delayed)

One segment of a recent ESPN poll asked sports fans 12 and older if they were interested in arena football. Results: 10.7% were “a little bit interested,� 15% were “somewhat interested� and 4.8% were “very interested,� for “total interest� of 30.5%, meaning 69.5% had no interest. No mention of how they felt about tape-delayed arena football.