Stan Van Gundy came right out and said the reason he is not one of the studio hosts for ESPN’s NBA Countdown studio show (the one that wraps around their game broadcasts on ESPN and ABC) was that David Stern and the NBA shut him out.
His brother Jeff Van Gundy — the lead analyst on ESPN’s broadcasts — basically confirmed that. And rightfully said it left him with journalistic questions.
From JVG’s interview with the USA Today (hat tip to SLAM).
ESPN eventually put together a foursome of Jalen Rose, Bill Simmons, Magic Johnson and Michael Wilbon. While I would have liked SVG on the show, that lineup should be an improvement over what they had last year.
As an analyst who gets paid to be critical at times of the league, Jeff called what the league did a “shot across the bow.”
Leagues can be very controlling by their nature. They want to spin things the same way the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney camps want to spin things. And in the case of the leagues, they have some leverage with the networks that broadcast their games because those rights come up for renewal.
All it means is that you need to be an educated media consumer in today’s market. There is no perfect, unbiased source of information on anything. Your job as a consumer of media is to understand that, notice the patters and see through it where you need to.
And that includes NBA broadcasts.