Quite a reaction indeed.

Chuck Culpepper in Sports on Earth, who wrote about being gay for the first time earlier this year:

The deluge of positivity surrounding this issue has astounded me, especially after six years abroad. You spend a good long while in life just hoping for a lack of derision, maybe some measure of distant understanding, and then so much of the nation just up and gives a big embrace. To a gay person — well, this one, anyway — it’s like spending years yearning for a Christmas puppy, and then the door opens and a whole litter stampedes out to swarm you.

Tim Brando generated quite a reaction with a series of tweets:

On the topic of Jason Collins I really don’t care and frankly why should anyone else.The HERO worship is out of bounds.I’m glad

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If it seems like the Miami Heat have been featured in virtually every NBA telecast, it is because they have. Unfortunately, LeBron’s national show is about to end, just as the Heat make their run at the Los Angeles Lakers’ 33-game winning streak.

According to Austin Karp of Street and Smith’s Business Daily, the Heat are nearly at their league maximums for national TV during the regular season.

Karp writes:

ESPN is only scheduled to have one more Heat game this season — next Wednesday’s matchup against the Bulls (potential win No. 27) — while ABC will air the April 14 Bulls-Heat game. ESPN and ABC will then be maxed out on appearances by the Heat, as the nets will have shown the team 10 and five times, respectively. TNT also only has one scheduled Heat game left before

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My old New Trier West classmate, Bob Kravitz (at least one of us made good), came out swinging today at Colin Cowherd.

The ESPN radio host, who is prone to making blanket generalizations (see: hockey writers, New Orleans), said the Indiana Pacers don’t sell out their games because Indianapolis has race issues.

“You’re holding an organization to a standard that happens because of race,” Cowherd said. “There’s no other explanation why people don’t go to Pacers games.”

Kravitz, writing for the Indianapolis Star, took offense to the suggestion. He wrote:

This was in 1999-2000, back before Indianapolis became a racist town. The Indiana Pacers, playing their first season at Conseco Fieldhouse, sold out every game.

This was in 2004-05, the season of The Brawl, but still well before Indy turned virulently racist. The Pacers averaged 16,994 fans per game and

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Also, Jerry Buss’ passing on Monday allowed the magazine to feature a cover acknowledgement just prior to deadline. Otherwise, the timing of that “Inside the Lakers’ disaster” headline could have been problematic.

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Quite a tribute:

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For starters, happy big 5-0 to Charles Barkley. As in basketball, you’re getting overshadowed by Michael Jordan again.

Barkley, though, has become one of America’s most lovable characters thanks to his antics on TNT. Tonight he will be part of the network’s coverage of the NBA All-Star game.

Recently, Barkley pronounced the basketball’s version to be sports’ best All-Star game.

“This All-Star Game is always fun because out of all the all-star games in sports, the baseball game is not that much fun, the Pro Bowl is not that much fun — you can’t play football for fake — but we do a great job of celebrating the NBA history,” Barkley said. “You walk around and you see the great Bill Russell and you’ll see Moses (Malone), you’ll see Doc (Julius Erving), you’ll see Oscar (Robertson), you see Jerry West. … Continue Reading

Charles, Charles, Charles. This time, he offered his always candid assessment of sideline reporters in an interview with Richard Deitsch of SI.com:

SI.com: How do you view sideline reporters on a broadcast?

Barkley: I don’t like sideline reporters at halftime because you’re  asking coaches questions, and they are pissed off most of the time. Anything can  happen when you are mad like that, especially if your team is getting its butt  kicked. It’s always easy to interview the guy who is winning, but if you are  getting your butt kicked, it’s a very awkward situation. You haven’t even had a  chance to digest what you’ve been bad at, and they are asking what you have been  bad at!

SI.com: That’s why I love interviews with Gregg Popovich. He’s great television when he  makes reporters uncomfortable.

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When Chuck Swirsky became the radio play-by-play voice for the Chicago Bulls, the first person he called was Jim Durham.

“I said, ‘I wouldn’t have this job without you,’” Swirsky said.

Like everyone else who knew him, Swirsky was “devastated” by the news that Jim Durham passed away over the weekend. He was 65.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the loss is particularly acute in Chicago. At the age of 26, Durham became the radio voice of the Bulls in 1973. He was immensely popular here, working both radio and TV on their games until 1991.

Meanwhile, Swirsky was in the process of establishing himself at WGN in the ’80s. Among his early play-by-play duties was calling DePaul basketball games with Ray Meyer.

Swirsky never forgot the assistance he received from Durham.

“He would listen to tapes of … Continue Reading