Turner Sports’ Players Only NBA coverage is headed to NBA TV. In other news, ESPN has added one, lost another, and suspended a third.
“Players Only” Headed to NBA TV
Turner Sports is expanding its “Players Only” NBA coverage to NBA TV starting October 24. The series will replace “Fan Night” as the network’s signature Tuesday night franchise. Chris Webber, Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale will make up the studio team, while Greg Anthony and Steve Smith will call games from a monitor in Turner’s Atlanta studios. Players Only coverage will return to TNT in late January.
Yahoo!’s Wyshynski to ESPN
ESPN has hired Yahoo! Sports writer Greg Wyshynski to serve as an NHL reporter on various platforms, including ESPN.com and SportsCenter, beginning Monday. Wyshynski had been with Yahoo! since 2008. The hiring comes just months after ESPN’s already-miniscule hockey team was all-but-wiped-out in the company’s massive talent layoffs.
Czarniak Quietly Exits ESPN
ESPN anchor Lindsay Czarniak quietly left the network at the expiration of her contract in August, Sports Business Journal‘s John Ourand reported this week, ending a five-year run that primarily included hosting the 6 PM ET edition of SportsCenter. After Czarniak lost the 6 PM gig last year, she was never given another permanent role. Beyond SportsCenter, Czarniak had been ABC’s Indianapolis 500 host.
ESPN Punishes Hill
ESPN announced Monday that it has suspended SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill two weeks for what it termed a second violation of its “social media guidelines.” Hill suggested on Twitter Sunday that fans upset with NFL Cowboys owner Jerry Jones no longer patronize the team’s advertisers. It was not the first time an ESPN anchor suggested a boycott of the Cowboys’ sponsors, with Wendi Nix making the same suggestion on-air after Jones signed Greg Hardy fresh off of a domestic violence charge two years ago.
[News from Turner Sports, ESPN PR 10.10, John Ourand/Twitter 10.10]
