Sports Odds and Ends
ESPN last week literally brought the pro basketball world to downtown Minneapolis with its unprecedented emphasis on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The network’s key personalities, led by Stephen A. Smith, provided a special all-day content initiative called “Timberwolves: All-Access” that documented the local NBA team leading up to and throughout the February 23 Minnesota vs. Milwaukee game on ESPN.
Smith co-hosted his daily “First Take” show on site as well as appearing on “SportsCenter,” “Get Up,” “NBA Today,” “Pardon the Interruption,” and “NBA Countdown” as he provided commentary on the Timberwolves and conducted interviews with players.
Prior to last Friday’s Timberwolves game, Smith shared his impression of the Timberwolves, who have been leading the Western Conference most of this season. “People have asked me an abundance of questions,” he told the MSR.
“For me personally, nobody has asked me about what I really, really think of Anthony Edwards,” the Wolves’ fourth-year veteran guard. “I said when I look at him in terms of his athletic prowess and the potential that he has, he has the tools, and more positively he has that ‘it’ factor about him.
“When you see him on the court, he wants it. He wants to be the headliner,” continued ESPN’s leading on-air talent speaking of Edwards, who hit 28 points that night against the Bucks to lead Minnesota. “Yes, he’s a team player. Yes, he’s unselfish. All of those things are true.
“But he doesn’t mind accepting responsibility that people are walking through the turnstiles to see him. And he seems to have this sense of obligation to try and deliver, and I love that,” noted Smith.
The all-day coverage last week included Malika Andrews’ sit-down interview with Edwards, footage from a Wolves’ practice, Karl-Anthony Towns interviewed live on “First Take,” and a film session with Rudy Gobert.
Mark Jones did the play-by-play on last Friday’s telecast. He formerly worked at The Sports Network in Toronto, Canada before joining ESPN and ABC Sports in 1990. Jones worked a variety of assignments from play-by-play of the WNBA, NBA Finals, men’s and women’s college basketball, and various other sports on both ESPN and ABC.
He told the MSR, “[The Wolves] is the number-one team in the Western Conference and number-one defense in the West.” Last week’s all-day coverage of the team “is a way for us to introduce the Timberwolves franchise top to bottom—ownership, the city, the players, the team, the entire vibe.
“They got all of the components that it takes to make a deep playoff run,” Jones predicted. The veteran broadcaster also likes Edwards.
“I watched Anthony Edwards work out in Miami, Florida, where I live,” Jones continued. “When you see a player like that, that loves the work, loves the process, chasing greatness.”
Jones’ passion for the NBA remains as high as ever. “I love the NBA…covering it for 33 years from the studio, from play-by-play, from the sidelines,” he said. “The NBA is my passion. I don’t have any hobbies in the summertime—I hang out in the gyms in Miami or Los Angeles.
“There is not a play-by-play announcer on TV that sees more NBA guys work out year-round than I do,” he said. “I’m honored for 33 years to be able to tell this story that the NBA is the greatest league in the world and we have the best players.”