Now, nearly 20 years later, they are again linked as both have announced retirements over the past few days. The duo will forever be linked in another way: both have had roles in ESPN’s This Is SportsCenter catalog of commercials.
In the debut spot of the long-running This Is SportsCenter spot (above), Kidd (then with the Mavericks) and boxing great Roy Jones Jr. affer cameos as anchor Bob Ley provides a 30-second tour of ESPN’s studios, circa 1995. (Kidd may be harder to spot, but keep watching, you’ll see him.)
Hill’s TISC moment of fame came as a piano player in a memorable spot (below).
Created in 1995 with advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, ESPN’s This is SportsCenter is a tongue-in-cheek campaign that transcends mere tune-in, and in the process helped build a programming franchise, crystallize a brand, and define a place where, each night, sports and popular culture converge.
This week, ESPN was honored with five Sports Emmy Awards, presented for the 34th year by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Marketing was among the categories for which ESPN received recognition, as the ongoing “It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports” brand campaign received the Outstanding Sports Promotional Announcement Institutional prize. continue reading…
(L-R) Charissa Thompson, Barry Sanders, Adrian Peterson and Marcellus Wiley during “The Madden Cover Reveal” SportsNation episode in Times Square. (Rich Arden/ESPN Images)
NEW YORK — The anticipation leading up to the announcement of this year’s Madden NFL 25 Cover Vote winner came to a close Wednesday as fans voted for Detroit Lions Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders to grace the cover of the 25th anniversary edition of Madden NFL.
The announcement came during a special primetime showing of SportsNation on ESPN2, live from the Hard Rock Café. The “old school” favorite Sanders beat out “new school” contender and Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson with 58 percent of the record-breaking final tally of 40 million votes. continue reading…
Karl Ravech, celebrating his 20th anniversary with ESPN this year, has participated in countless commercials and promos for This is SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight and a variety of special projects. continue reading…
Thursday, ESPN launched its latest This Is SportsCenter ad, another spoof of life in the company’s cubicles and corridors.
In the new, 15-second spot, New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist — making his second TISC appearance this winter — forgets that it’s casual Friday.
His “co-workers” — SportsCenter anchors Lindsay Czarniak, Kevin Negandhi and John Buccigross — watch as Lundqvist waddles into the office in NHL gear.
ESPN’s Gerry Matalon. (Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
Listen closely to Czarniak’s dialogue and you’ll hear her reference an actual ESPN colleague who’s not seen in this particular spot, but he’s had a hand in many of the franchise’s commercials.
Among his many duties at ESPN, Matalon works with ESPN’s marketing team and the advertising agency behind the TISC series, W+K New York, to secure requested ESPN “talent” for the spots that usually also feature athletes, mascots and other celebrities.
Matalon credits Craig Bengtson, Vice President, SportsCenter, and his fellow Senior CPs for helping him determine SportsCenter anchor and analyst availability.
“And we have to look at when the athletes are coming in. If they’re coming in the morning and [the script calls for SportsCenter anchor] Steve Levy and he works at night,” Matalon said, “what do we do?
“If we have to have Steve Levy, do I have to take him off the 11 [p.m. ET SportsCenter]? Is that an option, is that the best thing for the show?”
The process can be complicated but “it’s a very cool partnership and one of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on in my 25 years,” at ESPN, Matalon said.
He was touched by Czarniak’s mention of him in the ad-libbed conversation with Negandhi and Buccigross.
“I was really flattered. I didn’t know Lindsay was going to it,” Matalon said.
His high school lacrosse coach, the late George Baron, “used to call me GMat, and I use the moniker socially because he was really tough, really disciplined, and really pushed for excellence. . . The fact that she said that was cool. I’m hoping he catches on to that, even though he’s probably in heaven yelling at somebody else.”
“I didn’t even think about it. We were literally just improvising conversation about swapping schedules,” said Czarniak, who is making her SportsCentercommercial debut.
“GMat is such an institution here,” she said. “He’s a big reason I ended up at ESPN and it was my first thought that I would run the ‘schedule swap’ by GMat.”
Even though Matalon has worked closely with the commercial franchise, he’s appeared in just one of the spots.
In the mid-1990s sketch below featuring a debate about Roger Clemens’ fastball, Matalon is seated between bearded Vince Doria, ESPN Senior Vice President and Director of News, and former SportsCenter anchor Keith Olbermann. Former anchor Jack Edwards earns The Rocket’s wrath.
ICYMI: Highlights from the past week on Front Row
• ESPN’s Joe Tessitoreintroduced the four-legged Joe Tess, a three-year-old Dark Bay colt owned by his friends George Bolton and Barbara Banke. The horse makes his debut today at the Santa Anita race track in Southern California.
• ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg and his wife Stacy Greenberg introduced the main characters in Greenberg’s new book, All You Could Ask For, which will be released by William Morrow on April 2.
• ESPN college basketball analyst Bruce Pearlrecalls the 2008 tornado that hit downtown Atlanta during the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Georgia Dome. The extreme weather events are the subject of the new SEC Storied documentary, Miracle 3.
• Coordinating producer Amy Rosenfeld and producer Chris Alexopoulosshared insights about their crews and coverage of the upcoming 18th season of MLS on ESPN.
Row of Four Our favorites from across ESPN over the past weekcontinue reading…
Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin stars in the latest spot from ESPN’s This is SportsCenter franchise.
In the spot Lin, a Harvard graduate, suggests some colorful edits to SportsCenter anchor Jay Crawford’s script. The September shoot marked the first time Lin wore his Rockets jersey since he left the New York Knicks last summer. It is also the first SportsCenter spot featuring Crawford — colleague Hannah Storm makes a cameo — and (we believe) the first time “trajectory metrics” and “temporal nature” have been used in a SportsCenter script.
The SportsCenter campaign also allowed Lin to meet Henrik Lundqvist, the New York Rangers star goalie. Lundqvist also was recording a segment, with The Muppets’ “Swedish Chef,” on North Campus.
Though they both played home games in Madison Square Garden last winter during Lin’s meteoric rise to stardom as a Knick, they were introduced to each other in Bristol, Conn.
NBA star Jeremy Lin and NHL standout Henrik Lundqvist met in September on the ESPN campus between their respective “This Is SportsCenter” shoots. (AJ Mazza/ESPN)
On the golf course, Rickie Fowler seems like a natural.
Rickie Fowler (Credit: Getty Images)
In high school, the Murrieta, Calif. native was a four-time Los Angeles Times Boys’ Golfer of the Year. At Oklahoma State, he became the first freshman to win the Ben Hogan Award, honoring the male collegiate Golfer of the Year. He was the PGA’s Rookie of the Year in 2010.
But how sharp is Fowler — who has two Top 10 finishes in three 2013 PGA Tour starts — as an the actor?
Last week at ESPN’s Bristol, Conn. headquarters, Fowler, 24, taped his first This Is SportsCenter commercial.
There aren’t many details to share now — series veteran John Anderson co-stars — but if Fowler was at all flustered by the experience, you’d never know it.
The secret to acting in these pieces, he says, is “don’t try to be funny.” The team behind the This Is SportsCenter ad “will make you funny.”
In the video above, Fowler talks about his TISC experience, his friendship with ESPN.com golf reporter Michael Collins, watching his Oklahoma State Cowboys on ESPN and his fondness for social media.
Editor’s note:A variety of X Games Aspen 2013 content from Buttermilk Mountain will be available live through Sunday across multiple platforms — television, smartphones, tablets, online, social media and more.
Aside from the athletes, no single element of X Games Aspen is more important than the slopes, SuperPipe, Big Air, Slopestyle and SnoCross ramps that make up the X Games courses. That’s where ESPN’s course construction and logistics team goes to work, creating the best experience for athletes and fans.
“We are the first people on site and last to leave,’’ says Rich Bigge, senior manager of course construction and logistics for X Games.
“We work with the builders and designers from the very beginning of the planning stage, through final construction and testing of the course. Everything that happens with course construction comes through our team.”
Bigge and his team work closely with Snow Park Technologies, the company that constructs and maintains terrain park courses. Together, they began planning the Aspen course more than a year ago.
“We want X Games and ESPN to be seen as the leader in the action sports space, so our goal is to design and build great courses that the top action sports athletes will want to compete on.”
The athletes provide input into the courses as well.
“We’ll do a test on Slopestyle or SuperPipe for instance and the athletes will suggest changes to make the course better,” says Bigge. “We listen to what the participants are telling us.”
Course maintenance and safety are of paramount importance to everyone involved with X Games.
“This is one of the most important aspects of our job, and one we take very seriously,” says Bigge.
With the Aspen games underway, the team is looking ahead to the next event in Tignes, France then on to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain; Munich, Germany; and finally, in Los Angeles, California in August. Bigge believes that with the 2013 expansion, X Games has become a truly global event.
“We are introducing action sports and the ESPN brand to a new demographic of fan, and that is exciting.”
Allan Kreda wrote the above portion of this post. A version of the story originally appeared on ESPN’s internal blog, In The Know (ITK).
ICYMI: Highlights from the past week on Front Row
•Owen Groesser, a middle school basketball player with Down syndrome, was featured on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays this week. His unexpected performance in his team’s home finale took Twitter by storm and the hashtag #GetOwenOnSportsCenter spread, which led to Groesser and his dad appearing live on SportsCenter the next day. More on the story here.
• ESPN introduced a new This is SportsCenter spot featuring New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and his “fellow countryman,” The Swedish Chef. Front Row was able to get a few minutes with the chef for an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview.
• First Take introduced Who We Got Wednesdays this week. The weekly theme will feature various celebrity guests and athletes joining Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith and Cari Champion at the First Take desk. Coordinating Producer Antoine Lewis shared more details here.
• ESPN tennis analyst Chris Evert guest starred on good friend Elizabeth Shue’s CSI show. Evert shared some of her thoughts about the differences between Hollywood and the tennis court.
Row of Four Our favorites from across ESPN over the past weekcontinue reading…
Editor’s note: The Swedish Chef stayed “in character” throughout this interview.
The NHL returned to the ice last weekend and to celebrate ESPN introduced a new This is SportsCenter spot featuring New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and his fellow countryman, The Swedish Chef.
The spot, which also features SportsCenter anchors Steve Levy, Robert Flores and Linda Cohn, debuted last weekend and marks the first time a member of The Muppets is featured in the long-running franchise campaign.
Front Row was able to get a few minutes with the chef for an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview:
What did you think about visiting ESPN and about working with Henrik Lundqvist?
Hun dee EESPYENNEN ees maken der shoots, svern dee Henrik is okey dokey!! Und, dee room fer dee washen dee wiggly fingees, ees voory, voory cleeeen.
ESPN covered all the angles concerning the controversies surrounding Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o and disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong.
Friday evening, Te’o told ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap that he was a victim and “never” part of an elaborate hoax.
Armstrong confessed — in an interview with Orpah Winfrey televised Thursday — that he used performance-enhancing drugs when he won seven straight Tour de France crowns. Friday, former teammate Tyler Hamilton reacted to Armstrong’s statements in an interview with Outside The Lines host Bob Ley. The video above is a portion of the interview.
ICYMI: Highlights from the past week on Front Row
• Go inside ESPN Digital Media’s third annual Hackathon, where more than 85 ESPN developers, designers and engineers were given 48 hours to submit working prototypes of what could be ESPN’s next top-ranked digital product.
• A This is SportsCenter spot featuring Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo and his larger-than-life hands launched this week. SportsCenter’sJohn Anderson shared a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot.
• Jim Boeheim’s Car Wash visit to ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters on Monday provided a chance for a timely reunion with ESPN Communications publicist Keri Potts, who worked for Boeheim while attending Syracuse University.
• Columnist and commentator Jemele Hill was a panelist for ESPN’s third annual Content of Character special. Front Rowspoke to Hill about the roundtable discussion and the importance of social media.
Row of Four Our favorites from across ESPN over the past weekcontinue reading…
