Don Sperling: NBA Entertainment's (former) Senior Vice President and Executive Producer - AIR085

NBA History Conversations: Basketball Record

Episode • Jun 9, 2018 • 45m

(Former) Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of NBA Entertainment, Don Sperling.

Don Sperling has a remarkable filmography that you’re almost certainly familiar with. Titles including Michael Jordan: Come Fly with Me, NBA Awesome Endings, Michael Jordan’s Playground, NBA Superstars and Michael Jordan: Air Time, are just a handful of his iconic releases.

Sperling was Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of NBA Entertainment, NBA TV and NBA.com for 15 years. Don discusses his early life, the opportunities that presented themselves and how he moved from his native New York, to Atlanta, prior to being contacted by soon-to-be NBA Commissioner, David Stern, regarding the establishment of NBA Entertainment. Don discusses its formation and amazing growth, plus, offers fascinating specifics on some iconic moments from Come Fly with Me. He recounts some amazing stories about travelling with The Dream Team in 1992, particularly, a wonderful 48-hour span he’ll never forget - chronicling Michael Jordan - that featured in Air Time’s release.

Don also talks about two of the NBA’s greatest promotional campaigns – ‘America’s Game – it’s fantastic’ and ‘I Love this Game’. We also discuss the origins of NBA Inside Stuff and NBA Action, plus, how the famous ‘Bad Boys’ moniker originated. Due to the breadth of Don’s tenure with the NBA, he’s agreed to join us for a second conversation at a future date. I’m already looking forward to that.

Links discussed:
* Come Fly with Me: “…the biggest-selling, sports home-video of all-time”
* Michael Jordan – Air Time
* ‘America’s Game – it’s FANtastic’
* ‘I Love this Game’

People mentioned include Bill Bradley, Charles Barkley, Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Larry Bird, Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, Earl Monroe, Magic Johnson, Luc Longley, Phil Jackson, Rod Thorn and Dick Barnett.

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