Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993 TAG: 9305080183
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells and Pat Riley have returned from NBC to the sidelines. Mike Fratello has come close. Now, not only is Buckner a strong presence on "NBA Showtime." He's been an NBC studio lame duck since March 4, when he was selected the coach of the Dallas Mavericks starting next season.
"I had no intention of going into coaching," Buckner said. "In fact, [NBC Sports president] Dick Ebersol and I met and had a long talk about that. It was only in the last six months it even began to be a thought. If you had asked me about coaching before that, I'd have said point-blank that there was no way."
Buckner, the former Indiana University guard and 10-year NBA veteran, thought that if he had an NBA future, it would be in administration. What changed his mind was his presence at practices with the Minnesota/Timberwolves, for whom Buckner works about 20 local telecasts per season.
"I found myself being a little more helpful than I thought I'd be," Buckner said. "Now and then, I found I may have something to contribute, and the coaches were open to my input.
"I found out I had more desire to be a coach than I thought. It was one of those things, I guess, where if I had been realistic about it, it was something that interested me, but I kept telling myself otherwise."
The Mavericks are the NBA's worst team, coming off an 11-71 season, so it's really going to take a mighty Quinn to make his next endeavor a success.
"You don't often get a chance to build from the ground up in any organization," said Buckner, who will have a significant role in personnel moves.
Buckner the coach is expected to be as tough and straight-forward as he is behind the NBC studio desk. He doesn't know whether his NBC work helped him land the Dallas job, but he realizes the exposure didn't hurt his chances.
"I'd have to assume that being in front of the camera and the pressure of doing TV was a plus," he said. "What may have been more important to me was the chance to expand my thoughts and my knowledge and be a communicator."
Buckner, 38 and a Chicago native, will leave his sports marketing firm in Milwaukee for coaching. He worked for ESPN and CBS before moving to NBC, and his career change adds to an impressive resume that not only includes four Big Ten championships and an NCAA basketball title with coach Bobby Knight, but two years as a Hoosiers' defensive back.
He was a 14th-round draft pick by the Washington Redskins in 1976. He is one of only seven men to win NCAA and NBA titles and an Olympic gold medal. And if some NBAers are uncomfortable about him doing commentary in one job about people he will coach against in another, well, that's no more challenge than he'll face on the Dallas bench.
"Whether or not people feel like that," he said, "there's not a thing I can do about it. So, I don't worry about it."
\ TV, OR NOT TV? With Virginia avoiding the loss of TV appearances among the sanctions in its NCAA probation announced Thursday, it appears the Cavaliers could have as many as five tube dates in football this season.
UVa-Georgia Tech is already on the Thursday night ESPN schedule, and ABC and ESPN have the Virginia-Florida State game high on the consideration list. UVa should have at least three games on the ACC's noon schedule.
One of the possibilities is Virginia Tech's visit to Scott Stadium on Nov. 20. Jefferson-Pilot Sports likes to regionalize the ACC network in that sweeps month to help ratings. Tech-UVa would play better in Virginia than Wake Forest-Maryland or FSU-N.C. State.
\ HAIL CESAR: WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis is the headliner in tonight's Showtime Event pay-per-view boxing card from Las Vegas, but it's WBC super lightweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez, with his 86-0 record, who may be the best fighter in the world.
Chavez, with 74 knockouts and Norfolk's Pernell "Sweetpea" Whitaker next, meets top contender Terrence Alli on the undercard as Lewis (22-0) faces once-beaten Tony Tucker in the main attraction.
The card is available on several area cable systems, including Cox Cable Roanoke, which is charging $34.95. The most-anticipated card of the coming months, however, is the Sept. 10 Whitaker-Chavez bout from San Antonio's Alamodome.
"Whitaker's not on my mind right now," Chavez told reporters earlier this week. "After I beat Alli, I'll concentrate on Whitaker."
\ NEWS AND VIEWS: Former Washington coach Joe Gibbs is making the network rounds to discuss a potential future as an NFL game analyst. Gibbs, however, has stated he intends to spent autumn Saturdays watching his youngest son, Coy, play football for Stanford. That figures to limit Gibbs' opportunities to a studio role with ESPN or TNT, or a West Coast game analyst for CBS or NBC. . . . The 300-lap Grand National race in today's Miller Genuine Draft 500 at Martinsville Speedway will be televised live by The Nashville Network at 1 p.m. . . . After more than a few late-inning thrillers the past two years, ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" is keeping fans awake again. In three of the four games this season, the last out has been made with the potential tying run at the plate.
by CNB