Sports With Friends

16-year NBA veteran Chris Dudley played 886 games across 16 seasons in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, Portland Trail Blazers twice, New York Knicks, and Phoenix Suns. He’s also the first NBA player with Type 1 Diabetes and the founder of the Chris Dudley Foundation.

Dudley came on to talk about his career and the current NBA but also wanted to promote a new venture in his world. A company he’s a part of, COVAB, has developed a new antibody test for Covid-19. The test is an easy, rapid, oral fluid-based antibody test with a 98.8% accuracy rate that has received an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. The conversation involved a discussion of Covid and sports, including both the situations with Aaron Rodgers and Kyrie Irving.

Ethan Zohn was a professional soccer player who won the third season of the reality TV show, “Survivor.” After winning, he created Grassroot, an adolescent health organization that leverages the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize at-risk youth in developing countries to overcome their greatest health challenges including HIV/AIDS, and live healthier, more productive lives, and be agents for change in their communities. Then, he contracted a rare form of Lymphoma and documented his fight against cancer. Now, he is a motivational speaker and entrepreneur.

He appeared on another season of Survivor and The Amazing Race and has been a commentator for the New England Revolution and Los Angeles Galaxy of the MLS.

In this episode, Zohn discusses his journey through Survivor and soccer, and cancer. This is a fascinating conversation about an incredible journey.

Follow Ethan on social media @EthanZohn.

Jay Busbee has been a columnist for Yahoo Sports for 13 years. He started out covering NASCAR and then migrated to the NFL, where he currently covers the league. He also covered the 2021 World Series as he is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Jay also goes on a weekly podcast called “The Ralph Report” with host Ralph Garman, who joined this show on episode 322.

In this episode, Busbee discusses issues facing NASCAR and its dwindling audience. He also discussed the Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder's controversial stint as that team's owner. Other issues include the future of the NFL Sunday Ticket package, concussions, and Aaron Rodgers' small fine for violating Covid-19 protocols. He also told his origin story of how he got to Yahoo Sports and how he became a regular on the Ralph Report.

This episode begins with a tribute to Julio Lugo, the former MLB shortstop who died unexpectedly at the age of 45. Seth met Lugo in 1995 when he was the shortstop for the Auburn Astros, a team that Seth called games for.

Recent New York Sports Emmy Winner John Chandler joined this week's episode. Chandler is NBC 4 New York's weekend sports anchor, seen regularly on Fridays and Saturdays at 6 PM and 11 PM. He is a weekday sports and general assignment reporter. He has won multiple Emmy Awards.

During the episode, Chandler speaks about his approach to a nightly sportscast in a market like New York, which has 11 professional franchises. He also discussed how the pandemic has impacted sports coverage, and how viewership of nightly newscasts has changed and even diminished over the years.

Chandler is a native of Ohio, so there is plenty of Cleveland sports chatter as well. Ultimately, there is a discussion on the decade-long New York sports championship drought.

Follow John Chandler on Twitter @JohnChandlerNBC.

Longtime Seattle sports radio host and TV reporter Ian Furness joins the show this week. The conversation is about a lot of Seattle sports topics, including the Seattle Kraken. Furness recently was whisked into duty and had to travel and call four of the first five games in the franchise's history. He details that story and the team's impact on the city so far.

Furness currently hosts middays at Sportsradio KJR-950am in Seattle from 1-3 pm PT. He also covers the Seattle Seahawks for the local FOX affiliate in Seattle (Q13). He's a veteran of the sports media industry and has seen the tech evolution that it is undergoing.

Furness talks Seahawks, Mariners, Kraken, Sounders, and even revisits the departure of the beloved Seattle SuperSonics.

Recent rumors in the media say that Disney is considering spinning off or selling outright ESPN. Disney denied the rumor, but it brought to light certain facts that make a lot of sense for both Disney and ESPN. First, ESPN receives $10 per month per cable subscription, but only $6.99 or less for ESPN+. The network has also expressed interest in a greater relationship with sports gambling, something Disney has been reticent to do.

Tech expert Shelly Palmer is the CEO of the Palmer Group, and the co-host of another Underdog Podcast Network production, Techstream with Seth Everett and Shelly Palmer. That show covered the tech analysis of the rumor, and Shelly offered his insight here.

Also, Senior Writer for Front Office Sports Mike McCarthy made a return appearance to the podcast. He previously did a sports media episode in Episode 198, back when McCarthy was with The Sporting News.

Check out https://frontofficesports.com/ and https://www.shellypalmer.com/.

The English Premier League has grown exponentially in popularity over the last decade. Enhancing that has been the success of the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso.

In 2 seasons, Ted Lasso has won multiple Emmy Awards and trends on social media every time an episode drops. Longtime podcaster, actor, and voice actor Ralph Garman joins this week's episode to talk about the show's impact but also what it says about the Premier League. Ralph is the host of The Ralph Report, which can be found on Patreon.

Follow Ralph on social media @RalphGarman.

This week, the 2021-2022 NHL season gets underway on two new networks. The league returns to ESPN for the first time in 17 years. It also marks the debut of the NHL on TNT, whose coverage begins on October 13th, 2021.

Liam McHugh hosted the NHL on NBC for over 10 years, and when the league left NBC, McHugh was immediately hired by Turner. He will be the lead host on NHL studio coverage with Wayne Gretzky, Rich Tocchet, Anson Carter, and Paul Bissonnette.

McHugh also hosted Notre Dame Football coverage as well as Premier League football (soccer) for NBC.

In this episode, McHugh discusses the plans for TNT's hockey coverage and his thoughts on his time at NBC.

Jerome Jurenovich recently announced his retirement, ending a 40-year career that involved television and radio all across the country. The multi-time Emmy winner started his career for WSEE-TV in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania before moving down to the Peach State to work for CNN. He then moved to Los Angeles to co-host NFL Sunday for Fox Sports Radio. After helping launch Altitude Sports in Denver, he returned to Atlanta in 2008. Since then, he has been an integral part of Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves broadcasts as the host of “Hawks LIVE” and “Braves LIVE.”

In this episode, Jerome recounts his award-winning career, tells a great story about Joe DiMaggio, discusses Atlanta and Denver comparisons as a sports town, and his relationships with the Braves/MLB and the Hawks/NBA.

Follow Jerome Jurenovich on Twitter @JeromeonSports.

Longtime ESPN reporter TJ Quinn rejoined the podcast nearly 17 months after his first appearance in episode 244. Then, he had just battled a two-week illness that turned out to be Covid-19. In the months that have followed, TJ has battled “long haul.” The after-effects of his bout with Covid have given him numerous health issues including migraine headaches, extreme fatigue, “brain fog,” a heart condition, and more. This episode goes to the personal side of Covid.

The episode concludes with a discussion on the impact Covid is currently having on the sports world including full stadiums, unvaccinated players, and fans, and how the virus continues to impact professional and college sports.

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