SI View The Week in TV Sports

DON'T MISS

Wednesday 5/26

UEFA Champions League Final
ESPN2 2:30 PM

Which Brit has more mojo? Shag-happy Austin Powers,
international man of mystery and mate of Vanessa Kensington
(Elizabeth Hurley), or Manchester United midfielder David
Beckham, 24, candidate for European Footballer of the Year and
fiance of Posh Spice (Victoria Adams)? European soccer's
equivalent to the Super Bowl, live from Barcelona, pits Beckham
(right, pursuing the ball in a match against Juventus) and the
rest of the men from Man United against Bayern Munich, which is
led by Methuselah-esque sweeper Lothar Matthaus, 38, and forward
Stefan Effenberg, 30. During a 1994 World Cup match in Dallas,
Effenberg gave the effin' bird to spectators and was dismissed
from the German squad. Oh, behave!

HIGHLIGHTS

Saturday 5/22

NBA Playoffs
NBC SATURDAY 1 PM, SUNDAY 12:30 PM; TBS MONDAY 8 PM; TNT
TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY 7 PM, THURSDAY-FRIDAY 8 PM

While the Knicks' Patrick Ewing continues his Hoyas centers
reunion tour with a second-round date against the Hawks' Dikembe
Mutombo, the East's more intriguing conference semifinal matchup
and reunion revolves around 76ers coach Larry Brown. He built
the Pacers team that he now faces, Chris Mullin being the only
starter not to have played for Indiana during Brown's four
seasons there. Speaking of Georgetown, yet another former Hoya,
Philadelphia guard Allen Iverson (page 44), led the NBA in
regular-season scoring (26.8 points per game) and the first
round of the playoffs in charisma.

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Oba Carr
HBO 10 PM

We're flummoxed by the mythology behind the new film Star Wars,
Episode 1--The Phantom Menace, but as we understand it, Oba Carr
was sold into slavery by Darth Maul after he attempted to Mace
Windu. Actually, the challenger tonight in Las Vegas is a Motown
native, which is to say that this Carr (48-2-1, 28 KOs) was
assembled in Detroit and should be stripped of any pretensions
to the WBC welterweight title held by De La Hoya (30-0, 24 KOs).
Undercard bout we'd pay to see: Jar Jar Binks vs. Leon Spinks.

Monday 5/24

French Open
MONDAY-FRIDAY, USA 10 AM

In January, after Martina Hingis won the Australian Open, she
was ecstatic, she was elated, she was...khaki-a-go-go! The loser
that day, Amalie Mauresmo, made news in Melbourne by coming out
as a lesbian, which may make her the first French Open seed to
be both French (her parents: Francis and Francoise) and open.
The top-ranked Hingis hasn't won at Stade Roland Garros and will
be tested by Venus Williams, who has won two clay-court titles
(Hamburg and Rome) in the past month.

Tuesday 5/25

Real Sports
HBO 10 PM

On the same day that MTV presents Maximum Carnage, in which
BMXers attempt to jump over cars, HBO's sports magazine has
punchy features on postgame fan riots and NHL enforcers. (Memo
to Marilyn Manson: It's safe to come outside again.) In the
hockey piece Stu Grimson of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks says of his
job, "There's a certain nobility about what I do because I'm
coming to the aid of a teammate." Tony Twist of the St. Louis
Blues warns Real Sports reporter Armen Keteyian not to label him
a "goon." Says the Twister, "You say that and my mom will kill
you."

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOURCE:
NIELSEN SPORTS MARKETING SERVICE

COLOR PHOTO: ROSS KINNAIRD/ALLSPORT

THE RATING

1.2

Rating for the program on Mickey Mantle in ESPN's SportsCentury
Top 50 Countdown--easily the series' best number to date. Next
highest, at 0.7: Lawrence Taylor and O.J. Simpson.

THE ZAPPER

On May 10 the USA Network's WWF Raw and WWF War Zone were seen
in more than six million households during prime time, more than
doubling the combined viewership of two NBA playoff games in
that time slot, Hawks-Pistons and Heat-Knicks. In the past three
seasons the latter rivalry often has put a sleeper hold on
basketball purists. So maybe the lesson is: Viewers don't prefer
the WWF to the NBA, they prefer pro wrestling to amateur
wrestling.