The games might have stopped, but sports are still producing winners and losers
Other than a smidgen of horse racing, the coronavirus pandemic has shut American sports down cold these past seven weeks.
Yet even in a time without games, there have been clear winners and losers in the athletics world:
UP: Michael Jordan. Absent live sports, ESPN’s 10-part Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” has become must-see TV each Sunday night.
The first six episodes of director Jason Hehir’s film have averaged 5.8 million viewers. That audience is 62 percent larger than has ever previously watched any ESPN documentary.
At least some of the audience might be coming from among those who were too young to experience Jordan’s high-flying heyday in the 1980s and ‘90s. For last Sunday night’s episodes five and six of “The Last Dance,” the 18-49 demographic was responsible for 2.9 million viewers.
DOWN: Jerry Krause. The Jordan-era Chicago Bulls general manager is the villain of “The Last Dance.”
In the film, Jordan and his wingman, Scottie Pippen, drip with contempt for Krause.
When the duo faces an opposing player that Krause has expressed affinity for — whether it was Croatia’s Toni Kukoc in the 1992 Olympics or Phoenix Suns standout Dan Majerle in the 1993 NBA Finals — they try to humiliate the player in order to show up Krause.
The film features Krause repeating throughout the 1997-98 season that Phil Jackson will not return as Bulls coach the following year.
Since Jordan had vowed not to play for any other coach, that stance effectively ended a Chicago dynasty soon to win its sixth NBA title.
Alas, Krause died in 2017. It would have been nice to hear his side of the Bulls’ drama in “The Last Dance.”
UP: The Houston Astros. Before the pandemic, the Astros — thanks to their illegal sign stealing during their 2017 world championship season — were public enemy number one in American sports.
Since the coronavirus created a public health crisis and a worsening economic free fall, we all have bigger things to worry about and I have not heard one peep about the Astros.
DOWN: College sports. With the cash cow that is the men’s NCAA basketball tournament canceled and the 2020 college football season in jeopardy, Division I athletics departments could be about to fall off a financial cliff.
If that were not enough uncertainty, the ethical issues involved in asking college students to potentially play games in empty stadiums that are deemed unsafe for fans are far more complex for college athletics than for pro sports.
UP: The NFL. Early in the vacuum without games, the NFL’s free agency period — which saw quarterbacks such as Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers and Teddy Bridgewater switch teams — dominated sports talk.
Subsequently, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to hold a virtual NFL Draft was a smash hit. The televised shots of NFL coaches, executives and owners working from their homes — or their yachts, in the case of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — were compelling.
The same was true of watching the draftees hearing their names called in their own living rooms surrounded by their families. Even the normally staid Goodell, running the draft from his basement, was likable.
Stripped down by necessity from the usual over-the-top glitz, it was the most enjoyable NFL Draft telecast ever.
DOWN: Class of 2020 high school senior springs sports athletes. The NCAA was able to offer college athletes from sports such as baseball, softball, tennis and track and field the chance to come back and get a do-over on canceled seasons.
No such opportunity exists for senior high school athletes from spring sports, who saw their last go-rounds snuffed out abruptly by the pandemic.
UP: eSports. National telecasts of NASCAR stars “driving” in virtual races have averaged some 1 million viewers a week.
Last Saturday’s NBC broadcast of a “virtual Kentucky Derby” featuring representations of the 13 horses that have won the Triple Crown created considerable Twitter buzz.
In the absence of the real thing, virtual sports have gained in mainstream visibility.
DOWN: Kyle Larson. The NASCAR star incinerated his real-world career by uttering a racial epithet during an iRacing event.
In response, Chip Ganassi Racing cut loose Larson, 27, from his Cup Series ride, calling veteran Matt Kenseth out of retirement to replace him.
UP: Cawood Ledford. If you listened to the UK Radio Network rebroadcast of Kentucky’s 1978 NCAA championship win over Duke on March 27, you got a reminder of just how good the late, longtime former UK radio play-by-play man — who died in 2001 — was behind the microphone.
In these uncertain times, it was comforting to hear a reassuring voice from our state’s shared past.
