Three years ago, while walking to dinner before the first NBA Cup, Ed posed a question: “Should we write a book?”

John loved the idea. Together, we’ve written about 50 SBJ columns, designed to be insightful, provocative and fun. They’ve been generally well-received. Earlier in our careers, we were both influenced by “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School,” by legendary IMG founder Mark McCormack. We loved Mark’s anecdotes and strategies; he was truly “in the room where it happened,” which later informed our time in similar rooms.

Perhaps, we could write that type of book … together.

Our subject was clear: There is no book that explains holistically how the sports media business works, who the key players are, or what really matters — even though annually it’s a more than $50 billion behemoth. Yes, there are books about sports and personalities by famous announcers, such as Al Michaels. Our friend and former colleague, Bob Iger, wrote a bestseller about his career at Disney. And Jim Miller and Tom Shales created an ESPN “oral” history, “Those Guys Have All the Fun.” Yet, nothing for the millions of fans, sports management/business students, or young sports business employees that explains how all the pieces of sports media fit together … until today.

Our goals are: sharing the respective learnings from our 50-year careers; explaining an industry that is widely known but, ironically, little understood; giving back to the industry; and paying homage to our extraordinary boss, mentor and visionary NBA........

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