‘Playground Basketball’ Gets Showcase at All-Star Game

The NFL’s Pro Bowl, held last Sunday, is hardly a major event, and baseball’s All-Star game--along with the rest of the sport--appears to be a candidate for extinction.

The NBA has no such problems. Its All-Star game Sunday will be watched, NBC says, by about 40 million people.

Comparing it to all-star games in other sports, NBC’s Marv Albert, who will announce Sunday’s game with Matt Guokas and Steve Jones, said, “I’ve never heard of guys who didn’t want to be there. Also, because of the nature of the sport, it allows more one on one.”

Said Charles Barkley, a guest commentator for TNT on Saturday’s festivities: “People just love playground basketball. You have the best athletes in the world out there and it’s fun to watch.”

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Add Barkley: He said television work is a possibility after retirement, but added, “My original goal is politics. I don’t want to work that hard when I retire. I think you can steal more money as a politician.”

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Trivia time: This will be NBC’s fifth All-Star game. How many has Albert announced?

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Off year: The 1993 NBA All-Star game got a 14.3 rating, the highest ever. Last Sunday’s Pro Bowl got an 11.8, a decent rating but not particularly impressive for football.

Last year’s NBA All-Star game got only a 9.1, but it was up against the Winter Olympics on CBS.

Speaking of the Winter Olympics, the second installment of Bud Greenspan’s “Lillehammer ‘94: 16 Days of Glory” will be on the Disney Channel on Sunday at 9 p.m.

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Recommended viewing: NBA All-Star-related programming begins today at 4:30 on ESPN with Roy Firestone’s second one-hour, prime-time (in the East) “Up Close” special. Firestone interviews Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal.

Another show worth watching should be TNT’s “All-Star Friday Night Party” tonight at 7.

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Prime move: Prime Sports has hired its first female anchor for “Press Box.” She is Leslie Gudel, a 1989 UCLA graduate and member of the women’s rowing team.

The San Marino native worked as a mortgage broker for four years before chucking a promising career to pursue a dream. She gave up her job in 1993 to intern at Prime Sports, which was then Prime Ticket. That led to a job at the CBS affiliate in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and now it is back to Prime in a major role.

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Add Prime: “Press Box” began in October 1990 and has grown into a top-notch show under the guidance of Don Corsini and Tom Reilly. Last week, the staff was named the best in local television by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn.

KNX’s sports staff won the same honor for radio.

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Anchors aweigh: Olympic star Janet Evans will work with Mike Walden on Prime’s coverage of the UCLA-USC women’s swim meet, which will be held Saturday afternoon at USC and televised Sunday morning at 9:30.

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Back to sports: HBO’s announcement this week of “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” a one-hour show set to make its debut in April, marks the return to sports for Gumbel, who, except for the 1988 Summer Olympics, has been away from it since 1982.

Gumbel got his start in television as a sportscaster at KNBC in 1972 and did network sports from 1975 until ‘82, when he became host of “The Today Show.”

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Good move: XTRA’s Rick Schwartz went to bat this week for baseball season-ticket holders, saying that they shouldn’t lose their seat locations if they chose not to buy season tickets, even at a reduced price, for replacement games. The San Diego Padres announced on Schwartz’s show Wednesday night that they will change their policy and allow season-ticket holders to retain their seats with a deposit of $100 a seat.

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Trivia answer: This will be Albert’s first NBA All-Star game as the play-by-play announcer. Bob Costas announced NBC’s first, and Dick Enberg did the last three.

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Not forgotten: Howard Cosell barely got a mention on ABC, his former network, last football season, the 25th for “Monday Night Football,” or during the network’s coverage of the Super Bowl.

But Cosell will be honored by ESPN during the “ESPY Awards” show Monday night at 6. He will receive the Arthur Ashe Award for courage. Because Cosell’s health is failing, Bill Cosby will accept on his behalf.

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Good guys: KABC radio’s Steve Edwards and Eric Tracy have put together a star-studded celebrity softball game that will be played Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Blair Field in Long Beach. The game benefits Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

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Valentine Special: Sports Illustrated is going prime time with a swimsuit special on NBC Tuesday at 10 p.m. Supermodel Vendela is the host.

The bad news is that Elle Macpherson is not in the show or in the magazine’s pending swimsuit issue. But she has made a workout video, “Your Personal Best Workout,” which is now on the market.

Sport magazine has been ahead of SI in the swimsuit department. Its March swimsuit issue is already out, its swimsuit television special has already been on ESPN and Prime Sports and the video is due out Feb. 21.