It was NBC's turn to take over the sports spotlight last weekend with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday night and the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday evening.

Jim McKay, longtime host of the Olympics on ABC, made an unfortunate special appearance for NBC. McKay, who retired a couple of years ago, was rusty to say the least. There were a few times he had trouble getting out a sentence.

However, that wasn't the case for Bob Costas, who was acting more like Jay Leno than a sports announcer with many forced quips, including "I've been waiting to say this for a year and a half - we are live, and this is Australia." Katie Couric, the queen of NBC, came across as the best host, and managed to look great in a winter parka.

The most poignant moment was the unfurling in front of a completely silent crowd of the torn U.S. flag taken from the World Trade Center. There were many references to the tragedy, including cutaways to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. And what is de rigeur for a major sporting event today, there were many entertainers, including R. Kelly, Sting, the Dixie Chicks, LeAnn Rimes, and the hometown Mormon Tabernacle Choir (luckily, no Osmonds).

There were a few Olympics-themed commercials, including the ski-jumping cow for Gateway computers, the Bank of America bobsledders and Coca-Cola's French ice skater. Coke rival Pepsi was not a sponsor for the Olympics.

Two nights later, the NBA took center stage on NBC.

Though NBC's pregame story line focused mostly on Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson, it was Kobe Bryant and Philadelphia, "the City That Doesn't Love You Back," that became the big story of the night.

It was evident it wasn't going to be a happy homecoming for Bryant when he got booed during the opening introductions. Marv Albert, Bill Walton and Steve "Snapper" Jones discussed it throughout the game. And Kobe expressed his disappointment in his reception from the crowd when Jim Gray interviewed him on the bench in the second half. Then, Ahmad Rashad was visibly disturbed by the crowd's booing when he awarded the MVP trophy to Bryant.

In other news, there was a Philadelphia slant as Bruce Springsteen's tune "Streets of Philadelphia" was used during a montage; the "Rocky" theme played during player introductions; Elton John played "Philadelphia Freedom" before the game; and Philly's Patti LaBelle performed the national anthem.

There were also some cute promos, including NBC's ski-jumping theme for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' upcoming sitcom (the Gateway cow was a better ski jumper than Louis-Dreyfus), and Roxborough's own Pink's promo for the NBA with "Get This Party Started," also known as "The Allen Iverson Story."

Laura Nachman covers television and radio sports for the Courier Times. Write her in care of the Courier Times, 8400 Route 13, Levittown, PA 19057, fax 215-949-4177 or email [email protected].

Tuesday, February 12, 2002