Craig Sager’s son says he and his two sisters were left out of will

When Craig Sager died in 2016, there was an outpouring of support for the NBA on TNT reporter throughout the industry. When Sager was battling leukemia, his son, Craig Jr. made an emotional guest appearance with Spurs coach Greg Popovich during one NBA on TNT telecast in 2014. And during Sager’s funeral, his daughter Kacy told a humorous story that had those in attendance in stitches.

2017 unveiled some cracks in the Sager narrative. Kacy Sager gave some detailsabout her stepmother Stacy after criticism from someone outside the family that had no idea what they were talking about.

As we transition into 2018, Sager Jr. tweeted that he, Kacy, and their sister Krista were all left out of their father’s will.

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Stacy has two children of her own with Sager, and has been portrayed in public as a loving and loyal wife. The older Sager children apparently feel she is different than what has been portrayed.

An estate can drive a wedge through a family, and it appears that’s what has happened over the past year with the Sager family.

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Carlisle referred to the article as “a disgrace” and strongly defended Walton, calling him “a terrific young coach.” Then, he dug into ESPN.

“ESPN is an NBA partner, and they’ve been a great one,” Carlisle told reporters. “But part of that partnership is that the coaches do a lot of things to help them with access, interviews and all those kinds of things. And in exchange for that, they should back up the coaches.

“Printing an article where the father of an NBA player has an opinion, that’s printed as anything like legitimate, erodes trust. It erodes the trust that we’ve built with ESPN, and our coaches are upset because Luke Walton does not deserve that. Two years ago, he took a veteran team and led them to 24 wins in a row, which is an amazing accomplishment. And off of that, he earned the Laker job. To have to deal with these kinds of ignorant distractions is deplorable.”

Carlisle was then asked if he was saying that ESPN should only publish stories that coaches would approve.

“I’m saying that they should look at their sources and do a better job of determining whether they have any merit or any validity, or are they just blowhard loudmouths. That’s what I’m saying,” Carlisle replied.

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Rand Getlin calls out ex-NFLN colleague Ian Rapoport

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Fox pushing hard for Thursday Night Football, but online-only bids being considered as well

When 21st Century Fox sold its empire of regional sports networks to Disney late last year, it was fair to wonder whether the company was moving away from sports, at least to some degree. If Fox was bearish on the value of local rights fees, it was fully possible the company would be similarly bearish on national rights fees and would reduce or freeze its portfolio of major events.

Well it seems as if, for now at least, Fox remains interested in live sports content. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the network has submitted a bid for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package, with proposals involving both the Fox flagship network and FS1. Per Bloomberg, Disney has also bid, with the intention of airing the games on ABC. CBS and NBC reportedly plan to bid as well, while hoping to pay less than they did this past year, when they spent a combined $450 million for 10 games.

Bloomberg reports that the NFL will also accept digital-only bids, opening the door for Amazon, Facebook and others to pursue the package. Amazon carried Thursday Night Football digital streams in 2017 and has demonstrated a willingness to invest in live sports. Per Bloomberg, either Amazon or Facebook could outbid the TV networks, which would leave the NFL to decide whether the extra cash is worth the lower viewership that would come with it.

“The league is going to make a watershed decision on whether to go for money or for distribution,” said Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports. “With conventional networks like NBC or CBS you’re talking about distribution that’s reasonably guaranteed.”

With an online-only broadcast by a tech giant, “you might lose a substantial part of your audience. However, they might offer more money,” he said.

Also in Bloomberg’s report is the revelation that some bidders have proposed changes to Thursday Night Football, such as limiting the games to teams with a full week of rest or moving some of them to other days of the week. The Thursday contests have been widely criticized for forcing players to compete before they are fully recovered from previous games, resulting in injuries, discomfort and a lower quality of play.

The winner of the Thursday Night Football bidding process will reportedly be announced either the week before the February 4 Super Bowl or the week after.

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