Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lounge on YouTube: Mini-Episode #3 – October baseball w/Steve Kallas

By Rick Morris

Here is the third mini-episode of THE FDH LOUNGE: a sit-down with our good friend, FDH Lounge Dignitary/lawyer/WFAN talk-show personality Steve Kallas as we discussed the 2011 MLB season as it heads into the playoffs.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Hanging out with the greatest sports fans in the world


By Rick Morris


There are certain times in life when you get approached on short notice and rearrange your plans to set new ones with people. This column chronicles one such time just last night.

My new friends “The Prince” Gary Herman (left) and “The King” Mike Casiano (right) of Royalty Tours USA (who attend 350+ sporting events every year and have been to every MLB/NFL/NHL/NBA venue and countless other minor-league and college ones) needed to keep their summer baseball-watching streak alive and from their home base of NYC, that wasn’t going to happen with Hurricane Irene bearing down like a load of bricks. So when Gary texted me that they were coming to town and asked if I’d like to join them for the Indians game Saturday night, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

As has been previously recounted (in great detail on our FDH LOUNGE fourth-anniversary show, when Gary appeared right after Bob Barker, audio here), I first met the fellas last November when they came to town for the Browns-Jets game. I was sitting in the stands talking with our show contributor Ira Lieberfarb (the Jets superfan who attends every game, home and away, preseason, regular season and postseason) when Ira summoned them over to meet me. A friendship was quickly born, we agreed in principle to the show appearance listed above and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.

A few weeks ago, I missed what I thought would be my only chance to take in a game with them in the next year or so when I was denied the opportunity (the less said about that, the better!) to take in a Wednesday afternoon game that they were catching during a midsummer Midwest swing. Of course, that turned out to be the Ervin Santana no-hitter! I did catch them for breakfast on Saturday when they were driving through Cleveland (from a Friday night game in Detroit to a Saturday nighter in DC) and that was great, but I wanted the full-on Royal Experience. I’m so glad that I got it.

They battled horrific traffic to get here as a bunch of dolts ended up clogging I-80 for most of their journey, and tickets were scarce with Jim Thome having finally come back where he belonged (more about that below), but I was able to snarf up some cheapo Upper Reserve seats and the fellas and I settled in and had fun.

It was very enlightening to talk to Gary and compare notes on our experiences. I’ve been involved with a few other people in trying to look for a documentary or reality show opportunity for these guys because, even though they’ve been going at this pace for well over a decade, the costs are going to wear them down eventually and they need to find a way to solidly profit from this experience to keep it going. While I wouldn’t have immediately recognized how much we had in common, the obstacles he’s facing in his quest are not so completely different from those I am confronting every day in working to lead and build a unique media brand. While such issues are a part of life, ones deliberately created by others do not have to be the case. It is quite comforting to talk to somebody else in the same boat and realize that others also have to battle to avoid being ground down by pettiness and political silliness.

On a personal note, when Jim Thome hit his home run, I’m not going to lie, I was a little unprepared for the rush of emotion. He was one of my mother’s favorite players and we attended so many games together back in the day. The Dolan destruction of the team coincided with my mother’s rapidly failing health. The Dolans greased the skids for him to leave town when she was gravely ill and it was one more area of depression for her – so much for sports as an escape! Seeing him hit that home run in an Indians uniform brought back so many memories and I got immediately choked up when it happened. In an odd kind of way, it seemed to put a little salve on the wound of what his forced departure did to my mom and that felt good. Interestingly enough, Mike saw Thome’s first major-league home run in New York 20 years ago next month. Mike will take in his 7,000th baseball game next June or July and he has seen over 11,000 sporting events overall. The younger Gary is behind Mike in both categories, but still ahead of 99.999% of the population!

On a beautiful summer night, the kind that is way too rare in Cleveland, it was a true pleasure to sample the Royal Sports Experience with my friends. I take inspiration from those who chase their dreams and achieve success. Gary and Mike are a work in progress – they’ve experienced six lifetimes worth of memories thus far, but they’re going to have to get some type of media or endorsement deal to continue this indefinitely. Along with the other friends they’ve met across the way, I want to be of help to them in their journey and I look forward to the day when they are regaling all of America with the stories and anecdotes they have shared with me.


Programming The WWE Network

By Rick Morris

For years, WWE has been making preparations for a full-fledged TV network of their own. Their 24/7 On-Demand service, launched a few years ago, was the first thrust in their campaign.

They’ve been snarfing up tape libraries for a decade now, ever since getting the second-biggest one in the form of the WCW one (that also included footage from the Georgia and Mid-Atlantic predecessor territories). Aside from a few notable exceptions (UWF/Mid-South, Memphis, the old NWF, international promotions and of course, TNA), Vinny Mac has it all, way more than enough to stock a TV network with outstanding content.

So then the logical question arises: what’s the best way to utilize the overwhelming resources and tape libraries owned and housed by WWE? What follows below is a proposed seven-day-a-week schedule for the channel. Weekday daytime schedules would carry the same shows, with the exception of Monday (although it would also have programming in common with the rest of the week until noon). The show titles below are admittedly generic, but at least accurately capture the thrust of the individual programs for these purposes.

All times EDT

Weekdays

Midnight to 3 AM – Classic PPV – Rerun of a pay-per-view, alternating from among WWE, WCW, ECW and AWA.

3 AM to 6 AM – Classic Moment in Time – Rerun of a segment from the previous weekday afternoon (on Mondays, the WWE one from the previous week would be rebroadcast, explained below).

6 AM to 8 AM – Excerpts of Monday Night Wars – Rerun of a piece of that week’s Monday Night Wars block (explained below).

8 AM to 9 AM – Classic WCW – A program from the WCW archives, with Mid-Atlantic and Georgia programming also used in this block. Programs would be presented as they were initially broadcast whenever available, with additional post-production and commentary overlaid when needed.

9 AM to 10 AM – Classic WWE – A program from the WWE archives. Programs would be presented as they were initially broadcast whenever available, with additional post-production and commentary overlaid when needed.

10 AM to Noon – Documentaries – Broadcast from the WWE Home Video archives.

Monday

Noon to 8 PM – Monday Night Wars – Each eight-hour block would be from a different month during the Monday Night Wars era (September 1995 to March 2001). It would feature all of the most notable moments in that month, bouncing back and forth liberally (but sequentially) between Raw and Nitro. Each two-hour sub-block of the show would be rebroadcast during the 6-8 AM timeslot listed above. A poll on WWE.com would be taken each weekend to determine the best of the four sub-blocks from that week, with the winner being rebroadcast during the 6-8 AM Monday morning slot.

8 PM to 8:30 – Classic Interviews and Promos – This would be along the lines of a bloopers show, but with notable interviews and promos used instead of actual bloopers. Each show would intersperse segments from different eras and promotions. This daily show would be broadcast all other weekdays from 7 to 7:30 PM.

8:30 to 9 PM – WWE Livewire – This old studio talkshow would be revived as a daily WWE magazine show (broadcast all other weekdays from 7:30 to 8 PM). The Monday (pre-Raw) and Friday (pre-Smackdown) editions would focus largely as preview shows for that night’s programming (and there would be a one-hour special Sunday Livewire that would serve as pre-PPV programming on the nights of such events). The Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ones would be more in the classic magazine-style format, with out-of-the-ring features on WWE wrestlers, at least one interview each day with a wrestler, some general updates on storylines and a “This Day in WWE History” feature.

9 PM to Midnight – WWE Interactive – Essentially, this would be a complementary experience to the live Raw show (with similar versions for Smackdown and PPVs). In many ways, it would be similar to the NFL Sunday Ticket Player Tracker that provides up-to-the-minute player updates. A live chat with WWE personalities that would appear on WWE.com would stream here, along with pertinent commentary and interaction from Facebook and Twitter. During commercial breaks, the commercials would be simulcast here on half the screen to assuage any concerns by advertisers at having people flip over and miss their ads. After every event, the program would run until the top of the next hour.

Tuesday-Friday

Noon to 3 PM – Classic Moment in Time – This would be a three-hour block of footage from a concentrated period of time in rotating promotions (Tuesdays-WWE, Wednesdays-WCW, Thursdays-AWA, Fridays-ECW).

3 PM to 6 PM – Classic Live Events – These would be rebroadcasts of old house shows that exist on tape. Inasmuch as the majority of the ones on file are probably WWWF/WWF/WWE ones, they might make up the majority, but ones that exist from other promotions would be interspersed as well.

6 PM to 7 PM -- Classic WWE – A program from the WWE archives. Programs would be presented as they were initially broadcast whenever available, with additional post-production and commentary overlaid when needed. This would be a different program than the one broadcast earlier in the day.

7 to 7:30 PM – Classic Interviews and Promos (see above).

7:30 to 8 PM – WWE Livewire (see above).

Tuesday

8 PM to 9 PM – JR’s Legends Interview – This would be a one-hour shoot interview conducted by Jim Ross with a legend of the past.

9 PM to 10 PM – Behind The Match – Classic matches would be shown, along with commentary from those involved about everything that went into them.

10 PM to Midnight – Legends Roundtables – These would be the ones used on the WWE 24/7 service and some new ones would be shot also. For those not familiar with the format, different legends were assembled for roundtables on different wrestlers, eras and other topics.

Wednesday

8 PM to Midnight – Superstar Compilations – There would be four one-hour segments, each devoted to a different wrestler with some of the best matches of his career.

Thursday

8 PM to 9 PM – NXT – This would be a broadcast of the NXT program.

9 PM to 10 PM – Superstars – This would be a broadcast of the Superstars program.

10 PM to Midnight – Best Stipulation Matches – This would be a compilation of different stipulation matches over time, from cage matches to strap matches to multiple falls to everything in between. It would cover different promotions and eras.

Friday

8 PM to 11 PM – WWE Interactive (see above).

11 PM to Midnight – This Week in WWE – This would be a recap show for the week in the entire promotion, with clips interspersed from Raw, Smackdown and a PPV (if applicable).

Saturday and Sunday

NOTE: From midnight to 10 AM both days, the “Territory Block” will bring programs from the old wrestling territories. None of the promotions that are broadcast during the weekday archives are involved.

Midnight to 1 AM – Ohio Valley

1 AM to 2 AM – Ultimate Pro Wrestling

2 AM to 3 AM – Central States

3 AM to 4 AM – Stampede

4 AM to 5 AM – Smoky Mountain

5 AM to 6 AMFlorida

6 AM to 7 AM – Maple Leaf

7 AM to 8 AMSt. Louis

8 AM to 9 AMAWA

9 AM to 10 AM – World Class

10 AM to 11 AM – This Week in WWE (rerun from Friday night).

Saturday

11 AM to Noon – Behind The Match (replay from Tuesday night).

Noon to 2 PM – Legends Roundtables (replay from Tuesday night).

2 PM to 3 PM – Superstar Compilations (replay from Wednesday night, with a poll on WWE.com determining which of the four was the best and should get a replay).

3 PM to 6 PM – Classic Moment in Time: Territories – This would be a version of the weekday Classic Moment in Time show that focuses on major promotions. This one would rotate from among the more notable territories (Stampede, Smoky Mountain, Florida, Maple Leaf, St. Louis), delivering three hours of footage from a concentrated period in the promotion’s history.

6 PM to 8 PM – WCW Saturday Night – This would be a rebroadcast of old Saturday night footage, as it was originally shown whenever possible, with post-production and added commentary as needed.

8 PM to Midnight – Classic MSG – This would be a revival of the program previously on the MSG network that rebroadcast classic Madison Square Garden house shows.

Sunday (non-PPV day)

11 AM to Noon – JR’s Legends Interview (replay from Tuesday night).

Noon to Midnight – Classic PPV (see above).

Sunday (PPV day)

Noon to 6 PM – Classic Clash of the Champions and Saturday Night’s Main Events – This would be similar to the format of PPV rebroadcasts.

6 PM to 7 PM – Best of Tuesday Night Titans – This would be a rebroadcast of old Tuesday Night Titans footage.

7 PM to 8 PM – WWE Livewire (see above).

8 PM to Midnight – WWE Interactive (see above).

This would be programming with a strong dose of variety, using the old footage in several different manners and augmenting the existing Raw, Smackdown and PPV shows as well. There are other features that could be added to the schedule from time to time, such as broadcasting live from WrestleMania Axxess and SummerSlam Axxess in the lead-up to those events.

So there it is. Now that we’ve planned it all out for you, Vince, get the consulting check on the way!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume IV, Issue XXXIII

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week’s newsletter.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

FDH and Sportsology’s Top 10 Athletes of All Time

By Rick Morris

Inspired by a similar column from my good pal Russ Cohen of Sportsology, I’ve set a Top 10 list of the greatest athletes of all time. And given that it’s commonplace for members of The 21st Century Media Alliance to syndicate content among ourselves, we’ve got Russ’s original column.

HONORABLE MENTION

Gordie Howe

Jackie Robinson (listed because of his prowess in multiple sports in addition to baseball: football, basketball, tennis and track & field)

Walter Johnson

Wayne Gretzky

Michael Jordan

Joe Louis

Jack Nicklaus

Bill Russell

Wilt Chamberlain

Muhammad Ali

10 Oscar Robertson – His famous “triple-double” average for a season epitomized his unmatched versatility. He could score inside and outside with equal aplomb and he was a key innovator in terms of the big guard position and some revolutionary means of scoring.

9 Willie Mays – The game of baseball has never before seen, and may never see again, his blend of offense and defense.

8 AJ Foyt – Open-wheel, stock cars, endurance races – he could win in any format.

7 Sugar Ray Robinson – The greatest pound-for-pound fighter ever. He established sustained dominance at the amateur level before even entering the pro ranks.

6 Pele – The most accomplished player in the one game played in all corners of the globe.

5 Bobby Orr – He revolutionized the game, dominating offensively as a defenseman. Until his knees went bad, he defined the word unstoppable.

4 Jim Brown – He was a man among boys physically, running amok against the defenders of his day. He is also a member of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame!

3 Babe Ruth – He is on a short list of the greatest sluggers of all time and surely would have ranked in the same spot among pitchers had he stayed on the mound.

2 Babe Didrikson Zaharias – The greatest female athlete of all time – by far – dominated at track and field and golf and made a mark in countless other sports as well.

1 Jim Thorpe – The man defined versatile dominance with his exploits in track and field and football – to say nothing of the fact that he was also a good enough baseball player to crack the major leagues!

Russ’s Rants: My Top Ten Athletes in the History of Sports

By Russ Cohen

I know the minute I post this that there will be tons of comments telling me I left out this guy or should have included another guy. My criteria relate to how dominant they were in their sport and as an athlete. I’ve been putting together this list mentally for quite some time and now I am ready to reveal it.

10) Babe Ruth – Before you kill me for this, remember the vast majority of pictures and video clips of “The Babe” are from the time he got a bit heavy, but he was in great shape for a good portion of his career. Nobody has ever dominated one sport at two different positions the way that he did. Some football players have come close, but to pitch the way that he did and then become the all-time homer king is off the charts. He still has records that haven’t been broken in pitching and hitting.

9) Gordie Howe – His longevity, strength, and dominance on the ice gets him on the list and I don’t think Wayne Gretzky would disagree. Six Hart Trophies, Six Art Ross Trophies, and he played after fracturing his skull. Plus, he could shoot righty or lefty!

8) Wilt Chamberlain – He had his 100-point game, he was a beast under the boards, and he could dribble the ball up the court. His only downfall was the fact that he couldn’t shoot a foul shot. He could high jump 6-6, he ran the 440 in 49 seconds and broad jumped 22 feet! He was also a wiz at volleyball and played that professionally.

7) Muhammad Ali – He was the “greatest,” and I wasn’t fan but I respected his athletic prowess. He had a long and prosperous career and nobody could inflict punishment and take punishment like he could. He could dance for 15 rounds!

6) Michael Johnson – He won four gold medals and he was a world champion eight times. He is the only athlete in the history of the Olympics to win a 200m and a 400m at the same event. He would gain speed on the turns!

5) Jackie Robinson – His baseball career speaks for itself but it was his basketball, football, and track career at UCLA, before he made it in baseball, which set him apart. In the sport of baseball he could dance off the bag and just create havoc. Nobody has ever and will ever steal home the way that he did over and over again.

4) Jim Brown – He could carry a pile of players on his back and still gain 10 yards. He made the biggest impact in his sport in a very short time because he chose another profession – not because his skills were in decline. His six games with at least four touchdowns remain an NFL record and he was arguably the best lacrosse player in the history of that sport.

3) Bruce Jenner – A knee injury ended his football career and started his decathlon career? Really? He trained eight hours a day until he won a gold medal in the Olympics, setting a world record at the time.

2) Jim Thorpe – He won two Olympic gold medals for the pentathlon and decathlon, and played professional football, baseball and basketball! In 1950, the AP voted him the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century.

1) Lance Armstrong – The “Tour de Lance” is still going. He won an amazing seven-consecutive Tour de France races after surviving testicular cancer. This sport is grueling, and yet he excelled at it, and he continues to race at the age of 39!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Dream Sporting Event: NBA Lockout League

By Rick Morris

With the NBA players scattering to the four corners of the globe, the question comes to mind about what would happen if they leveraged their star power to form an all-star barnstorming league? We decided to take a look at what it might resemble.

First step: nominate six players to be team captains to conduct a draft. We went for an amalgam of recent league MVPs and franchise players to win NBA championships. That set up a “Kevin Durant lottery” as he was the obvious top choice for whichever player took the top spot. A random drawing gave that top pick to Team Wade. The draft that we conducted took into account the many factors that players would likely utilize in making their selections: from pure respect for talent to personal biases to chemistry formed through past associations.

In terms of the structure, presumably the players association would shop this league to a network or combination of networks. Anyone presently dealing with the NBA would certainly be out of the mix.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the new Comcast-owned NBC Universal family shells out the necessary money, with weeknight games on Versus (soon to become the NBC Sports Network) and Saturday games on NBC (doubleheaders with both games taking place in a domed stadium). In every city, non-NBA arenas would almost certainly be needed.

Each team would play ten games, two against every other team. At the end of the regular season, the teams with the four best records (with total best margin of victory among teams tied serving as a tiebreaker) would square off in semifinals and then a championship.

In the event that the lockout would end before this barnstorming league had completed the season, the remaining games could be finished on a vastly compressed schedule over the summer. Given the possibility, perhaps probability of a winter without pro hoops, the alternate scenario sketched out here is plausible if the union could muster the necessary unity among its top players.

Here is how we see the draft unfolding:

ROUND 1

1 TEAM WADE: Kevin Durant

2 TEAM KOBE: Dwight Howard

3 TEAM DIRK: Steve Nash

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Chris Paul

5 TEAM ROSE: Amar’e Stoudemire

6 TEAM LEBRON: Chris Bosh

ROUND 2

1 TEAM LEBRON: Stephen Curry

2 TEAM ROSE: Carmelo Anthony

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Danny Granger

4 TEAM DIRK: Brook Lopez

5 TEAM KOBE: Blake Griffin

6 TEAM WADE: Deron Williams

ROUND 3

1 TEAM WADE: Kevin Love

2 TEAM KOBE: Rudy Gay

3 TEAM DIRK: Joe Johnson

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Ray Allen

5 TEAM ROSE: Monta Ellis

6 TEAM LEBRON: Russell Westbrook

ROUND 4

1 TEAM LEBRON: Pau Gasol

2 TEAM ROSE: Zach Randolph

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Tyreke Evans

4 TEAM DIRK: Brandon Roy

5 TEAM KOBE: Michael Beasley

6 TEAM WADE: Andrew Bynum

ROUND 5

1 TEAM WADE: LaMarcus Aldridge

2 TEAM KOBE: Lamar Odom

3 TEAM DIRK: Andre Iguodala

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Marc Gasol

5 TEAM ROSE: Paul Pierce

6 TEAM LEBRON: Kevin Martin

ROUND 6

1 TEAM LEBRON: Chauncey Billups

2 TEAM ROSE: Rajon Rondo

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Manu Ginobili

4 TEAM DIRK: Kevin Garnett

5 TEAM KOBE: John Wall

6 TEAM WADE: Danilo Gallinari

ROUND 7

1 TEAM WADE: Eric Gordon

2 TEAM KOBE: Luis Scola

3 TEAM DIRK: Jason Terry

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Tony Parker

5 TEAM ROSE: Joakim Noah

6 TEAM LEBRON: OJ Mayo

ROUND 8

1 TEAM LEBRON: Anderson Varejao

2 TEAM ROSE: Carlos Boozer

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Al Jefferson

4 TEAM DIRK: Caron Butler

5 TEAM KOBE: Jameer Nelson

6 TEAM WADE: David Lee

ROUND 9

1 TEAM WADE: Luol Deng

2 TEAM KOBE: Al Horford

3 TEAM DIRK: Paul Millsap

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Dorell Wright

5 TEAM ROSE: Josh Smith

6 TEAM LEBRON: Mike Conley

ROUND 10

1 TEAM LEBRON: Elton Brand

2 TEAM ROSE: Gerald Wallace

3 TEAM DUNCAN: David West

4 TEAM DIRK: Jason Kidd

5 TEAM KOBE: Derrick Williams

6 TEAM WADE: Mike Miller

ROUND 11

1 TEAM WADE: Jrue Holliday

2 TEAM KOBE: Hedo Turkoglu

3 TEAM DIRK: Antawn Jamison

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Ben Gordon

5 TEAM ROSE: Shawn Marion

6 TEAM LEBRON: Grant Hill

ROUND 12

1 TEAM LEBRON: James Harden

2 TEAM ROSE: Raymond Felton

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Rip Hamilton

4 TEAM DIRK: Tyson Chandler

5 TEAM KOBE: Devin Harris

6 TEAM WADE: Kyrie Irving

The rosters would look like this:

TEAM WADE

Kevin Durant

Deron Williams

Kevin Love

Andrew Bynum

LaMarcus Aldridge

Danilo Gallinari

Eric Gordon

David Lee

Luol Deng

Mike Miller

Jrue Holliday

Kyrie Irving

TEAM KOBE

Dwight Howard

Blake Griffin

Rudy Gay

Michael Beasley

Lamar Odom

John Wall

Luis Scola

Jameer Nelson

Al Horford

Derrick Williams

Hedo Turkoglu

TEAM DIRK

Steve Nash

Brook Lopez

Joe Johnson

Brandon Roy

Andre Iguodala

Kevin Garnett

Jason Terry

Caron Butler

Paul Millsap

Jason Kidd

Antawn Jamison

Tyson Chandler

TEAM DUNCAN

Chris Paul

Danny Granger

Ray Allen

Tyreke Evans

Marc Gasol

Manu Ginobili

Tony Parker

Al Jefferson

Dorell Wright

David West

Ben Gordon

Rip Hamilton

TEAM ROSE

Amar’e Stoudemire

Carmelo Anthony

Monta Ellis

Zach Randolph

Paul Pierce

Rajon Rondo

Joakim Noah

Carlos Boozer

Josh Smith

Gerald Wallace

Shawn Marion

Raymond Felton

TEAM LEBRON

Chris Bosh

Stephen Curry

Russell Westbrook

Pau Gasol

Kevin Martin

Chauncey Billups

OJ Mayo

Anderson Varejao

Mike Conley

Elton Brand

Grant Hill

James Harden

And here’s the schedule for the entire season:

Saturday, November 12 on NBC: Draft/Selection Show

Wednesday, November 23 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Kobe (Meadowlands)

Saturday, November 26 on NBC: Team Dirk vs. Team Duncan (Indianapolis)

Saturday, November 26 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Lebron (Indianapolis)

Wednesday, November 30 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Dirk (Chicago)

Saturday, December 3 on NBC: Team Kobe vs. Team Wade (St. Louis)

Saturday, December 3 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Rose (St. Louis)

Wednesday, December 7 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Rose (Lexington, KY)

Thursday, December 8 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Dirk (Columus)

Thursday, December 8 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Lebron (Cincinnati)

Friday, December 9 on Versus: Team Rose vs. Team Kobe (Louisville, KY)

Saturday, December 10 on NBC: Team Dirk vs. Team Wade (Detroit)

Saturday, December 10 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Duncan (Detroit)

Wednesday, December 14 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Duncan (Philadelphia)

Thursday, December 15 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Rose (Baltimore)

Thursday, December 15 on Versus: Team Dirk vs. Team Lebron (Pittsburgh)

Friday, December 16 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Kobe (Meadowlands)

Saturday, December 17 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Wade (Atlanta)

Saturday, December 17 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Dirk (Atlanta)

Wednesday, December 21 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Duncan (Greensboro, NC)

Thursday, December 22 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Lebron (Knoxville, TN)

Thursday, December 22 on Versus: Team Dirk vs. Team Rose (Nashville)

Friday, December 23 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Wade (Raleigh)

Sunday, December 25 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Kobe (Indianapolis)

Sunday, December 25 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Dirk (Indianapolis)

Wednesday, December 28 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Lebron (St. Paul)

Thursday, December 29 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Dirk (Chicago)

Thursday, December 29 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Rose (Cleveland)

Friday, December 30 on Versus: Team Lebron vs. Team Wade (Kansas City)

Saturday, December 31 on NBC: Team Dirk vs. Team Kobe (Detroit)

Saturday, December 31 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Duncan (Detroit)

Tuesday, January 10 on NBC: Semifinal (Dallas)

Wednesday, January 11 on NBC: Semifinal (Houston)

Sunday, January 16 on NBC: Championship (Atlanta)