The Week In Tv Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 4/15

NFL Draft
ESPN NOON
How can the Browns, whose greatest coach and player in their previous incarnation were Paul Brown and Jim Brown, respectively, not select Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown (page 48) with today's first pick? We'd like to think Cleveland would use its second-round choice on Utah State rusher DeMario Brown (1,536 yards, 6.0 yards per carry in 1999) and its two third-round choices on Nebraska All-America defensive backs Ralph Brown and Mike Brown. Chris Berman, an alumnus of Brown, provides analysis with ever-lacquered draft guru Mel Kiper Jr.

Stanley Cup Playoffs
ABC 2 PM; ESPN 7:30 PM
At a season-ending news briefing, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman declared that this "has been an excellent season." Excuse us? What about Marty McSorley using Donald Brashear's noggin as a pi�ata, among other acts of gratuitous violence? Maybe Bettman was thinking of The Sopranos. With the league's bottom 12 teams having gone the way of Richie Aprile, its top 16, with Philadelphia and St. Louis as the East's and West's top seeds, respectively, get it on in the conference quarterfinals, continuing daily this week on ESPN and ESPN2.

SUNDAY 4/16
Diamondbacks at Giants
ESPN 8 PM
When Arizona last played in San Francisco, last September, it clinched the National League West at 3Com Park. Because of a previously scheduled promotion, the victorious visitors were treated to a postgame fireworks show. Tonight, at the Giants' new Pacific Bell Park, the bombardment of choice will be a water-cannon barrage triggered by any home-team homer sailing over the short porch in right (307 feet down the line) and into San Francisco Bay. PacBell's cannon? Classical music to a slugger's ears.

WEDNESDAY 4/19
Lakers at Spurs
TBS 8 PM
My desert-island, alltime top five songs with organs in their titles: Aqualung, Heart of Glass, I've Got You under My Skin, Pale Blue Eyes and My Ding-A-Ling. No memorable kidney tunes, but it's worth touting Sean Elliott's renal record. After undergoing a transplant, Elliott, San Antonio's small forward, has been hailed this season as the first pro athlete to return from organ replacement surgery. Through Sunday the Spurs were 9-5 since Elliott rejoined them, and they still have the size to stomach a visit from Shaquille O'Neal-led Los Angeles, winner of 30 of its previous 32 games.

Don't Miss

MONDAY 4/17
Bill Russell: My Life, My Way
HBO 10 PM
Seconds into his debut as a Celtic in 1956, Bill Russell blocked a shot, and although he was called for goaltending, the revolution was on. As Boston celebrates Patriots' Day with the annual running of America's most storied road race ( ESPN2, 11:55 a.m.), it can also take an hour to appreciate its greatest (although not its favorite) sports revolutionary, defensively and socially. This illuminating documentary, narrated by actor Liev Schreiber and including interviews with Russell and former teammates such as Tom Heinsohn and Tom (Satch) Sanders, depicts a man who readily left his feet to swat away shots but fiercely stood his ground on important issues.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.