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Washington Times sports business reporter Tim Lemke and Maury Brown, the president of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Hockey, have gotten together to discuss a variety of sports biz topics for a far reaching conversation being co-published on the Washington Times, and across the Business of Sports Network. Lemke and Brown discussed a number of NBA related topics including a Finals without a Kobe and LeBron match-up, and Bryant's marketability climbing out from the 2004 rape alligations. Finally, all or parts of this exchange are being published in a variety of locations. Here’s a break down of the different locations that will have all or portions of the interview online: - The Biz of Baseball – Entire interview
- The Washington Times – Entire interview (online at 12pm ET)
- The Biz of Hockey – NHL related exchange, only
- The Biz of Basketball – NBA related exchange, only.
- BusinessOfSportsNetwork.com – Key quotes
 The following is the NBA related conversation:
TL: The news of the Coyotes is certainly taking some luster off what turned out to be a very compelling NHL playoffs. And the NBA playoffs were pretty memorable, too, even if the Lakers-Magic series didn't match the excitement of the rest. How much of the NBA playoffs did you watch? I must admit to being a somewhat casual NBA fan, but did find myself watching a lot of basketball in May and June. I always leaned toward college basketball because of the intensity factor, but some of these NBA games were amazingly tense and the effort level by some of the players was ridiculous. Can Stern and Co. capitalize on this? Did he lose out by not having a LeBron and Kobe finale? MB: I watched all the NBA playoffs, or if I was out and about, listened via radio. The only time I wasn’t able to catch a whole game was when the NHL and NBA went head-to-head with the Finals (Game 3 for the NBA and Game 6 for the NHL) this past Tuesday. In word, it was maddening. I was a TV clicking freak sitting with the laptop doing Gamecasts to fill the void. There’s probably an explanation, but I would love to hear what NBC and the NHL were thinking by matching up with the NBA. Did the NBA lose a little luster by not having LeBron in the Finals? Yeah, I’m sure they did. It would have arguably been the best star pairing in the Finals since Bird and Johnson. It also didn’t help to have the series not go the distance; ending in five games never helps interest. Game 5 averaged 13,992,000 viewers (P2+), down 19 percent from last year’s Game 5 between the Lakers and Celtics. All that said, the league can capitalize on the compelling story lines that were the Lakers: Kobe winning his fourth title, but this time without Shaq, and Phil Jackson winning his tenth title, thus surpassing Red Auerbach. Plus, it’s the Lakers, the league’s most marketable brand. I would guess that the NBA was looking at it from a “glass is half-full” perspective. It would have been something entirely different if the Finals would have been the Nuggets and Magic, agreed?  TL: My sense is that leagues look at the broad picture when it comes to TV ratings. Yes, the NBA missed out on the Kobe-LeBron bonanza but they did get a very highly rated playoffs overall and should enter next season with some momentum. Given the economy, that all has to be positive.
Kobe Bryant fascinates me. Remember when everyone was saying that his chances for big endorsements were shot? There he was, sitting accused of rape, and companies either dropped him or stopped using him. Now, he's back to being the #1 most marketable guy in the NBA. It's amazing how quickly things turn. I've always been a huge believer that America loves a reclamation project, and the reclamation of his image has been remarkable. Winning has the tendency to change everything, of course. Funny that you mention watching two games at once while following Gamecasts. I find myself doing the same thing nearly every night. Here in D.C. we have the Nats and Orioles playing simultaneously, and then I'm switching to the MLB Network to watch their studio show with all the highlights and live look-ins, plus I've got at least one game going on MLB.TV on my laptop. It got really crazy recently when I did that while also flipping to the NBA or NHL Playoffs. I watch a ton of sports, but I'm always amazed at how little I watch of certain things. I watch very little NASCAR. The NBA and NHL kinda get moved to the back-burner during the regular season. I catch a good amount of college football, but realized this past winter than I watched maybe one bowl game and only part of the BCS title game. But I still feel like I watch a lot of sports. They're on all the time. Which is why I am amazed at the people who have like 10 premium sports packages. Like people who have the MLB, NHL and NBA out-of-market packages, as if anyone has enough time for all three. The ESPN College Basketball package is the one that kills me because there are already thousands of games on regular cable. Thousands. What packages, if any, do you subscribe to?  MB: Yeah, I’m in the same position. I have a hard time keeping up with everything – at least in terms of watching complete games. I’ll admit that I don’t catch every NCAA football game that goes down, and ditto for NCAA basketball. I’m an auto racing junkie from my days as a kid watching SCCA races at Sears Point in the Bay Area, and I used to race motocross, so when it comes to motor sports, I try to catch as much as possible. I guess the sports I watch the least are tennis and golf, unless there is a compelling story line. I’m so engrossed in following the business side of things I just don’t have time for all of it.
As for packages, I have MLB Extra Innings, NFL Network NHL Center Ice and MLB Network. I could very easily see me going to NBA League Pass this season. After that, I’m going to have to clone myself to allow me to catch all the action. As for Kobe, it has been a slow climb out of the darkness that happened in Colorado back in 2004. Think of where he'd be if he hadn't been wrapped up in the ordeal. Prosecutors dropped the charges, but something appears to happened there, it just wasn't rape.
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