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Chris Russo Blasts ESPN For Talking About Damian Lillard ‘Every Five Minutes’

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Chris Russo Blasts ESPN For Talking About Damian Lillard ‘Every Five Minutes’

The NBA offseason is a time when rumors swirl and news of a free agent signing or a trade could virtually be seconds away. One consistent topic of discussion dating back several years pertains to Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard and whether or not he will be moved. Lillard has reiterated his loyalty to the Trail Blazers organization and the city of Portland on numerous occasions; however, back-to-back seasons without a playoff berth could have him second guessing his future with the team.

The seven-time All-Star selection and member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team is considered by many fans and analysts to be one of the greatest shooters to have ever played a game. As a result, where he ultimately lands is of great intrigue to many people invested in the basketball landscape. The fact that there is consistent discussion about it, however, can be perturbing to some who are sick of the noise and ready to receive an answer regarding the ultimate outcome.

“Enough of Damian Lillard – will you please?,” Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo said during his “What Are You Mad About?” segment on ESPN’s First Take. “Oh my gosh – and this is for [Brian Windhorst], I don’t need that report every five minutes for crying out loud. Miami; the Nets; does he stay in Portland?”

Various reports suggested that Lillard would choose his course of action by evaluating what Portland chose to do with the No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft. Rather than trading the pick for proven, veteran talent, the team selected guard Sterling “Scoot” Henderson. Even if the Trail Blazers’ plan is to develop Henderson alongside Lillard, the conversation will ostensibly continue throughout the offseason, with commentators such as Stephen A. Smith begging he be moved. The conversation is something in which Russo wants no part, as he would rather hear about news of transactions or free agent acquisitions than bouts of speculation.

“A lot of guys have ended up on bad teams and they’re Hall of Famers,” Russo remarked. “Have you heard of Oscar Robertson? He played on the Cincinnati Royals forever. We’ll live if Lillard has to stay in Portland; it’s not the end of the world. The NBA’s not going to cease.”

Russo is hoping the Lillard saga comes to an end relatively soon and chided the “Worldwide Leader” for the seemingly interminable amount of time it is devoting to the story.

“Next week, get it over with!,” Russo exclaimed. “I don’t want to read another story; another podcast – listen to another GM or another ESPN reporter breaking down where Lillard’s going to play next year. Move on!”

The aforementioned Smith and host Molly Qerim have been absent from the show throughout the week, leading Russo to appear with Christine Williamson, Dominique Foxworth and Freddie Coleman. Everyone on the set can understand his frustration – even though Russo considers Bill Walton to be the best Trail Blazers player of all team since he won a championship – and can only wonder what will happen if procrastination and/or delay of a definitive continues.

“I hear you because we’re waiting for a decision from Damian Lillard when it already seems he’s made his decision that he wants to stay in Portland,” Coleman said. “I will say this – if we’re having this discussion 365 days from now, if you thought he was mad today, wait until a year from now.”

Tim Hasselbeck Tells Dan Patrick He Thought Getting Cut on Hard Knocks May be Scripted

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Tim Hasselbeck Tells Dan Patrick He Thought Getting Cut on Hard Knocks May be Scripted

As news regarding the New York Jets being forced to appear on the NFL Films and HBO documentary series Hard Knocks circulated earlier this week, various former players and media personalities are reflecting on what the experience was like for them. During production days, cameras follow different players around the practice facility to document their experience and create a storyline, and ultimately craft an episode.

The first season of the show featured the Baltimore Ravens. Hard Knocks televised quarterback Tim Hasselbeck being cut from the team and granting fans never before seen footage of a difficult moment.

Hasselbeck, a current ESPN and ACC Network football analyst, had been cut from the Buffalo Bills a few weeks earlier. While his career continued largely in a backup role, the timing of being cut and then having the footage air made the circumstance all the more difficult. Dan Patrick, asked Hasselbeck if he had any say in the footage being aired, to which he replied he did not.

“I’m sitting there and Brian Billick’s like, ‘Hey man, this doesn’t mean it’s forever, but it’s just not with us,’” Hasselbeck recalled on Wednesday. “To make it worse – literally to make it worse – I don’t know if it was scripted to totally humiliate me. There was a big van; like a coach bus that probably seats 65 people. I rode it by myself to the airport. I was like, ‘How much salt do you want to pour into the wound, fellas?’”

Both Hasselbeck and Patrick understand the entertainment value behind fans being able to gain access to parts of the team and areas within the practice facility that are typically off limits to the media. Yet in his being cut, the show gained early experience pertaining to how to handle challenging, somewhat disheartening moments.

“Is there an easier way to cut people or a worse way to cut people?,” Patrick wondered. “It’s TV, and they’re trying to make good TV, and I’m sure it was good TV.”

“I actually knew I wasn’t going to make the team,” Hasselbeck replied. “It was Randall Cunningham, Elvis Grbac [and] Chris Redman was there. I was a camp arm for sure.”

With the Jets likely to appear on the next season of Hard Knocks, how the program tackles difficult moments will surely be on the minds of those who have previously been on the show. The fact that Hasselbeck had low expectations probably softened the blow, even having asked quarterback coach Matt Cavanaugh when he was going to be cut from the team. Cavanaugh had played professionally on the New York Giants with Hasselbeck’s father, Don, and maintained a relationship with him in retirement. Nonetheless, he is not sure if there is any method to cutting a player on television that would make the moment any less distressing.

“I knew I was out,” Hasselbeck affirmed, “but I still don’t know if there’s an easier way to do it.”

Warner Bros. Discovery Planning to Add CNN Programing to Max

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Warner Bros. Discovery Planning to Add CNN Programing to Max

A report from Bloomberg claims Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to add live programming from CNN to the Max streaming service later this year.

The move is an alteration from previous plans by the company. Warner Bros. Discovery had operated under the policy that CNN did not add to the entertainment value of the Max service.

However, one of the challenges of placing CNN content on a streaming service is that traditional distributors — cable and satellite companies — are generally given the first right of access to the network’s live broadcasts.

Competitors to CNN — namely Fox News and MSNBC — air their programs on streaming services a day after the content made its debut.

Some CNN content, like Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, was already available on Max.

CNN had undergone a robust shift in strategy to incorporate a streaming platform — CNN+ — into its business model before being acquired by Warner Bros. Discovery, who shut down the platform weeks after it complete the purchase of the company.

Eric Bolling: ‘There Are Rarely Coincidences in Big Media’

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Eric Bolling: ‘There Are Rarely Coincidences in Big Media’

CNN receiving a leaked audio recording of former President Trump admitting to failing to declassify documents he was showing to contemporaries continues to dominate the news. Newsmax host Eric Bolling believes it isn’t a coincidence the network was the beneficiary of the leak.

During Eric Bolling The Balance Tuesday, the cable news host questioned the curious timing of the leak to CNN

“With coincidence, of course, that just as the situation becomes more and more desperate and dire for the Biden camp, evidence in the Trump prosecution is mysteriously coincidentally and miraculously leaked to the public,” said Bolling. “Suddenly, CNN gets their hands and releases a recording of Donald Trump’s conversation about the so-called classified documents to the public.”

Bolling then shared that while that may seem like it is a product of happenstance, he doesn’t buy it.

“Never forget there are rarely coincidences in the big media. Never forget the big media are now far-left, happily, actively peddling their lies and propaganda. And never forget most of them will distract and deflect from the real news about the Biden family cash trail. But we here at The Balance won’t let that happen. We won’t stop until the real justice not the fake DOJ terms of justice, real justice is served and served steaming hot.”

Buck Reising: Media Will Give Nick Saban Any Platform He Wants

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The media, particularly the college football media, loves Nick Saban. Buck Reising says it is a love that has been earned through seven career national championships. 

Fans are a little more polarized. If they love the Alabama Crimson Tide, chances are they love Nick Saban. If they aren’t Bama fans, they probably don’t like the guy as much.

Wednesday on 104.5 The Zone, Reising said he thinks that is part of what drove the reaction to Saban’s recent appearance on Joel Klatt’s podcast. The coach was complaining about not truly understanding the criteria for selection by the College Football Playoff committee and said that if everyone agrees his team would have been favored against 3 of the 4 teams that made the field, it seems like they should have been in.

“A lot of people are rolling their eyes when they hear Nick Saban, because what a lot of people are going to latch on to out of that audio is what sounds somewhat like Nick Saban still making the case for last year’s Alabama team making the College Football Playoff after going around and campaigning on every platform available to him, and all platforms were available to him. Because why? He’s Nick Saban,” Reising said.

Saban’s influence with the media cannot be rivaled by many in the college football world. Reising compared the Alabama using the media to get his message out to Trent Dilfer trying to do the same thing. 

Dilfer spent many years at ESPN and is now the coach at UAB. He told The Rick & Bubba Show in Birmingham that if other coaches try to steal his players, he can call old colleagues and get that information on ESPN’s College GameDay in no time.

“Dilfer has plenty of access to plenty of people in this world, no question,” Reising said. “But it does feel a bit different when you’re holding those two up against one another and the things that they’re trying to accomplish in kind of the same way.”

Reising said that all you need to do is look at where each one was. Dilfer was on a country radio station’s morning show saying that he could have a platform if he wanted it. Saban went much bigger by sitting down with Joel Klatt.

“Now, Nick Saban is going straight to the source, right? The lead analyst for college football on FOX and his platform on Fox Sports being blasted out everywhere.”

Charlie Kirk: There’s Only Two Ways CNN Got Trump Audio Leak

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After airing a portion of a leaked audio recording purporting to show former President Donald Trump admitting to not declassifying information he was sharing with people without the proper security clearance, the attention in some circles turned to how CNN acquired the tapes. Charlie Kirk is skeptical of the motives of the network.

During The Charlie Kirk Show Tuesday, the Turning Point USA founder shared that — unlike other conservative commentators — he believes there are some damaging aspects of the tapes, but questioned how CNN came into possession of them.

“There’s one part that is going to be the most difficult for President Trump’s legal team to overcome (versus) Jack Smith, where he said ‘You see I can’t declassify it now, but I could have when I was president’,” said Kirk. “This is supposedly a bombshell story. We do not know how CNN obtained this information.

“There’s only a couple of potential explanations. It could be leaked by Jack Smith, or it could be leaked by one of the writers on Mark Meadows’s team, one of the two. And again, this is a selective edit designed to paint a narrative by somebody. We know that the Department of Justice loves to leak. They’re likely doing this leak as a way to try to muddy up the jury pool in Florida.”

SiriusXM Announces Coverage Plans For MLB All-Star Week

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SiriusXM Announces Coverage Plans For MLB All-Star Week

The baseball world will land in Seattle, in just a few short weeks for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. SiriusXM will bring fans unparalleled coverage of All-Star Weekend, starting on Saturday, July 8 with the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game.

The satellite audio provider will exclusively broadcast the game to its subscribers and feature pregame coverage on the MLB Network Radio channel. Once the game commences at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST, Mike Ferrin and Jim Duquette will pair as the broadcast team. Interviews will be conducted by Jim Bowden and Grant Paulsen with various event participants, granting fans a different perspective on the action.

The next day, SiriusXM will cover the first round of the MLB Draft from Lumen Field, the home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. While the event does not begin until 7 p.m. EST, the pre-Draft show will begin one hour earlier and feature analysis from Bowden and Duqette, along with contributions from Ferrin and Paulsen.

The day before the All-Star Game is dedicated to the T-Mobile Home Run Derby. Subscribers can catch on-site programming beginning at 2 p.m. EST featuring MLB Network Radio host Jenny Cavnar, along with Bowden and Duquette. Three hours later, Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Trevor May will join the broadcast to host pregame programming and interview various All-Stars attending the event. Once it is time for the T-Mobile Home Run Derby to begin, SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio channel will air the live, ESPN Radio broadcast of the event.

May returns to cover the MLB All-Star Game on SiriusXM with Cavnar, Duqette and May beginning at 5 p.m. EST. Throughout the broadcast, various interviews with coaches and players will take place on the field at T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners. Similarly to the Home Run Derby, the MLB Network Radio channel will broadcast the ESPN Radio call of the “Midsummer Classic” beginning at 8 p.m. EST. The Sunday Night Baseball radio pair of Jon Sciambi and Doug Glanville are expected to be on the call.

Aside from live event coverage, SiriusXM will have special episodes of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast and Black Diamonds podcasts, both of which have gained popularity among baseball fans. The Black Diamonds podcast will feature an interview with Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick, while Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman will record several episodes of their show on site. Participants in the futures game will be spotlighted, accentuating the growth of the game.

Jim Leach, Frank McNeil Exit WMAY

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Jim Leach, Frank McNeil Exit WMAY

Longtime WMAY host and news director Jim Leach is departing the Springfield, Illinois news/talk station to become the public information officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Leach hosted the 4:00-6:00 PM show on the station but noted to the Illinois Times that the role of a progressive talk show host doesn’t have a bright future.

“It was certainly my hope to make sure that we had a wide array of viewpoints and to make sure a lot of people’s views and opinions were heard, and I feel like we accomplished that,” said Leach. I find that a really gratifying part of the job. We opened up that platform and that ability to be heard to a wider audience.”

His departure concludes his second tenure with the station. He has hosted a daily show since 1996. Leach’s final program will be today, before beginning his work with the Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday, July 5th.

The new lineup at the Mid-West Family Broadcasting station does not include Frank McNeil. He hosted a one-hour daily program on WMAY directly following Leach. However, he claims he was offered another time slot by station management that “wasn’t acceptable”, and has also departed the station.

Gray Radio to Launch FOX Sports 94.7 in Augusta July 3

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Gray Radio to Launch FOX Sports 94.7 in Augusta July 3

Sports radio is getting a new home in East Georgia. FOX Sports Radio is coming to WAAW FM in Augusta next month.

The station currently runs an urban gospel format and is known as Shout 94.7. When the format flips on July 3, it will be known as FOX Sports 94.7 Augusta.

No local programming is planned for the new station. It will carry the full FOX Sports Radio lineup.

“WAAW is extremely excited to bring FOX Sports to local Augusta sports fans,” said Tony Gray, President/CEO of Gray Radio, LLC, which bought the station from American music icon James Brown in 2002.  “We’re confident that the home of the Masters Tournament will embrace the station’s new format.”

FOX Sports Radio has been on a roll of late. On Tuesday, the network announced that it had found a new home in Alaska on 550 The Zone in Anchorage. Earlier this month, picked up a new affiliate in Peoria, IL.

Gregg Giannotti: Why Does Everyone at WFAN Sound So Sad?

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It’s an emotional time at WFAN right now and Gregg Giannotti has had just about enough of it. On Wednesday morning, the Boomer & Gio co-host said that the upcoming lineup changes at the station have lead to a string of emotional shows for the past two weeks.

“Oh, my God! They’re never-ending,” he said of what his partner, Boomer Esiason, called “the goodbye shows” at the station.

Friday will be Craig Carton’s last day at the station. He will leave to focus on his FS1 TV show. As a result, Tiki & Tierney are being split up. Tiki Barber is joining Evan Roberts in afternoon drive. Brandon Tierney will stay in middays with Sal Licata as his new partner. The new afternoon show will also feature Shaun Morash, who is leaving CBS Sports Radio’s The DA Show.

“This is a unique situation where you’ve got one person leaving with the blessing of the company and everybody is happy for that person, even though you don’t want to lose him in Craig,” Gio said. “So it’s not like he’s leaving like Dog left in the middle of the night, like the Baltimore Colts. He basically faxed in his resignation from the Jersey Shore somewhere and then called in crying. It’s not like that. It’s not like Mark Malusis getting fired right before Christmas. It’s not like that. You know, these are things that happen in radio.”

It is all good for the employees of WFAN. With no one getting fired, the only news the station staff has to share is about promotions and raises. Gio says it is clear radio people don’t know how to do planned goodbyes.

“The shows that everybody are still on are still going on as opposed to a clean break that usually happens. ‘Bang! The show is over,’ and you move on. So now you’ve got these weeks of goodbyes and weeks of I love yous and weeks of the ass kissing that’s going on.”

The emotion coming through the speakers is not the same as the emotion that Giannotti says he sees in the halls of WFAN. That has him a little perplexed.

“Nothing negative has happened to anybody. Everybody’s getting good things happening for them. Like why are we so sad? So many people got promoted. This is supposed to be a good thing.”

WFAN’s new lineup will make its debut on air on July 24.

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