NBA becomes all-around player

All eyes were on the NBA draft this week, but the league has its sights on a mega-expansion deal through the 2015-16 season. The NBA has partnered with the Walt Disney Co. and Turner Broadcasting to have its games televised on ABC, ESPN, and TNT for the next eight seasons. The NBA's current deal with ESPN/ABC and TNT expires at the end of next season.

The agreement means nationally televised games will remain on Wednesdays (ESPN), Thursdays (TNT), Fridays (ESPN), and Sundays (ABC), with games on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays on NBA TV.

Also under the new deal, ESPN will have more digital capability so it can use its many platforms -- ESPN.com, ESPN360.com, ABC, and ESPN -- to deliver NBA content.

Turner also will have more digital capability that will allow TNT games to be simulcast on wireless, broadband, and video on demand through TNT OverTime, as well as interactive elements (selected camera angles, statistical feed, etc.).

NBA commissioner David Stern said in a conference call this week, "The NBA's future as important, one-of-a-kind event programming has once again been affirmed."

Fox Sports New England will telecast every Celtics Summer League game from Las Vegas starting next Friday. The first game will be against the team with the first pick in the draft, the Portland Trail Blazers. Celtics play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman will give reports during "Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight" at 6:30 and 10 p.m., and sideline reporter Greg Dickerson will check in throughout the week.

The games, July 6-15, are produced by the NBA. In addition to the five live games, FSN will air a replay of each.

Three-time Wimbledon champ and current NBC Wimbledon analyst John McEnroe is as blunt off the court as he was on it. When asked if this is Roger Federer's tournament to lose, McEnroe said, "Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. He's so comfortable on this surface, the same way [Rafael] Nadal is on clay. He seems unbeatable [on clay], and I think Roger's got the same thing going at Wimbledon. Nadal made a good run for it last year, but I think [Federer has] as much separation here as Nadal does on clay."

As for the women, McEnroe said, "It's more wide open. Having said that, if Serena [ Williams] plays her best, she's the favorite. I think she'll overturn the results in Paris, when she lost to [Justine ] Henin.

NBC begins tournament coverage tomorrow at noon and continues through next weekend. The network, in its 39th year of covering Wimbledon, will air 37 hours of matches over nine days.

A woman who worked on the set of the ESPN talk show "Cold Pizza" is suing the network, saying she was fired after complaining about sexual harassment by the show's host, Jay Crawford, and a regular panelist, Woody Paige.

In the suit, makeup artist Rita Ragone said she was pinched and fondled by Paige and subjected to crude sexual comments by Crawford at the show's studio in Manhattan. Ragone said Paige once grabbed her backside so forcefully, she was "propelled forward and into the air."

"It is not true," Paige said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. He declined further comment.

ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said the allegations were false. He declined to discuss the specific charges in the suit, which also named Paige and Crawford as defendants. Soltys said Crawford was upset by the accusations and read a statement in which the TV host said he "vehemently" denied the allegations and looked forward to answering them in court.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, claims the harassment began almost immediately after Ragone was hired by a video production company in 2005 to do hair and makeup on the "Cold Pizza" set.

Ragone said Paige, a columnist with The Denver Post, repeatedly made vulgar remarks about her appearance. Crawford, she said, made unwanted sexual advances, told her she only got the job because of her looks and contributed to a locker-room atmosphere by making disparaging remarks about another hair stylist.

Ragone said the situation was exacerbated by a few female employees who didn't seem to mind the atmosphere, including a stylist who gave the men lap dances.

XM will become the exclusive satellite radio home of the NHL starting Sunday. Next season marks XM's third delivering NHL games, and its first as the exclusive satellite radio provider. In addition to the more than 1,100 games per season the network delivers in the United States and Canada, it offers a 24-hour hockey channel, Home Ice, featuring, news, commentary, interviews, and play-by-play analysis from experts, including Phil Esposito, Bill Clement, Denis Potvin, and Gary Green . . . The contract of Bruins TV play-by-play announcer Dale Arnold is still up in the air, acknowledged his agent, Steve Freyer. Freyer said yesterday that Arnold, who has been calling Bruins games since the 1994-95 season, has a year-to-year contract. "The determination hasn't been finalized for this coming year, but that's not unusual," said Freyer. "He would hope to be doing the games." . . . Arnold, who hosts the midday "Dale and Holley" show on WEEI, apparently had a fast one pulled on him yesterday when Boston College basketball star Jared Dudley handed the phone to someone else in mid-interview. Arnold, who knew the voice was not Dudley's, ended the dialogue. According to station sources, Dudley called back to apologize and explained that he was pulled away from radio to do a TV interview . . . CBS has the PGA this weekend with the Buick Open from Grand Blanc, Mich., tomorrow and Sunday from 3-6 p.m. Tiger Woods isn't defending his title because of the birth of his daughter last week . . . NBC, meanwhile, will be training its cameras on the US Women's Open in Southern Pines, N.C., tomorrow and Sunday from 3-6 p.m. Defending champion and three-time Open winner Annika Sorenstam is the favorite, according to commentator Dottie Pepper, who said, "You'd be crazy to bet against Annika." Pepper competed in 19 US Opens . . . Call it counterprogramming. As Barry Bonds approaches his career home run record, ESPN's "Outside the Lines" is presenting a three-part series on Hank Aaron. Part 1, Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN and at noon on ESPNews, features Aaron's early days (his rise from the Deep South to become an All-Star slugger). Part 2, Monday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN, looks at the struggles Aaron faced when he broke Babe Ruth's record. Part 3, Tuesday at 3:30 on ESPN, assesses Aaron's legacy . . . Doug Flutie, the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner at Boston College, and former University of Miami coach Larry Coker will be college game analysts for ESPN next season. Flutie, primarily an ABC studio analyst last season, will handle Thursday night games with former Patriot Craig James and play-by-play man Chris Fowler.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report; Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com.