Julien Vonovier, a junior majoring in sports management with a minor in data analytics at Saint Vincent College, put his classroom lessons to work this past summer as an assistant coach for Switzerland’s U16 basketball national team.ESPN and NBC have now gone on record with their interest in hiring Charles Barkley away from TNT.
“Yeah,” Magnus responded. “Yeah. That would be a perfect world, actually. Charles is a singular talent.”
Barkley has stayed that he will remain with TNT despite the network losing NBA media rights after the 24-25 season.
“I would be lying if we said we weren’t interested in Charles,” Magnus said. “I think the entire industry is interested in Charles. He’s really that special. We’ll see.”
Magnus even added a recruiting pitch to Barkley.
“I just keep reassuring people that if you come work for us, that doesn’t mean you have to-this narrative gets started that if you come work for us, you also have to do 200 episodes of First Take or Get Up. The car wash-no. The car wash is for people who want their car washed.”
NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus followed Magnus on stage at Tuned In and matched the frank admission. NBC will begin televising the NBA again with the 25-26 season.
“If Charles were available, we’d certainly love to have that conversation with him,” Lazarus told McCarthy. “We’ve known him for a long time. We’ve known him from the time that we were there in 2000 or so. So we think that Charles adds a great element to everything he does. He’s been a guest on our shows. If he were to be available, certainly we’d be talking to him. Unless Burke Magnus talks to him first.”
Andy Katz ranks his top 16 big men heading into the 2024-25 men’s college basketball season.Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla knows he’s got some different thoughts than a lot of other NBA coaches. One of them is the concept of defending a title. On the Locked On Celtics podcast, Mazzulla said he thinks of it differently.
“The phrase ‘defending a title’ is a very passive-aggressive term. If you look at the animal kingdom, some of the strongest animals don’t defend; they’re the most aggressive, and they attack the most,” Mazzulla said. “Whether you’ve won or haven’t won, your mindset can’t change. You have to understand what goes into winning and losing, commit to the details on a daily basis, and remain aggressive. You’re not defending something; you’re attacking a new goal.”
Mazzulla said in the first part of the interview that he’s embracing Boston being targeted this year. The Celtics coach took it a step further than the traditional quote about having a target on their backs, however.
“People are gonna say the target is on our backs, but I hope it’s right on our forehead in between our eyes,” Mazzulla said about the upcoming season for the 2024 champions.
