NBA Ratings Hot, but NHL Still Cold as Ice

Going into the NBA playoffs, Turner networks TNT and TBS were hoping to show 45 games, if everything broke right. Game 3 of the San Antonio-Houston series tonight on TNT will be No. 45, and what a run it has been.

With one thriller after another and two rounds of Michael Jordan, Turner’s ratings are up 27% from a year ago.

Tonight’s TNT telecast also marks the end of a six-year stint with Turner for analyst Doug Collins, who will coach the Detroit Pistons next season. He’ll work tonight’s game with Bob Neal.

Turner executives have told Collins a job awaits him if his return to coaching doesn’t go well.

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With Turner bowing out of the playoffs after tonight’s game, all remaining games will be on NBC.

Game 4 of the Orlando-Indiana series will be televised Monday at 12:30 p.m., with games the rest of the week starting at 6 p.m.

NBC’s NBA ratings continue on the upswing, even without Jordan. Last Sunday’s New York-Indiana telecast drew a 9.7 national rating, helping to push NBC’s overall playoff average to 7.2, an 11% increase over a year ago at this point.

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While the NBA is booming, the NHL playoffs on Fox last Sunday got only a 1.9 national rating, and a poor 1.2 in Los Angeles. A tennis exhibition between Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe on ABC the same day almost doubled that, getting an L.A. rating of 2.3.

The NHL scheduled the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks to play Games 4 and 5 back-to-back games in different cities this weekend so Fox would have a game to televise Sunday. Is a 1.9 rating really worth that?

On the subject of bad ratings, the Preakness on ABC Saturday got a 3.2 nationally, an all-time low.

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It has been quite a week for Channel 2’s Jim Hill. On Wednesday, he had what is believed to be the first one-on-one television interview with Mike Tyson since the fighter’s release from prison, and Thursday he talked with former Ram cornerback Darryl Henley, who is in jail.

Tyson, interviewed in a Las Vegas hotel suite, told Hill he is a different person but still has his wild spurts. He said prison was a horrible place, but it gave him the chance to do a lot of reading, including books by Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.

Henley, convicted of cocaine trafficking along with four others in March, is seeking a new trial.

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Tennis beat: HBO announced this week that it has added Martina Navratilova to its Wimbledon crew.

During a conference call, Navratilova was asked about CBS golf announcer Ben Wright allegedly saying that “boobs” get in the way of a woman’s golf swing.

“What I want to know is how he putts,” Navratilova said. “That belly has to get in the way.”

About the reaction to Wright allegedly telling a reporter that lesbians are hurting women’s golf--and denying it--Navratilova said: “Everybody missed the boat. It just doesn’t matter. All that matters is if they are good golfers.”

McEnroe, during another conference call this week, praised Navratilova for being forthright about her sexuality and said: “If in fact it’s true, let the golfers come out and say, ‘Yes, I am a lesbian. But I’m also a golfer.’ ”

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TV-Radio Notes

Bouquets to KLAC for carrying weeknight NBA playoff games, and thorns to XTRA for not. Oh well, at least XTRA will broadcast the Indy 500 Sunday. . . . ABC’s Indy telecast will begin at 8 a.m., with the race scheduled to start at 9. This marks the 10th year ABC has televised Indy live.

If you missed HBO’s excellent documentary on Sonny Liston Thursday night, it will be replayed Monday and also on June 4, 7, 10, and 15. . . . Prime Sports will move “Press Box” back to its original time of 10 p.m., beginning next Thursday. “Press Box” has been on at 10:30 since Jan. 1. . . . Danny Sullivan will join anchor Alan Massengale, who is in Indianapolis, on “Press Box” tonight and after the race Sunday. Al Unser Jr. will be Massengale’s guest Saturday. . . . Channel 9 weekend sports anchor Mark Steines won a national journalism award from the Women’s Sports Foundation for a feature last fall on the Los Angeles Dandelions, a women’s professional football team in the early 1970s.

Nederlander Sports Marketing, the Raiders’ radio rights-holder, will go back to a two-announcer format this season. Nederlander has hired former Raider backup quarterback David Humm as the team’s new radio commentator. He replaces Bob Chandler, who died of cancer in January at 45, and Mike Haynes. Joel Meyers has a new long-term deal as the team’s play-by-play announcer. Nederlander has also switched flagship stations, going from KFI to KLSX-FM.

The French Open begins Monday, with USA network again offering weekday coverage and NBC handling the weekends and the big matches down the stretch. USA’s weekday coverage this year will usually begin at 10 a.m. (occasionally at 9 a.m.) instead of 4 p.m.. It will be live in the East and delayed three hours in the West. Bill Macatee will be USA’s play-by-play announcer, with John McEnroe, Tracy Austin, Barry MacKay and Virginia Wade providing analysis. McEnroe will also be a part of the NBC crew, along with Dick Enberg, Chris Evert and of course Bud Collins.

Attention, rugby fans: Early-round games from the World Cup will be shown, delayed, by Prime Sports. Thursday’s opener between Australia and host South Africa will be on Prime today at 1 p.m. Also, the International Channel Network (ICN), carried by selected cable systems, including Century Southwest, will offer 14 delayed Saturday and Sunday telecasts through the final, all at 4 p.m. The semifinals on June 17-18 and the final on June 24 will be shown live on pay-per-view (at $14.95 a game) on some systems.