ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 26, 1997 TAG: 9704280010
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The Final Four may be history, but a really Sweet 16 has just begun.
The NBA playoffs began Thursday night, and between Turner Sports and NBC, every game in 15 series that will crown a champion in mid-June will be televised. When it's over, the men who analyze what you're watching say it will look the same.
Which means, the Chicago Bulls will have their fifth title in seven seasons, and be the most dominant franchise in pro hoops since the Boston Celtics, who won 10 of 11 crowns from 1959-69 (and 11 of 13 going back two years earlier).
The networks will ride the Bulls as long as they're around. For instance, Game 2 of the opening-round Chicago-Washington series on NBC Sunday (5:30 p.m., WSLS) spills into prime time. If there is a Game 5 in the series, it will be played one week later at the same time on NBC. If not, Michael Jordan and Co. will be in Game 1 against Atlanta or Detroit.
``I think you have to pick Chicago,'' said NBC lead analyst Matt Guokas, who will call today's Charlotte-New York game (3:30 p.m., WSLS) with Marv Albert before they travel to the Windy City for Sunday's game. ``I don't think it's going to be as easy for them as last year. The Washington series certainly won't be easy, and although I'm not sure Atlanta will beat Detroit, the Hawks, defensively, can give the Bulls problems.''
Guokas doesn't buy the pre-playoff notion that the Knicks may be too physical for the Hornets.
``They used to be, with Anthony Mason, Charles Oakley and John Starks. They could get away with more bumping and hand-checking,'' Guokas said. ``The Knicks don't pop you any more. [Coach] Jeff Van Gundy says his best defender is [ex-Hornet] Larry Johnson, but I don't think anyone in Charlotte is worried by that.''
While Guokas called the Knicks ``schizophrenic,'' Turner analyst Chuck Daly likes ``mystifying'' to describe a season that included ``a lot of good wins, particularly on the road.'' Guokas said, ``and inconsistent play and careless turnovers other nights.''
Daly likes the Bulls ``with reservations.'' Fellow TNT analyst Hubie Brown concurred, saying, ``The Bulls have come back to the pack, but they're still favored. They only lost 13 games in the regular season in spite of Rodman missing 26, Kukoc 24 and Bill Wennington [out for the playoffs] 20 from their eight-man rotation.''
Turner analyst Doc Rivers said the defending champions ``are obviously the favorite, but last year everyone thought no one would beat them. I think teams believe they have a chance now.
``The problem,'' Rivers said, ``is that the Bulls are beatable, but they may only be beatable once. The question is can anyone beat them four times, which they'll need to do. And that's going to be very tough.''
HURRY UP: Home Team Sports televised the ACC men's and women's lacrosse championship games live last Saturday in Charlottesville, but it wasn't easy. The games three hours apart were at different sites - the women on the turf football practice field, the men at Klockner Stadium.
HTS also did it with only one production truck and one set of cameras, and had barely more than an hour between games.
HTS had contracted for a truck from a Charlotte company, and it didn't show. The women's game started at 12:30 p.m. and ended at 2:25, and the Baltimore-based HTS crew, realizing early a second truck wouldn't appear, had pre-wired sites at Klockner. ``It was a supreme effort by our people,'' said producer-director Sam Green of HTS. ``It only worked because our crew was determined to do it.''
The women's game signed off at 2:25. Green had a crew that expected to spend the normal six hours ``tearing down'' after the telecast. Instead, 20 minutes after the sign-off, the truck left the turf field site, with a campus police escort through a jammed parking lot next to University Hall. At Klockner it had to back up a road to get into position.
``We backed into Klockner at 3:05,'' Green said. ``The police were great, a tremendous help. At 3:30, we got on the air for the men's game. We were ready with only 30 seconds to spare. I called it SWAT TV. It was incredible.''
OH, GOODY: Martinsville Speedway's continuing negotiations with ESPN for a Winston Cup contract renewal got a boost Sunday with a track-record 4.8 rating (3.41 million homes) for the Goody's 500 telecast, which was up 13 percent from last year. The race ranks seventh in viewer homes in ESPN's stock-car racing history. The network's Winston Cup average rating for four races is 5.0.
CLICKERS: The green flag for Winston Cup's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway has been pushed back from 5 to 6:15 p.m. on May 25 on TBS. ... ABC's Frank Gifford was honored Wednesday with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports Broadcasting from the folks who give the Emmys. The only previous winners are Jim McKay, Howard Cosell, Pat Summerall, Curt Gowdy and Vin Scully. ... George Foreman just won't quit. The heavyweight veteran (75-4, 68 KOs) fights again tonight at 10 on Home Box Office, meeting Bronx native Lou Savarese (36-0, 30 KOs) in Atlantic City.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB