Tom Richardson welcomes John Kosner and Ed Desser, two veteran sports media executives and co-authors of the new book “We’re Live!: Inside the BIG Business of Sports Media,” to discuss their decades-long careers and the book they wrote to pass that knowledge on. Kosner and Desser trace the project back to their shared admiration for Mark McCormick’s “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School” and to David Stern, the subject of a chapter titled “Stern Training,” and share stories from their years at the NBA, ESPN, CBS Sports, and beyond. They then dig into how sports fandom itself has changed, unpacking why Gen Z and Gen Alpha fans are discovering sports through gaming, social media, and fragmented interfaces rather than traditional broadcasts, and how leagues are experimenting with rule changes, camera technology, and officiating tools like sensor-equipped basketballs to keep pace. Kosner and Desser also talk through the technology under building sports’ long partnership with innovation, the growing scrutiny around game integrity in a prediction-market era, and the book’s companion curriculum for educators.

Connect with John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkosner/

Connect with Ed: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-desser-7b49ab84/

John and Ed’s New Book: Amazon

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The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.

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