SI View The Week in TV Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 2/5

Winter X-Games
ESPN 6 PM The boys in Bristol would never admit it, but we
believe the 1984 Shannon Tweed vehicle, Hot Dog...the Movie,
inspired this event. They could pay tribute by staging a Chinese
Downhill (an all-comers downhill free-for-all) as they did in
the film. ESPN x-ed out Super-Modified Shovel Racing two years
ago, so why not throw us this bone? Chris Fowler and Suzy Kolber
host 18 hours of coverage over five days from Mount Snow, Vt.

SUNDAY 2/6

NHL All-Star Game
ABC 2:30 PM
NFL Pro Bowl
ABC 5:30 PM Financial update: Media giant Time Warner, which
recently merged with both AOL and EMI, this week refused to
merge with slower traffic. In other financial news, the North
Americans will try to avoid a goal-trading deficit with the
Europeans when the NHL stages its All-Star Game in Toronto. In
NFL pigskin futures, three of the 12 skill-position starters,
including quarterbacks Peyton Manning (AFC) and Kurt Warner
(NFC), are making their first Pro Bowl appearances.

MONDAY 2/7

The Sportscasters: Behind the Mike
THE HISTORY CHANNEL 10 PM Blending anecdote, eloquence and
pithiness, Chris Berman, Bob Costas, Curt Gowdy, John Madden, Al
Michaels, Brent Musburger, Vin Scully, Jack Whitaker and others
discuss the craft's legends (Mel Allen, Howard Cosell et al.)
and its sublime moments ("Do you believe in miracles? Yes!").
Here's the hypervisceral Madden, for example, on why reserved
partner Pat Summerall complements him so well: "He takes a
dangling participle and...takes the dangle off it."

TUESDAY 2/8

Sonics at Spurs
TNT 8 PM The organ-donor special: San Antonio needed a kidney;
Seattle, according to its star, lacks heart. The Spurs have been
without fluid forward Sean Elliott since he underwent a kidney
transplant last August, and the defending NBA champs have
suffered: Through Sunday, they were only fifth in the West
(28-16). Last week point guard Gary Payton of the Sonics
(28-17), perhaps the NBA's most competitive player now that
Michael Jordan is retired, said he can't stomach his teammates'
lack of intestinal fortitude. Consider this game a gut check.

DON'T MISS

SATURDAY 2/5

Connecticut at Michigan State
CBS 1 PM Far out, man, we're getting the old band back together!
Last Jan. 24, '70s folk rockers Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
reunited and launched their first tour in 25 years with a
concert in Auburn Hills, Mich. This afternoon, some 75 miles
west of there, in East Lansing, Dick Enberg (middle), Al McGuire
(right) and Billy Packer, widely considered the most
entertaining college basketball announcing team ever, play their
first gig together since 1981. Enberg's recent leap to CBS made
it possible to reunite the old NBC trio for today's matchup
between two top 10 squads led by point guards Khalid El-Amin
(Huskies) and Mateen Cleaves (Spartans). Carry on.

THE ZAPPER

Did President Clinton deliver his State of the Union address
last Thursday in the U.S. Capitol or the All-Star Cafe? Sitting
directly to Hillary Clinton's right in the gallery was Hank
Aaron. Wedged between First Daughter Chelsea and First Lady
Wannabe Tipper Gore was Women's World Cup heroine Julie Foudy.
"When they told me where I was going to sit," says Foudy,
president-elect of the Women's Sports Foundation, "I said,
'Yeah, right.'" Foudy, who reports that a well-prepared Gore
brought bottled water for her seatmates to drink during the
89-minute speech, can next be seen on television on Sunday
(ESPN, 2 p.m.) when the U.S. plays Norway in Florida.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

B/W PHOTO: NBC SPORTS PRESS