Category: ‘NBAOnESPN’

ESPN’s Bruce Bowen during the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. (Travis Bell/ESPN Images)

ESPN analyst Bruce Bowen is busy this season.

Not only did he participate in the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game during All-Star Weekend, but he regularly shares his NBA insights on SportsCenter and a variety of ESPN studio shows. This year, he also added a popular new podcast called NBA Lockdown, which he hosts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with ESPN.com writer Israel Gutierrez.

Bowen and Gutierrez spent a few minutes chatting with Front Row about what listeners can expect on NBA Lockdown.

What makes your podcast unique?
B.B.: Honestly, I think it’s the take from two different worlds. We have two different people with strong opinions: a journalist and a champion insider. I’m not one to toot my own horn, but it’s not often that you are going to get the depth and detail from a champion who has been around great coaches and players. Plus, I’ve always respected Israel for his craft. He has strong opinions about what he feels and I do, too. I think that allows us to have the chemistry we have and the respect we have for one another.

Israel Gutierrez

I.G.: Bruce and I go back to the 2000-01 NBA season, which was my first year covering an NBA basketball team, the Miami Heat. We got along great then, we’ve kept in touch over the years, and we get along great now. That means we’re not afraid to attack each other — respectfully, of course. Bruce made a career of being an elite defender, and I happen to love offense. He’s a Spur for life, I’m supposedly a Spurs “hater.” It’s classic Odd Couple stuff, and it makes for some interesting exchanges.

What kind of preparation does the podcast require? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, NBAOnESPN

Flip Saunders (Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)

ESPN2 will telecast a live NBA Trade Deadline Special on Thursday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2/WatchESPN).

Anchor Kevin Connors (@kevconnorsespn) will host with analysts Flip Saunders (@Flip_Saunders), Tom Penn (@1tompenn) and ESPN NBA Insider Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard). (See the Twitter feed to the right for updates from ESPN NBA experts as Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline approaches.)

Front Row caught up with Saunders, who joined ESPN in October after 16 seasons as an NBA head coach, to discuss, among other topics, this season’s trade market, his deadline day memories and his transition from coach to analyst.

What has the transition from NBA head coach to ESPN NBA analyst been like?
It’s been nothing but a positive experience. Whether it’s been other analysts, anchors or production colleagues, everyone has been helpful. As a coach, you’re always focused on your team, but you don’t look at the league as a whole. Now I get to study the entire league. It’s fun, but it’s a lot of work. It’s given me such a great appreciation for the work and preparation our on-air talent puts in.

As an NBA head coach, what is the trade deadline day like? Any deadline day memories? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, NBAOnESPN

Eight recording artists across a variety of musical genres recently reimagined ESPN’s NBA theme music.

Thousands of fans voted for their favorite rendition on the SportsNation section of ESPN.com. Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project produced the winning rendition, which will be featured during ESPN’s exclusive telecast of the Sprint NBA Celebrity All-Star Game tomorrow night at 7 p.m. ET. Front Row spoke to Roland about the honor, the band’s debut album coming in 2013 and life on the road:

How did the Sweet Tea Project come to be?
It started about a little over a year ago. Collective Soul [another Roland band] had about a month off. These guys I’ve been friends with for a while and I reconnected. They all ended up at my house and I showed them some songs that I was working on. We thought it would be kind of fun to see what we could do with this. Because it’s my voice, we wanted to make it separate and different from Collective Soul. We had a lot of fun with it.

How’d you come up with the name?
It’s a very Southern thing. We wanted to have an Americana flavor. There’s nothing more American or Southern than sweet tea. That’s what we grew up drinking.

What were you hoping to capture with your ESPN NBA theme rendition? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, NBAOnESPN

ESPN Radio’s Ryen Russillo (SVP & Russillo) is enjoying a terrific stretch at ESPN.

From signing a long-term extension with the network to becoming one of ESPN Radio’s resident NBA experts, Russillo is emerging as a go-to voice.

Now, Russillo has another opportunity to make a name for himself — at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game this Friday in Houston (7 p.m. ET, ESPN, WatchESPN).

Russillo, along with fellow ESPN NBA analyst Bruce Bowen, will participate in the game. The game includes stars from film, television, music, radio, politics and sports.

Russillo has studied his teammates and opponents. In the video above, he offers a few words for his ESPN colleagues who set the over/under on his point total at five.

In the video below, Russillo’s ESPN Radio co-host Scott Van Pelt and ESPN NBA analyst and Basketball Hall Of Fame member Chris Mullin