A Plethora of Press Releases

Since I did not want to take a full hour to give you press releases during the day, I figured I would do it at night when I have a fast computer to work with. And I have a bunch to give you. So let’s get right to them.

First, TNT tells us what’s in store for NBA viewers on Thanksgiving Night.

TNT NBA Thursday Celebrates Thanksgiving with an Exclusive Doubleheader Magic/Wizards followed by Hornets/Nuggets

TNT NBA Thursday coverage continues on Thanksgiving Day, Thurs., November 27, 2008, with an exclusive doubleheader. The night’s action will get underway at 8 p.m. ET when Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic visit Caron Butler and the Washington Wizards. Dick Stockton (play-by-play) and Mike Fratello (analyst) will be courtside with David Aldridge reporting. The second game of the night will feature Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets hosting Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets at 10:30 p.m. ET. Marv Albert will handle the play-by-play alongside Doug Collins (analyst) and Craig Sager (reporter). The night will conclude with the Emmy® award-winning studio show Inside the NBA presented by Hyundai with Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst). The show will also include a feature with TNT’s Jim Huber interviewing former NBA player Wayman Tisdale about his battle with bone cancer and the recent surgery that removed part of his right leg. Tisdale will also talk about his successful second career in jazz and his friendship with country music superstar Toby Keith that has led to their musical collaboration.

TNT NBA THURSDAY SCHEDULE:

Thu., November 27

8 p.m. – NBA Tip-Off
Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst), Kenny Smith (analyst)

8:15 p.m. – Orlando Magic @ Washington Wizards
Announcers: Dick Stockton (play-by-play), Mike Fratello (analyst) and David Aldridge (reporter)

10:30 p.m. – New Orleans Hornets @ Denver Nuggets
Announcers: Marv Albert (play-by-play), Doug Collins (analyst) and Craig Sager (reporter)

Post-game – Inside the NBA
Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst)

TNT NBA THURSDAY UPCOMING SCHEDULE:

Thu., December 4

8 p.m. – NBA Tip-Off
Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst), Kenny Smith (analyst)

8:15 p.m. – Phoenix Suns @ Dallas Mavericks
Announcers: Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Doug Collins (analyst) and Craig Sager (reporter)

10:30 p.m. – San Antonio Spurs @ Denver Nuggets
Announcers: Marv Albert (play-by-play), Mike Fratello (analyst), Reggie Miller (analyst) and Cheryl Miller (reporter)

Post-game – Inside the NBA
Ernie Johnson (host), Charles Barkley (analyst) and Kenny Smith (analyst)

Next, TNT’s sister Time Warner network, HBO has its third straight boxing event this Saturday with a Boxing After Dark card.

IT’S A DOUBLE DOSE OF RING ACTION WHEN
HBO BOXING AFTER DARK®: PAUL WILLIAMS VS. VERNO PHILLIPS
AND CHRIS ARREOLA VS. TRAVIS WALKER
IS SEEN SATURDAY, NOV. 29, ON HBO

HBO serves up a double portion of holiday ring action when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: PAUL WILLIAMS VS. VERNO PHILLIPS AND CHRIS ARREOLA VS. TRAVIS WALKER is seen SATURDAY, NOV. 29 (10:00 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT), from the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Cal., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
The main event features two-time welterweight titleholder Paul Williams (35-1, 26 KOs) of Augusta, Ga., making his debut in the junior middleweight division as he moves up to 154 pounds to take on three-time junior middleweight champ Verno Phillips (42-10-1, 21 KOs) from Denver, in a scheduled 12-round contest. Having regained his welterweight title, Williams now seeks to conquer a new division; he’s also the last man to beat the formidable Antonio Margarito. Phillips, a crafty ring veteran, recently outpointed junior middleweight champ Cory Spinks and is determined to stay on top of his division.

The opening bout at the brand-new Ontario venue features rising heavyweight prospects doing battle in a scheduled 12-round bout. Chris Arreola (25-0, 22 KOs) from nearby Riverside, Cal., puts his perfect record on the line against Houston’s Travis Walker (28-1, 22 KOs), who boasts a near-perfect mark. Both young fighters have been steamrolling the competition and look to impress in the national spotlight.

This Sunday, 60 Minutes conducts the first real sitdown interview with Olympics eight-time gold medalist Michael Phelps.

OLYMPIC SUPERSTAR MICHAEL PHELPS POINTS OUT MISTAKE MADE BY SILVER MEDALIST SWIMMER THAT ENABLED HIM TO WIN HIS RECORD-TYING SEVENTH GOLD MEDAL – “60 MINUTES”

Record Eight-Gold Medal Winner Says he “Had Nothing Left” After Winning his Sixth

A small mistake made by his opponent was the difference Michael Phelps needed to win his seventh gold medal on his way to the single Olympic record of eight, reveals the U.S. Olympic superstar swimmer. Moreover, it came at the perfect time: Phelps was exhausted and “had nothing left” after winning his sixth gold the day before, he tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The interview with Phelps will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Nov. 30 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Phelps won his seventh gold medal to tie Mark Spitz in the 100-meter butterfly by just one one-hundredth of a second – a victory aided by the mistake made by runner-up Milorad Cavic of Serbia, says Phelps. “He’s picking up his head, so it’s acting like a speed bump,” Phelps says, pointing to the photo of the race’s finish. “So he’s coming up and then trying to lift his head before he touches the wall…[my head] is in a straight streamline. So that’s the difference in the race,” he tells Cooper. “If his head is down, he
wins…hands down, wins the race.” Click here for an excerpt.

But before tying Spitz, Phelps, who had won six gold medals in six races, felt he was running out of gas. “I remember saying, ‘I got nothing left,’” says Phelps after winning the 200-meter individual medley on August 15 in Beijing. Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, saw it on his face. “If you look at the pictures right after the race and even when I was standing there and he was in the water, I thought, ‘Wow, he is really tired right now.’”

Nevertheless, he went on to make history when he, along with his teammates, won gold in the 4×100 meter medley relay the next day. It was his eighth gold of the Beijing Games, the first time any athlete has ever won that many gold medals in a single Olympics.

When Cooper spoke to Phelps, the 6-feet-4 inch swimmer weighed 205 lbs., the heaviest he’s ever been, he tells Cooper. But it’s not because he’s eating the rumored 12,000 calories per day talked about so often during the Beijing Games. “[The 12,000 calories a day] is not true,” says Phelps. It’s more like eight to 10,000 calories a day when he’s training, he says. It’s still a lot and Phelps says when he in training, it’s necessary. “I have to always just constantly shovel food in because I can lose anywhere from five to 10 pounds in a week.

Phelps is not training right now, but plans to resume the grueling daily schedule that made him the best in the world in January. He will be preparing for the London Olympics in 2012.”

Now that golf is over, NBC shifts its attention to … Figure Skating? And Action Sports?

NANCY KERRIGAN HEADLINES HOLIDAY CELEBRATION ON ICE THIS SUNDAY ON NBC

NEW YORK – November 25, 2008- Olympic silver medalist Nancy Kerrigan headlines “Holiday Celebration on Ice” with contemporary gospel music provided by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith from The Orleans in Las Vegas, Nev., this Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.

Joining Kerrigan are reigning World Champion Jeffrey Buttle, six-time U.S. National Champion Todd Eldredge, 1994 World Champion Yuka Sato, six-time Canadian National champion Jennifer Robinson, nine-time Canadian National champion Shae-Lynn Bourne and three-time World silver medalist Surya Bonaly.

Grant and Smith are two of gospel music’s most successful cross over artists. Grant has won six Grammy Awards and has had ten top forty pop singles. Smith has won three Grammy awards and an American Music Award since his musical debut in 1983. The two will collaborate for this event to perform songs about love and the holiday season as the skaters take to the ice.

DEW TOUR HIGHLIGHT SHOW, SUNDAY, 2 PM ET

NBC Sports presents a two-hour retrospective of the most exciting and dramatic action from the 5-stop AST Dew Tour of 2008. The recap features the fresh, new faces of action sports such as Skateboard Park champion, Chaz Ortiz, as well as veterans such as four-time BMX Vert champion Jamie Bestwick. The AST Dew Tour, the only season-long professional multi-sport tour in skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross is presented in high definition.

Kenan Harkin hosts the show from the PlayStation Pro Awards Ceremony in Orlando, Fla.

That took just 15 minutes to cut and paste. That’s more like it. I have another update so keep your RSS feeds updated.