This week’s episode is a special one…focused solely on our interview with Matt Doherty. Matt’s background is an impressive one…McDonalds All-American in high school. Starter on the 1982 NCAA championship team at the University of North Carolina with future NBA greats Michael Jordan and James Worthy. Coached by the legendary coach Dean Smith. After playing, Matt eventually found his way into coaching, first as an assistant at Davidson and Kansas before launching his head coaching career at Notre Dame. After 1 brief but successful year, Matt was “called home” to be the head coach at his alma mater, North Carolina. He led UNC for 3 years, where he was named AP National Coach of the year 2001. After a painful firing at UNC, he moved on to head jobs at FAU and SMU. Since he hung up his whistle as a basketball coach, Matt has entered the world of media and leadership coaching, working with ESPN, several radio shows, and he has also held a leadership role in the Atlantic 10 conference. Last thing, and very timely, Matt has authored a book on leadership, Rebound, from Pain to Passion. Wrapping this week’s episode after an insightful interview with Matt, Mike shares a few thoughts… Have feedback, topic suggestions, or just want to say hello? Email us directly at [email protected]. Feel like we are on point? Tell a friend and hit Subscribe!

Senior Writer for ESPN's The Undefeated, Author Jesse Washington joins the pod this week for an enlightening discussion about his recent experiences and journey as he co-authored his recent book (I Came as a Shadow) with the legendary Georgetown coach. Jesse discusses several interesting experiences, perspectives - both his own and Coach Thompson’s tales. We have a great chat with Jesse and briefly cover some recent sports news too...all this and more on this week’s episode of the Pod On Point podcast.

Spencer Anderson is the Director of Basketball Analytics at the Indiana Pacers. He has been in the sports analytics industry for a little while, first with STATS and then after finishing law school as an independent NBA analytics consultant and now with the Pacers for just over 7 years. We sit down with Spencer today to talk about his role at the organization, how the NBA and sports, in general, have adopted analytics as a core pillar of their operations and what this means for data-driven decision-making in sports in the future! Closing this week’s episode with their popular C’mon Man segment, Mike tells us that nothing can be taken for granted in African soccer, while Vlad recalls the first time he remembers fainting...

The Pod On Point crew welcomes Donald Dell to this week’s episode. Dell’s career in sports has been incredibly impactful as an athlete, lawyer, and businessman (in his tennis playing days, Dell peaked with a Top 5 ranking and captained the winning 1968 Davis Cup team led by Arthur Ashe). Donald is a prominent founder, founding Pro-Serv sports management firm, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and the Citi Open to name a few. Dell’s Pro-Serv career was notable for the athletes they represented (such as Arthur Ashe, Michael Jordan, and Pete Sampras) and the deals they shaped (including the 2001 FedEx Naming Rights deal with the Washington Football Team “FedEx Field”, which at the time was the largest in NFL history). Donald is currently an active philanthropist and an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia law school. Closing this week’s episode with their popular C’mon Man segment, Vlad tracks down yet another racing pigeon...

With the wrap of the NFL 2020 regular season, the crew conducts a high-level business review of America’s top sport with a focus on revenues, operations, and innovation. No surprise, local / in-game revenues took a hit but it seems the media deals will still put most teams in the black for the year. On labor, a ratified 10year deal (and a COVID inspired 2020 addendum) have set the players and owners up for a peaceful decade. And last up, the crew loves to talk about innovation as they sort through the little known 1st and Future business plan competition. Closing this week’s episode with their popular C’mon Man segment, Vlad wonders if the Sixers GM Daryl Morey will rethink his social media strategy…

Opening the show this week, the crew gives a shout out to a number of recent opportunities for women in sports - notably Becky Hammon of the San Antonio Spurs. The team also riffs a bit on college football and basketball players drawing salaries and Mike closes out the opening segment talking about Gymshark’s rapid ascent in the fitness apparel industry. In the top stories this week, Vlad talks about innovation in the form of new leagues with a look at a snowboarding tour (Natural Selection Tour) and a women’s volleyball league (from Athletes Unlimited). In their 2nd top story, Mike and Vlad analyze how the NFL and the NBA will achieve top line growth in 2021 and the years to come. Closing the show with their C'mon man segment, Mike is wondering if Wisconsin’s new trophy will make it back to Madison for their trophy case…

In the year end show, the crew takes a look back at some impact stories from 2020 that will shape sports and the business of sports in the years to come. Opening with a look at the evolving sports broadcasting landscape, Anand makes some predictions on how new entrants and upcoming deals will shape broadcasting’s future. Next, Vlad and Mike tag-team a story about the arrival of sports gambling and how this has a multi-layered impact on revenues, valuations, and consumer experiences. In their last impact story, Vlad and Mike again double-up on the many financially-centered issues that will shape the NCAA in 2021 and for years to come.   Closing the show - and year - with the weekly C’mon man section, Mike wonders how the NFL’s broadcasting partnership with SpongeBob will go...

The crew opens this week’s show with a quick run through of some wins and losses from across the sports world. Hard to believe the original Browns left Cleveland 25 years ago...the SEC lands a big payday with ESPN and heavyweight boxing looks to have some huge belt unifying bouts in the coming months. In the top stories, the team talks about the annual insanity surrounding the payouts for Power 5 coaches that are fired for underperformance (or losing). The crew also digs into the recent stories surrounding the MLS announcing they may incur up to $1B in losses due to the pandemic impacted seasons. Closing the show with the weekly C’mon man section, Mike wonders whether Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson pulled a Paul Pierce….

We open this week’s show with a quick take on wins and losses. We mark in the win column the Bucks re-signing of Giannis, and the NCAA announcing a bubble for the Women’s college basketball tournament. We mark in the loss column the fact that college basketball has launched their season without a bubble - cancelling games daily - and the unfortunate pandemic-driven collapse of LaLiga’s TV contract. Lastly, we mark Apple Fitness Plus’ launch as a draw with their mixed-up online store launch. Mike welcomes a guest to this week’s show, as SafeSeating Solutions founder Scott Nestler steps into the Pod. SafeSeating is a newly launched software solution that is helping venues maximize their seating capacity while keeping their fans and patrons at a safe distance across the stands.  Lastly, Vlad closes the show with the weekly Cmon Man segment as he notes the uncommon agent deal with NBA retiree Anthony Carter.

We open the show with a few quick wins and losses. In this week’s wins column we put Steph Curry’s new Under Armour sub-brand. It’s an interesting move for the company and the athlete. We also look at how and why the NBA just borrowed $900 million from the financial markets, what it means for the league and will it be a challenge to repay it. Finally, we salute Universal Tennis’ new pro league and an interesting platform that ranks players across age, geography, skill, etc. Our loss this week is Tom Brady’s company TB12 getting a $1 million PPP loan. Our main stories focus on how sports is slowly drifting toward streaming platforms, why these platforms are doing it (to sell us more stuff and increase our engagement) and does it help us, the fans, in the final analysis. We also look at the Knight Commission recommendation that the football conferences break away from the NCAA and form their own, more perfect union. The NCAA doesn’t like the idea, but we think the shift is already under way. Wrapping the show with our weekly C’mon man segment, the crew wonders how did breakdancing become an Olympic sport…