Riley, NBC to Talk; Network Has Room for Chuck Daly, Too

Don’t be surprised if Laker Coach Pat Riley ends up at NBC.

And Detroit Piston Coach Chuck Daly, too.

There are two openings for NBA commentators next season. Marv Albert and Bob Costas, the play-by-play announcers, will share duties equally. Presumably, so would the commentators.

It’s starting to look like a good possibility that Riley and Daly will fill those roles. Denver Coach Doug Moe, another candidate, has apparently dropped out of the running.

Riley and NBC officials will meet soon, according to a source in New York. Riley was Laker voice Chick Hearn’s sidekick for a little more than two seasons before becoming coach, so he has some experience behind a microphone.

NBC made former 49er coach Bill Walsh its lead football commentator, and he had no experience.

It is thought by some that Riley, an excellent motivational speaker who earns $20,000 a speech, would not be in as much demand if he were to leave as the Laker coach. But there is another side to that. If he were on national television regularly, he would still be a celebrity, and a lighter schedule would allow him to do more outside work.

Laker owner Jerry Buss told CBS last weekend that after nine or 10 years it could be unhealthy for an NBA coach to continue.

Something else for Riley to consider is that the NBC job might not be available in the future.

Daly hasn’t said this is his last season as coach of the Pistons, and he has a year left on his contract, but it’s no secret that he has already talked with NBC. Daly spent 1 1/2 seasons as a Philadelphia 76er cable commentator, and CBS sportscaster Jim Gray, who worked with Daly on the telecasts, said he was excellent.

Add Riley: Terry O’Neil, the executive producer of NBC Sports who was interviewed in his New York office recently, liked a story about Riley’s power of recall.

As a long-haired, mustachioed player in 1971, Riley happened to sit next to a young reporter once at a shoe-shine stand.

Then, in 1985, 14 years later, he saw the reporter again. “Hey, haven’t seen you since we got our shoes shined together,” Riley said.

Said O’Neil: “That’s impressive.”

It is the Super Bowl, and one team, leading, 10-7, late in the first half, appears to complete a pass to its tight end to get out of a hole.

But officials rule the pass incomplete, and there is no replay to show otherwise. The quarterback is sacked for a safety on the next play.

Eight minutes later, a replay shows the pass actually was complete, but it’s too late. The momentum has already shifted, and the other team ends up winning, 39-20.

It happened in the Super Bowl XXI game between the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos, televised by CBS.

But what if it had been ABC, and Chet Forte had been the director? Forte was a longtime compulsive gambler, and he bet on games he directed.

The question arises: Could a director who has a big bet on a game hide a particular replay to help his bet?

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post asked the question not long ago.

“It was the most asinine thing I’ve ever read,” Forte said. “It just shows that people who write about sports television don’t know anything about the business.

“First of all, it’s the producer, not the director, who decides which replays are shown. Also, things happen so fast it would be impossible for anyone to consciously hide a replay.”

Val Pinchbeck, the NFL’s director of broadcasting, essentially agrees with Forte.

“I don’t want to say such things are of no concern,” he said. But, while admitting the current system might not be perfect, Pinchbeck said no other system would be any better. He said the mechanics of production make it impossible for one person in the truck to hide a replay.

Others who have worked in production trucks aren’t so quick to dismiss the possibility. They indicate a strong-willed director could determine which replays are shown. These are the only ones the replay officials see.

Michael Weisman, former executive producer of NBC Sports who was a football producer for nearly 10 years, suggests that replay officials should have their own bank of monitors and their own director to pick the replays the officials see.

“Although the idea of instant replay used to correct wrong calls is a sound one, the fact that network personnel can in any way influence the outcome of a game is deplorable,” Weisman said.

SportsChannel, which will be without Joe Garagiola for 17 of its remaining 27 Angel telecasts because of his “Today” show commitments, has named NBC veteran Charlie Jones as Garagiola’s fill-in.

Jones, who has broadcast just about every sport, is probably best known as a football announcer.

But he also has baseball experience. He worked NBC’s backup “Game of the Week” for 17 years, mostly with Tony Kubek. In 1973, Jones called the National League playoffs between the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Mets.

Also in the mid-1970s, Jones was the television play-by-plan man for the Reds. His commentator was Wes Parker.

Jones lives in La Jolla, which is a 1-hour 15-minute commute from Anaheim Stadium.

Jones’ first telecast will be on June 8, when the Angels play Texas. Until then, Garagiola will do the play-by-play on SportsChannel telecasts, including tonight’s.

TV-Radio Notes

Ross Porter has replaced Ed (Superfan) Bieler on Dodger pregame and postgame shows on KABC, leading to speculation that Bieler is being phased out, that eventually he’ll be replaced on “Sportstalk.” One source said that Stu Nahan, who works with Porter on the pregame and postgame shows, is in line to return as the sole host of “Sportstalk.” But Michael Fox, KABC program director, said the Porter move was made simply to get the knowledgeable play-by-play announcer more involved. . . . Despite rumors to the contrary, Arbitron ratings for “Sportstalk” with Bieler are not declining.

Bud Furillo had Wilt Chamberlain on his KFOX talk show Thursday, and Chamberlain responded to the critical letter directed at him in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s latest book. “I haven’t read it, I’ve been told about it,” he said. “My sister asked me if she could go knock him out.” Chamberlain also said he felt sorry for Abdul-Jabbar, and despite what Abdul-Jabbar claims, he was not jealous of Kareem breaking his NBA scoring record.

Al Michaels’ arbitration hearing will held June 4-6 and the week of June 11 at the Beverly Hills office of Stuart P. Herman, a veteran Los Angeles labor lawyer, who is serving as the neutral arbitrator. Michaels, seeking to get out of his contract with ABC, claims the network mistreated him when it suspended him for two weeks without pay because his teen-age daughter worked as a runner at an ABC-televised figure skating event in February. Dennis Swanson, ABC Sports president, ruled that was against the company’s nepotism policy. Michaels and his agent, Art Kaminsky, are hoping for a decision from the three-member arbitration panel by June 15.

ABC’s coverage of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 will begin at 8 a.m., the race at 9. Paul Page, Sam Posey and Bobby Unser return as the commentators. . . . Powerful XTRA (690) of San Diego, the Kings’ new flagship station, will provide radio coverage of Indy. Bob Jenkins, the host of ESPN’s “Speedweek,” is the new radio voice of the race. . . . Popular talk-show host Lee Hamilton of XTRA will do a hockey talk show after King broadcasts next season. . . . For the record: The Prime Ticket cable telecast of the final Laker game of the season drew a 12.7 rating for all TV households, not a 15.1. The mistake was ours, not Prime Ticket’s. A 12.7 is still the highest rating for a cable telecast in Los Angeles.

A Channel 4 feature on Morganna Roberts, the “kissing bandit,” won a local Emmy for sports reporting. That doesn’t say much for either local television sports reporting or the Emmy selection process. . . . Here’s another one that’s hard to figure: Channel 2’s “John Robinson Show” won for best series. Nothing wrong with the Robinson show, but it’s hardly award-winning material. . . . More deserving local Emmys were picked up by producer-director Susan Stratton for Channel 9’s Laker coverage, and by Channel 4’s Fred Roggin for his year-end special, “Sports Bowl ’89.”