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Officials Attacked
Outside the Lines (Sunday 10 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Abuse of game officials has been increasing and becoming violent, even reaching youth sports where there are now countless examples of officials being attacked by coaches, players and parents. Shelley Smithexamines this disturbing trend, and explores one recent case in which an attack turned deadly.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it out of there. I was extremely scared. I could feel the pain in my shoulder, but the shoulder was the furthest thing from my mind. I just wanted to get home to my wife.” — Jayme Ream,Florida youth football official, on being attacked by a mob that included coaches and a player

“It’s so much on making your son a star these days, that when it comes to sports, parents always want to blame somebody else.” –– Clinton Portis, former NFL running back now coaching sons ages five, six, on increased abuse of officials

 

Spurs’ Success: Avoiding American players?
ESPN The Magazine (“The Money Issue” on newsstands Friday)

The San Antonio Spurs are doing something right, writes Seth Wickersham in ESPN The Magazine. What if that something is avoiding American players?

“(Foreign players are) fundamentally harder working than most American kids. (Many American players) have been coddled since eighth, ninth, 10th grade by various factions or groups of people. But the foreign kids don’t live with that. So they don’t feel entitled. Now, you can’t paint it with too wide of a brush, but in general, that’s a fact.” – Gregg Popovich

 

Tim and Pop
SportsCenter (Sunday, 10 a.m., ESPN)

https://youtu.be/oDST95So4Uo

Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich have formed a unique bond throughout their 16 seasons together as player and coach. Chris Connelly reports on how these two disparate personalities came together, built a relationship that’s led to four NBA titles, and put them in a position for a fifth.

“I never saw a lot of conflict between the two of them. Pop is a typical military guy – very no-nonsense, mission-driven, very focused. Tim is an amazing learner — once he gets his mind locked on something, you know he’s going to master it. That was a pair made in heaven.” — David Robinson, former Spurs center

“Pop is a big wine drinker. Timmy doesn’t really drink. Pop likes the fancy restaurants. Timmy likes going to IHOP in the middle of the night. But when it comes to guarding the pick-and-the roll and the rotations and who’s going to out, I think that’s where they find the most common ground.” — Sean Elliott, former Spurs forward

 

ESPN Wins Two Murrow Awards: Features Unit & Radio Recognized

ESPN’s Features Unit and ESPN Radio were recognized by the Radio Television Digital News Association this week when it announced the winners of its 2013 national Edward R. Murrow Awards, which recognize work of the highest quality produced by radio, television and online news organizations around the world.

The Features Unit piece Running for His Life, which ran on SportsCenter and Outside the Lines, won in the “Network Television Feature Reporting” category. Chris Connelly told the story of Kenyan runner Marko Cheseto and the tragic circumstances that preceded a run while at the University of Alaska-Anchorage that changed his life irrevocably.

ESPN Radio’s Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap won the “Radio Network Reporting: Sports” category for its presentation of the Outside the Lines’ piece on Pop Warner star Donnovan Hill, who suffered a spinal fracture while making the type of head-first tackle he says was encouraged by his youth coaches. Tom Farrey’s report was part of ESPN’s Football at a Crossroads series examining health issues surrounding football.