Basketball fans will not want to miss one of the highlights of the NBA season, the NBA All-Star Weekend, from 19 to 21 February. ESPN will televise the weekend LIVE.
This year’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, featuring celebrities from all sectors of the entertainment industry, will include teenage singing sensation Justin Bieber, rapper Common and NBA Hall of Famer ‘Magic’ Johnson.
The NBA All-Star Rookie Challenge features the best of the first-year players taking on a team of star second-years. Last year the Rookies won 140-128.
Read more…
“Gentlemen start your engines”. NASCAR fans will be waiting to hear those four words as the 2011 season gets off to an explosive start with the “Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing”, the DAYTONA 500, on Sunday 20 February. ESPN will air the 200-lap, 500-mile (804.7 km) race LIVE from the Daytona International Speedway in Florida, USA.
ESPN’s LIVE coverage of the 2011 NASCAR season launches with the traditional season-opener of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Duel at Daytona – two 150-mile qualifying races that determine the starting lineup for the Daytona 500, one of four restrictor plate races on the Cup schedule.
Read more…
Luol Deng is a seventh year player for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. Born into the Dinka tribe in Sudan, he and his family fled Sudan in the late 1980’s to escape the civil war. Now the star player for Team Great Britain as London gears up for the 2012 Olympics, Deng has recently re-established ties with his native Sudan.
Mathias Kiwanuka, defensive end for the NFL’s New York Giants whom he helped earn a Super Bowl ring in 2008, is the grandson of Uganda’s first prime minister who was brutally tortured and then assassinated more than 10 years before Mathias was born. In June 2010 Mathias and his older brother, Benedict, were involved in a near fatal motorcycle accident. In October Mathias suffered a neck injury in a game with the Giants which ended his season, and perhaps his career.
Read more…
Three new films will air in February and March as the critically acclaimed 30 For 30 documentary series continues on ESPN on DStv channel 230.
Tim Richmond: To The Limit, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rory Karpf, whose documentaries have been narrated by the likes of Paul Newman, Kevin Costner and Tom Cruise, examines the life and tragic death of one of NASCAR’s most controversial characters, the flamboyant Tim Richmond who lived his life as fast as he drove his cars.
Marion Jones: Press Pause, directed by two-time Academy Award nominee John Singleton, focuses on the evolution of the track and field Olympian, her fall from grace and subsequent change of heart and direction.
Fernando Nation tells the story of one of the most captivating pitching phenomena baseball has ever seen – a teenager from Mexico named Fernando Valenzuela who sold out stadiums across the country as “Fernandomania” swept America. See synopses below.
Read more…
NASCAR fans will not want to miss ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary – Tim Richmond: ToThe Limit
In the 1980s, U.S. racing car driver Tim Richmond lived his life the way he raced cars – wide open. Born into a wealthy family, Tim Richmond was the antithesis of the typical Southern, blue-collar, dirt-track racers who dominated NASCAR. Nicknamed “Hollywood”, he was a flamboyant showman who basked in the attention of the media and fans, especially the attention of female admirers. But it was Richmond’s on-track performances that ended up drawing comparisons to racing legends and in 1986, when he won seven NASCAR races and finished third in the Winston Cup series points race, some believed he was on the verge of stardom. When he unexpectedly withdrew from the season-opening Daytona 500 in February 1987, media reported that he had pneumonia. In reality, the diagnosis was far more dire: he had AIDS. Richmond returned to the track in 1987, but he was gone from the sport by the next year as his health deteriorated. He spent his final days as a recluse, dying on August 13, 1989, at the age of 34.
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rory Karpf, whose documentaries have been narrated by the likes of Paul Newman, Kevin Costner and Tom Cruise, examines the life and tragic death of one of NASCAR’s shooting stars.
Tim Richmond: To The Limit is part of ESPN’s 30 For 30 series commissioned to celebrate ESPN’s 30th anniversary with 30 original documentaries by 30 leading film-makers.
Watch it on ESPN, on DStv channel 230, Wednesday 9 February at 9pm. Re-airs on 12 Feb (4pm), 13 Feb (10.3pm) and 14 Feb (6pm).
Green Bay Packers tipped to beat six-time winners, Pittsburgh Steelers
The greatest show on the US sports calendar and the championship match of the National Football League, the NFL Super Bowl, takes place this year on Sunday 6 February. ESPN will broadcast the event LIVE from the $1.3 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where a record crowd of 105,000 spectators is expected.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, champions of the AFC (American Football Conference), will enter the Super Bowl for the eighth time and with a record six wins to their name, to take on the winners of the NFC (National Football Conference) contest, the Green Bay Packers from Wisconsin who will be playing their fifth Super Bowl. This will be the first time the teams have met this season.
Read more…
South African cricketers Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in the running for awards
Cricket’s leading authority recognises the best performances from 2010
ESPNCricinfo, the world’s leading cricket website, is once again holding the ESPNCricinfo Awards, celebrating the best individual performances in 2010 by batsmen and bowlers in Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 cricket.
South Africa’s Test and One-Day players feature in the awards, with Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel all nominated. Amla is nominated for Best Batting Performance in both the Test and ODI categories. Dale Steyn is a strong contender for Best Test Bowling Performance for notching up 7 for 51 against India in the first Test at Nagpur. Morne Morkel is also nominated in this category for his performance against India in the first Test at Centurion.
Read more…
ESPNcricinfo.com – online and mobile – provides comprehensive tournament ball-by-ball coverage
Extensive multimedia coverage captures passion of the tournament – with video specials from Ian Chappell, Harsha Bhogle and comedian Andy Zaltzman
ESPN Classic relives moments, matches and memories of past World Cups
As the excitement builds towards the ICC Cricket World Cup on February 19, ESPN is delivering multi-platform coverage that celebrates the past and present of cricket’s premier one-day tournament, with ESPNcricinfo.com and ESPN Classic combining to deliver coverage on TV, online and on mobile devices.
ESPNcricinfo.com, the world’s leading cricket website, will be providing extensive coverage of this year’s Cricket World Cup. A specially dedicated section of the site will include ball-by-ball updates, scores and text commentary as well as recaps and player profiles from every match.
Read more…
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – whose personal rivalry has defined the sport of tennis in recent years, combining for 25 of the last 30 Grand Slam titles – will play a pair of exhibitions on 21 and 22 December. Both matches will air live on ESPN. The two indoor hard-court best-of-three set matches will take place in each player’s home country, benefiting his charitable foundation.
On Tuesday 21 December at 9 pm CAT, the two legends will meet at Hallenstadion Arena in Zurich, Switzerland, benefitting the Roger Federer Foundation. A day later, they will play again, at La Caja Magica in Madrid, Spain, at 8 pm with proceeds going to Fundacion Rafael Nadal.
Read more…
Four new films will air in December 2010 and January 2011 as the 30 For 30 documentary series continues on ESPN on DStv channel 230. Directors of these documentaries – commissioned by ESPN to celebrate its 30th anniversary with 30 exclusive sports documentaries – include two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (The House of Steinbrenner) and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, South African born Steve Nash (Into the Wind). See synopses below.
Read more…