ESPN SportsCenter Mavs Highlights? I'm Waiting ...

   ESPN? I’m not only a fan; I’m an employee! (In fact, there’s some FISH on ESPN news coming up in the next 24 hours or so). But I could not help but notice how my cousins from Bristol opted to arrange the Wednesday morning SportsCenter: I waited excitedly for highlights, stats, insights and commentary on Dallas’ stunning win over Utah featuring Dirk Nowitzki’s 29-points-in-the-fourth-and-40-points-in-the-game extravaganza.

   I waited … and waited …

   *A beginning with ESPN’s lead story … a Syracuse basketball loss (?)

   *Suns-Heat highlights

   *Then Celtics-Sixers highlights

   *Then Magic-Pistons highlights

   *Then a World Series update

   *Then Nuggers-Pacers highlights

   *Then Thunder-Lakers highlights

   *Then Cavs-Wiz highlights

   *Then a Redskins story

   *Then a Tom Brady story

   *Then a Kings of Leon video (?)

   *Then an NHL story

   *Then another NHL story

   *Then a Dodgers story (somebody named Padilla accidently shot himself)

   *Then another World Series update

   And then … finally. …

   A full 33 minutes into the show, a report on the most spectacular individual effort of this young NBA season, Mavs-over-Jazz.

    What gives? In my bulleted notes above, only twice do I assess the dreaded (?). But really, outside of the two World Series updates, what on this list ranks as a larger story than Dirk’s night? How can ESPN view Nowitzki’s performance as only the 16^th biggest story of the night? Moreover, how can ESPN rank the Mavs news as only the seventh most important NBA game story of the night?

   Is this evidence of East Coast Bias? Maybe, though the arrangement of stories suggests that the producers simply put some of the earlier games (that is, the ones that tipped off in the Eastern part of the country) in the hopper first, with little regard for the importance of the game.

    I must say, though, in regard to ESPN treating one “local’’ team as if it’s a national story. … Syracuse?

    Is this evidence of some NBA hate? ESPN has its own NBA contract. They are loving partners. ESPN doesn’t value the NCAA above the NBA, but … Syracuse?  

    Is this evidence of some anti-Mavs movement? Nah; you watch tonight, with the Mavs-Jazz as the second part of ESPN’s own doubleheader, the World-Wide Leader will pour sugar all over Dirk and his Mavs.

    And when we all wake up on Thursday morning, I have complete faith that my ESPN cousins in Bristol will place the Mavs in their proper slot.

     Just ahead of the Breeder’s Cup.