JOURNAL

JOURNAL ARCHIVE

March 2007

In the midst of the craziness of March Madness, I was lucky enough to get an afternoon off. My colleague from ESPN, Howie Schwab and the creator of The Rock basketball, John Stote III, and I made a journey from my house to pay a visit to IMG Acadamies. Tennis legend, Nick Bollettieri, is a dear friend of mine and he always calls me up when he has an amazing new talent he wants to show off. This time it was a little 5 year old girl. My jaw dropped to the floor as I saw Nick putting her through drill after drill. The girl was stepping into each groundstroke, pounding the ball. Looks like Nick has the making of another great champion! Also training that day was the #8 ranked player on the WTA Sanex Tour, Nicole Vaidisova. She was dripping in sweat in preparation for her upcoming tournament in Miami. Nick has an incredible operation at IMG. It is always fun to see the athletes training and catching up with my buddy....

 

 

On the evening of March 7th we celebrated the start of March Madness Baby!  My wife and I hosted a get together at our home in Sarasota to honor Fred Barakat (a longtime friend and associate) for his dedication and commitment to the ACC conference for 25 plus years.  As a Tampa area resident, we are so proud and excited to be the host city for this years ACC tournament.  The ACC is always filled with such incredible basketball talent and the tournament is always first-class and an event I look forward to each year.  At our party were numerous administrators, athletic directors, and key personnel from the various ACC schools.  Also in attendance were coaches Gary Williams and Skip Prosser and the Commissioner of the ACC, John Swofford.  ESPN is so proud to be covering the ACC tourney and many key ESPN personnel such as Howie Schwab, Doug Holmes, Bonnie Reilly, Burke Magnus, Ilan Ben-Hanan, Dan Steir, Kim Belton, Phil Dean and my partner, Brad Nessler all enjoyed themselves at the party and were thrilled to be a part of honoring Fred.  On behalf of ESPN, Burke Magnus presented Fred and his beautiful wife, Florence, 15 lifetime unlimited passes to the Disney Theme Parks, and with 8 grandchildren, I know Fred will certainly make good use of that generous gift!  Well, March Madness has officially begun – I can’t wait to watch all the exciting match-ups…it’s the BEST month of all in sports!