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📷 One of the most bizarre stories in recent sports media memory revolves around the photo rights for the recent Duke-Michigan basketball game and a protracted standoff between the promoter and wire services.

⚾ Former Cubs manager David Ross is back at ESPN, while TNT Sports has re-signed Jeff Francoeur and Jimmy Rollins.

🏀 Did the networks overpay for NBA rights? One firm thinks its value is vastly overstated compared to the NFL.

💰 If NFL rights increases cause networks to feel the squeeze, Versant could be waiting in the wings, ready to pounce.

🏈 ESPN will hand its NFL free agency coverage over to Pat McAfee instead of producing its own special when the window opens at noon on March 9.

In a classic early episode of The Simpsons, Homer saves the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant by resorting to a game of "eenie meenie miny mo," while obviously having no idea what he is actually doing at his job. He is hailed as a hero even though he knows deep down that he was the beneficiary of dumb luck. After he does it again at the neighboring Shelbyville plant during another meltdown, the truth is revealed. Homer is immortalized by everyone from Magic Johnson to Barney Gumble with the phrase to "pull a Homer," defined as "to succeed despite idiocy."

In the media world, we now have an entry that belongs right beside it - "pull a Zaslav."

For years, David Zaslav has been persona non grata among American media execs for his embattled stewardship over Warner Bros. Discovery. But after WBD's sale to Paramount for $110 billion, Zaslav is being hailed as a genius. The New York Times applauded Zaslav with the headline, "How David Zaslav Pulled Off the Deal of a Lifetime." The New York Post praised him as a winner for dangling the company in front of Netflix and Paramount for a bidding war and "pulling off the defining media deal of his generation." So did the Hollywood Reporter, who mentioned the hundreds of millions of dollars that he stands to make personally from the sale (and the billions of dollars in cuts that will come to the newly merged entity).

But was the Paramount sale a true stroke of genius from David Zaslav or did he just merely continue to fail upwards in the greatest and most fitting success story in the history of modern American media?

David Zaslav's tenure as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, which was formed in 2022 after the merger of Discovery Inc. and a spin-off of WarnerMedia, was marked by a series of questionable moves, negative headlines, and unabashed failures.

Where to even begin? There were multiple waves of layoffs. Entire movies scrapped as tax write-offs. The disastrous appointment of Chris Licht as the CEO of CNN caused the cable news giant to suffer a complete inner meltdown. The loss of a cornerstone relationship with the NBA on TNT, which he took the brunt of responsibility for personally after dissing the league and seeing the network's relationship with Adam Silver completely fall apart. The bizarre rebranding of HBO Max to Max, then back to HBO Max again.

Nowhere has Zaslav's leadership been more under fire than in the world of sports. It's been clear for years that sports were at the bottom of the CEO's priorities at Warner Bros. Discovery. He insisted that his company didn't need the NBA and was happy to see them go after trying to wage a legal battle that was destined to fail in court to keep the league. The company then moved to add a hodgepodge of sports rights, including French Open tennis, Big 12 action, and sublicensed College Football Playoff games that routinely have to go up against the NFL. And although it might be easy to forget now, Zaslav and WBD were involved in the failed launch of the joint streamer Venu Sports along with ESPN and Fox.

But through all the turmoil and losses, Zaslav shrank the company to the point where it became attractive enough to a buyer, at least part of it. The idea to spin off the cable networks just a few years after merging them into WarnerMedia was like taking one step backwards to take two steps forward. But it was also proof that all of Zaslav's stumbles somehow kept succeeding. A deal became attractive to Netflix, which, by all accounts, had the strongest plan to acquire the streaming and studio business.

Then came the Ellisons and Paramount.

Not content to pump the brakes after a massive purchase of UFC rights and a hostile takeover of CBS News, the Ellison family set their sights on WBD. And they simply would not take no for an answer. In spite of being told by the Warner Bros. Discovery board that their plan to purchase the entire company was in second place behind Netflix, Paramount kept pushing forward in its quest to build a true media empire. They were willing to take on not just the streaming and studios business, but the declining cable networks, and the debt required to afford $31 per share for all of it, triple what WBD's stock was just a year ago. Were the Ellison family not looking to build a media company that could rule the world in news, politics, sports, movies, and streaming, where would WBD really be right now?

While Larry and David Ellison attempt to consolidate as much media as they can (with the Trump administration's regulatory blessing), Zaslav must have felt like he had won the lottery. And that's not being clever or trying to use a metaphorical turn of phrase. It's real life.

On Tuesday, Zaslav placed a filing to sell $114 million worth of Warner Bros. Discovery stock. By the time the sale is complete, he will become a billionaire. This is the same David Zaslav who just last June saw his own shareholders reject his massive $51.9 million salary in a ceremonial vote of no confidence.

If you want to be generous, you can commend the CEO for his determination in bringing WBD to the place where it became a sellable asset. In other words, he made many cuts to bring the company to some semblance of financial sustainability. But the cuts always seemed more hatchet job than surgical precision. It's hard to fathom that Zaslav's master plan was to make movies only to scrap them, tell the NBA to take a hike, then sue to get them back, and flail at whatever the company has tried to do to make CNN relevant.

Even the original idea to sell the studios to Netflix was hijacked by the endless wealth of the Ellisons, who gave David Zaslav and company a fortune that they probably could not believe in their wildest dreams.

As the sun sets on Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav will laugh all the way to the bank. But that won't be any solace for the many tears shed at the company along the way.

NBA fans loved the Throwback Tuesday broadcast with the voices and graphics of the 1990s NBA on NBC back for one night only.

Unfortunately, the game was a dud as the Spurs blew out the 76ers by 40 on their home floor. But at least we had the highlight of Bob Costas paying tribute to Dick Ebersol and Dick Enberg of NBC as “two great Dicks.”

And speaking of double entendres, this post from Australian radio station Triple M about an Aussie Rules footballer belongs in the social media meme Hall of Fame.

“I suppose it’s possible Miami is the worst undefeated team of all time, and Auburn is the best .500 team we’ve ever seen — but it’s way more likely Pearl would be better off leaving Bracketology to the professionals.” - ESPN’s Joe Lunardi put Bruce Pearl in his place after dissing the undefeated Miami RedHawks.

"Suffice it to say, it didn't go the way that I thought it was going to go. Not necessarily anyone's fault or anything like that. But if I knew we were only going to get 10 as opposed to going in thinking 35-45, that's a whole different ball game." - Josh Pate sounds like he knows his interview with Donald Trump did not stick the landing.

“But for Carson Beck to get booed during his Combine performance was absurd. And wrong. It’s just wrong. It’s also going to lead to some people saying, ‘Why do we have fans in here at all?'” - Rich Eisen didn’t appreciate Indiana fans booing Carson Beck at the NFL Combine in Indy.

"You got people that are alcoholics, you got people that are drug addicts, and stuff like that. What was Zion’s problem? Food! Food addict!" - Stephen A. Smith isn’t going to stop in his crusade to shame Zion Williamson.

Mistrust and skepticism in media and institutions is at an all-time high. One way to further erode that trust is for reporters to present themselves as paid spokespersons for the entities they cover.

Enter world-renowned soccer insider Fabrizio Romano.

Romano isn’t exactly cut from the same cloth as Walter Cronkite. But his following is massive - 42 million followers on Instagram and another 27 million on X. He is an irreplaceable source of soccer news, reports, rumors, and gossip - especially when it comes to the transfer market and the moves of players.

But along with his connections has come controversy, including a 2024 report alleging that he sought to be paid by clubs to help promote their players. He’s also fallen under question for hyping troubled stars and has even gotten his famous “Here we go!” signaling the completion of a transfer wrong on occasion.

His willingness to do a social media ad for the “Global Humanitarian Role of Saudi Arabia” deserves its own category, though.

Saudi Arabia has been spending billions on soccer as part of their years-long sportswashing campaign, even attracting Cristiano Ronaldo to play in their domestic league. The country will also host the World Cup in 2034, which will be the pinnacle of these efforts. The troubling human rights situation in Saudi Arabia has been well-documented, especially when it comes to their views on journalism.

A quick scan of Romano’s posts about Saudi Arabia on social media shows a positive outlook overall, even in the midst of current reports around Ronaldo’s unhappiness with the support his team is receiving from the government. Incredibly, the Saudi PIF owns a majority stake in four teams to help fund superstar acquisitions, just like we’ve seen in LIV Golf.

The unmitigated gall it takes to do a paid advertisement for an entity that you have covered as a reporter is staggering. How can anyone ever take anything Romano says about Saudi Arabia seriously again, knowing that he’s quite literally on their payroll? Will Romano be a reporter for the Saudi World Cup, a paid spokesman, or try to do both at the same time? Can we believe any rumor he puts out about the next superstar player the Saudi league tries to attract? What happens when the next Saudi soccer controversy comes? He has put himself in an impossible position and will be seen from here on out as a puppet of the PIF.

Fabrizio Romano has toed the line between influencer and journalist as his fame has grown exponentially in recent years. But anyone willing to take money from the Saudi Arabian government and then distribute their propaganda disguised as news has surely made their decision.

He can’t call himself a journalist anymore.