SI View The Week in TV Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 4/15

NFL Draft
ESPN NOON How can the Browns, whose greatest coach and player in
their previous incarnation were Paul Brown and Jim Brown,
respectively, not select Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown
(page 48) with today's first pick? We'd like to think Cleveland
would use its second-round choice on Utah State rusher DeMario
Brown (1,536 yards, 6.0 yards per carry in 1999) and its two
third-round choices on Nebraska All-America defensive backs Ralph
Brown and Mike Brown. Chris Berman, an alumnus of Brown, provides
analysis with ever-lacquered draft guru Mel Kiper Jr.

Stanley Cup Playoffs
ABC 2 PM; ESPN 7:30 PM At a season-ending news briefing, NHL
commissioner Gary Bettman declared that this "has been an
excellent season." Excuse us? What about Marty McSorley using
Donald Brashear's noggin as a pinata, among other acts of
gratuitous violence? Maybe Bettman was thinking of The Sopranos.
With the league's bottom 12 teams having gone the way of Richie
Aprile, its top 16, with Philadelphia and St. Louis as the East's
and West's top seeds, respectively, get it on in the conference
quarterfinals, continuing daily this week on ESPN and ESPN2.

Sunday 4/16

Diamondbacks at Giants
ESPN 8 PM When Arizona last played in San Francisco, last
September, it clinched the National League West at 3Com Park.
Because of a previously scheduled promotion, the victorious
visitors were treated to a postgame fireworks show. Tonight, at
the Giants' new Pacific Bell Park, the bombardment of choice will
be a water-cannon barrage triggered by any home-team homer
sailing over the short porch in right (307 feet down the line)
and into San Francisco Bay. PacBell's cannon? Classical music to
a slugger's ears.

Wednesday 4/19

Lakers at Spurs
TBS 8 PM My desert-island, alltime top five songs with organs in
their titles: Aqualung, Heart of Glass, I've Got You under My
Skin, Pale Blue Eyes and My Ding-A-Ling. No memorable kidney
tunes, but it's worth touting Sean Elliott's renal record. After
undergoing a transplant, Elliott, San Antonio's small forward,
has been hailed this season as the first pro athlete to return
from organ replacement surgery. Through Sunday the Spurs were 9-5
since Elliott rejoined them, and they still have the size to
stomach a visit from Shaquille O'Neal-led Los Angeles, winner of
30 of its previous 32 games.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Don't Miss

MONDAY 4/17

Bill Russell: My Life, My Way
HBO 10 PM Seconds into his debut as a Celtic in 1956, Bill
Russell blocked a shot, and although he was called for
goaltending, the revolution was on. As Boston celebrates
Patriots' Day with the annual running of America's most storied
road race (ESPN2, 11:55 a.m.), it can also take an hour to
appreciate its greatest (although not its favorite) sports
revolutionary, defensively and socially. This illuminating
documentary, narrated by actor Liev Schreiber and including
interviews with Russell and former teammates such as Tom Heinsohn
and Tom (Satch) Sanders, depicts a man who readily left his feet
to swat away shots but fiercely stood his ground on important
issues.

the zapper

Pom Saturday precedes Palm Sunday this year as CBS airs the
National Cheerleading Association Championships from Daytona
Beach (2 p.m., tape delay). Commentators Tim Brando and Ed
Cunningham will be joined by 1996 Olympic gymnast Amanda
Borden.... The Kentucky Derby doesn't come on the air during the
backstretch, nor does the Indianapolis 500 begin its telecast at
mile 250. So how come the Masters starts its broadcasts no
earlier than 3:30 p.m. (on Saturday), when the leaders usually
are several holes into their round? Perhaps wall-to-wall coverage
of other majors has spoiled us, but it's high time the masters of
Augusta National let us look in a couple of hours earlier.

COLOR PHOTO: JAMES DRAKE