ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604290091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Matt Guokas starts the NBA playoffs this weekend with two games in two days. It should remind him of three decades ago.
These days, broadcasters are the only ones with games in different cities on back-to-back days. The NBA had national TV games only on Sunday afternoons on ABC back in 1966-67 when Guokas was a rookie backup guard with his hometown Philadelphia 76ers. Now, even every first-round playoff game is likely to be on the tube.
Guokas, in his third season as NBC's lead NBA analyst, recalls 29 years ago this weekend when the Wilt Chamberlain-led Sixers - that year's version of this year's Chicago Bulls - needed to win a Sunday home game to take the NBA Finals over the San Francisco Warriors. Yes, the NBA Finals were played in late April.
``We were up 3-1 [in a best-of-seven series], playing at home,'' said Guokas, who works today's New York-Cleveland game (1 p.m., WSLS) before doing the Bulls-Miami game Sunday (5:30 p.m., WSLS) with Marv Albert. ``We were the better team, and we knew if we lost, we'd have to fly out later that evening.
``Well, in a huge and mistaken display of confidence and bravado, none of us packed before we went to the game. The Warriors got hot, and we got beat. We all had to go home, pack our bags, come back and fly out about 6 o'clock that night for a game in San Francisco on Monday night.''
The 76ers won the title there, finishing what had been a record 68-13 regular season with an 11-4 playoff record in the year before the ABA began playing. That regular-season victories record now belongs to the 1995-96 Bulls (70-12), of whom Guokas says, ``I'm not ready to say they're the best team of all time - and their organization would agree - at least until they've won a championship. Still, that doesn't detract from what they've accomplished.''
After a regular season in which NBA telecast ratings were up 2 percent on NBC and a whopping 25 percent on two Turner cable networks, Guokas sees the playoffs as intriguing for the same reason the defending champion Houston Rockets made them so last year.
``The Rockets were a 6 [Western Conference seed],'' said Guokas, 52, who played 10 years in the NBA and was a head coach for another seven in Philly and Orlando. ``The very thing that happened last year could happen again. The league is that way. Other than Chicago and Orlando and maybe Seattle in the West, the rest are bunched pretty much even. If someone gets some momentum, they could do what Houston did.''
Just as a trade for Clyde Drexler boosted Houston's stock last season, Guokas sees Magic Johnson's return to the Lakers from retirement as a potential playoff-turning development.
``I think Magic makes a big difference in that team,'' Guokas said. ``They were playing well without him, but they're that much better with him. However, it's not like the Lakers are going to sneak up on anybody. The other factor is that in the Rockets, the Lakers probably have the toughest first-round matchup.''
It might be almost as tough as playing on opposite coasts on back-to-back nights in the good old days.
NFL '96: Fox may have landed the anticipated Oct. 27 ``JJ Squared'' matchup - Jerry Jones against Jimmy Johnson, or Dallas-Miami - on the 1996 NFL schedule, but ABC again has the kind of ``Monday Night Football'' schedule that will keep the show among the top 10 prime-time series.
Eighteen of the 34 team appearances on the 17-week series belong to Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Green Bay and Oakland - three times apiece. Sixteen of the NFL's 30 clubs will play on Monday night.
How far have the Washington Redskins fallen? This will be their third straight year without a Monday night date. Although the Redskins rank fourth in Monday dates (behind Miami, Dallas and Oakland) since the format began in 1970, they haven't been called by Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf and Frank Gifford since Nov.1, 1993. That was Richie Petitbon's season as head coach.
ABC's schedule shoots for attractive teams, not big markets. Yes, Los Angeles does not have an NFL team, but ABC also doesn't have an appearance from either of the two clubs from the No.1 New York market. It has been more than 15 years since neither the Giants nor Jets were on ABC in a season. Chicago's Bears, who always do big numbers in prime time, have two ABC dates.
AROUND THE DIAL: The regional NHL playoff game from Fox on Sunday is Game 6 of the Pittsburgh-Washington series (3 p.m., WJPR/WFXR). The network's first Sunday playoff rating was up 11 percent from a year ago. ... Fox has named Chip Caray - Harry's grandson, Skip's son and currently working NBA playoff dates for Turner Sports - as its studio host for the baseball Game of the Week package starting June 1. Caray had been scheduled as the network's No.3 play-by-play man. He will now work indoors with Dave Winfield and Steve ``Psycho'' Lyons. Fox is auditioning play-by-play men for two spots. ... ESPN's rating for the NASCAR Goody's 500 at Martinsville Speedway was 4.2 (or 2.84 million homes), up 27 percent from last year's same-day tape of the Martinsville spring race. The 4.2, however, was 11 percent below ESPN's season average for Winston Cup events. ... ESPN's rating for the NFL Draft was down 5 percent from last year. ... Churchill Downs is moving the post position draw for next Saturday's Kentucky Derby from its traditional Thursday morning spot to Wednesday at 6 p.m., and ESPN will air the draw live. ... Virginia Tech's broadcast exposure in the state capital region has been vastly improved, as International Sports Properties, Tech's new marketing firm, has landed WLEE (96.5 FM) and its 50,000 watts, for the football and basketball networks and call-in shows.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Guokasby CNB