Jon Barry ABC ESPN

Jon Barry ABC ESPN, UPDATE 12:45 am: Sports By Brooks, which broke the story, has this update: SbB has learned Chris Broussard & Jon Barry won’t returm to ESPN’s NBA studio. Added to show: @sportsguy33 & Stan Van Gundy

Which means the lineup would be Mike Wilbon and Magic Johnson as holdovers with ESPN’s Sports Guy Bill Simmons and Stan Van Gundy. That has potential (frankly, I would have dropped Magic, too, he’s not good in this role). It should be better than the old pregame/halftime studio show, but that’s not much of a bar to clear.

TNT is still the model to beat.

8:40 am: I don’t know if this is really true, but I hope that it is.

There have been rumors that ESPN has been looking to shake up its rather staid pregame/halftime NBA studio show. Now we get this tweet from Sports By Brooks:

SbB has learned @sportsguy33 & Stan Van Gundy will host retooled ESPN NBA studio show in LA this season

For the record, @sportsguy33 is the twitter handle of ESPN “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons. He is their most popular Internet writer, the guy behind Grantland and the suits at ESPN have looked for a way to use him more on television.

Word of caution, take this rumor with a grain of salt. Or, maybe a whole box of Kosher salt. It’s interesting and it’s out there – and certainly Sports By Brooks does have contacts – but we’re not sure how real this is yet.

If true, I don’t know how good that pairing would be, but it has potential. The current ESPN studio show – with Magic Johnson, Jon Barry, Chris Broussard and Mike Wilbon – is dull. It lacks chemistry.

The best studio show remains TNT’s Inside the NBA. Even with Shaquille O’Neal as an anchor on it. The combination of Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson is fantastic – they are both funny and can be insightful. Chris Webber fits in well as a fourth on that show.

It’s night and day when you compare ABC’s studio show to TNT’s. Simmons and Van Gundy (the recently released Magic coach and brother of ESPN color analyst Jeff Van Gundy) have potential though to be funny – both have great senses of humor – and to have good basketball talk as well.

I’d tune in and give it a chance at least.

'Star Trek' Actress Grace Lee Whitney Dies at 85

'Star Trek' Actress Grace Lee Whitney Dies at 85, Grace Lee Whitney, the on-screen character who played Yeoman Janice Rand on the first Star Trek, passed away Friday. She was 85. Every USA Today, child Jonathan Dweck said the star passed on of common reasons at her home in Central California. Whitney depicted Captain Kirk's collaborator for eight scenes of the first 1966 TV arrangement before she was composed out of the script. At the point when Star Trek was renewed as a motion picture establishment in 1979, the performing artist returned as a boss frivolous officer in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Her last appearance as Rand was in 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. William Shatner, who played Whitney's onscreen manager, tweeted Monday: "Sympathies to the group of Grace. She was a consistent sparkling grin throughout the years each time our ways crossed." Every NBC News, Whitney was a customary at Star Trek traditions around the glob...

Massachusetts beach brawl

Massachusetts beach brawl, A massive brawl broke out at Revere Beach, Massachusetts, on Sunday that involved between 100 and 200 people and had police from across the region rushing to the scene. The Mother's Day melee at the popular beach just north of Boston apparently started when two women began fighting, Mayor Dan Rizzo told NECN. He said their boyfriends joined the fight, which then snowballed into the brawl. The station reports that 12 people were arrested. WHDH reports that the brawl began over a stolen handbag. Police made an arrest over the incident, but it drew a crowd which then turned violent. One witness told the station that a girl involved in the fight punched a police officer in the face. "It just kept building and building and more people getting upset about their friends being taken into custody," another witness, Tyler Wade, told WHDH. The fight escalated from there. "Everybody started screaming people were throwing full cans of coke ...

Royal wedding more than 24.5 million UK viewers

Royal wedding more than 24.5 million UK viewers, Prince William and Kate Middleton's Royal Wedding was watched by more than 24 million terrestrial TV viewers in the UK, according to overnight estimates from industry body Barb. The BBC achieved a large share of the UK viewing figures for Friday's (April 29) ceremony, with a peak figure of 20 million tuning in to the corporation's broadcast of the Westminster Abbey service. More than 34 million people caught at least some of the Royal Wedding coverage through the BBC, including on its iPlayer service, reports BBC News. Sky News said it had a peak of 661,000 viewers at the start of the wedding ceremony, while BBC Two, Channel 4 and Five only made up 1 per cent of the audience as the nuptials began. William and Kate's service is now in the all-time top 10 programmes in the UK, but drew less viewers than the 1966 World Cup Final (32.3 million) and Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 (32.1 million).

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