More “E:60”: The Laker Girl, Baby Bullfighters, Ocho Cinco And A Deadly Bet

Features on tonight’s (Oct. 23 at 7pm ET) edition of ESPN’s E:60 newsmagazine series:

The Laker Girl It’s not easy being Jeanie Buss. At age 46, Buss is juggling a set of complicated relationships while running business operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. Buss’ father, Jerry, owns the Lakers but has handed day-to-day oversight to Jeanie and her brother Jim, who runs the basketball side of the club and could eventually compete with Jeanie for the top job. Jeanie is in a long-term relationship with the team’s head coach, Phil Jackson, whom her father once fired. As the 2007-08 NBA season prepares to open, she is in the middle of trade rumors involving the team’s superstar, Kobe Bryant. E:60 correspondent Rachel Nichols talks to Jeanie, her father and Jackson, for a profile of the woman who may someday run one of the most storied franchises in sports.

Baby Bullfighters Against a backdrop of visuals that are in turn stunningly beautiful and shocking, E:60 correspondent Jeremy Schaap follows 14-year-old Spanish matador Jairo Miguel as he returns to the ring in Mexico following a goring by a bull. That goring came within a centimeter of Jairo Miguel’s aorta and nearly cost the boy his life. Jairo Miguel is among a growing number of “Baby Bullfighters” who are being lured to the sport by both tradition and the chance to make millions of dollars. Many, like Jairo Miguel, migrate to Mexico because it is illegal for children under the age of 16 to fight adult bulls in Spain. But that practice, human rights advocates tell Schaap, violates international law.

Ocho Cinco The flamboyant Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson gives E:60 correspondent Michael Smith unprecedented access to his personal life, including time with his young children, whom Johnson admits he rarely sees because of his obsession with becoming the best receiver in football.

Deadly Bet E:60 correspondent Lisa Salters examines how the epidemic of gambling on college campuses can result in deadly consequences. The center-point of her report is Madison, Wisc., where an addiction to sports gambling led a University of Wisconsin freshman to shoot to death three young people over debts totaling more than $75,000. Meng Ju “Mark” Wu was arrested for the murders but killed himself on the eve of his trial, leaving behind three grieving families and a trail of evidence that underlined how easy it is for college students today to accumulate thousands of dollars in gambling debts.

Additional elements on E:60 will include interstitial segments featuring University of Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan; Terrelle Pryor from Jeannette, Pa., one of the nation’s top-rated college football prospects; and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling on how his affinity with video games off the diamond has led to his creation of a game company.

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Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.