BRUCE BERNSTEIN
FOUR TIME EMMY AWARD WINNING PRODUCER AND SPORTS PODCASTER
Bruce Bernstein is a four time EMMY Award winning producer who spent more than three decades at ESPN. He is currently the producer and co-host of the “48 Minutes” podcast on the BLEAV network.
Bruce was a long-time insider at ESPN and was responsible for the network’s NBA studio programming from 2002-2017. Bruce also produced SportsCenter and was one of the original coordinating producers of the ESPNEWS 24 hour news network. Bruce was also the senior producer for NBC Sports at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics overseeing studio content for the “Olympics TripleCast,” which was a pay per view service that created content on three separate channels operating simultaneously during the Summer Olympics.
In addition to his EMMY Awards, Bruce received the 2012 NAMIC Vision Award for ESPN’s Town Hall program on the Image of the Black Athlete. Bruce was a leader at ESPN in the creation of programming honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other programming initiatives celebrating diversity and inclusion. After leaving ESPN in late 2017, Bruce launched his own digital media platform “Pure Hoops Media,” where he oversaw seven different podcasts and produced or hosted more than one thousand audio and video episodes. Since December 2022, he has been the producer and co-host of the weekly “48 Minutes” NBA podcast on the BLEAV Network, which has been downloaded in more than one hundred countries.
In his first book, Journey of a Lifetime, which he hopes to publish in the future, Bruce takes his readers “behind the velvet ropes” at sporting events and into the studios and control rooms of some of the most iconic TV shows of the past half century. He recounts in vivid detail what it is like to operate in high pressure situations with little or no margin for error. Bruce shares first hand stories of working alongside some of the biggest names in sports and TV history.
Bruce lives with his wife Nanci in West Hartford, Connecticut. They have two sons: Mitchell and Adam who are both married and live in New York City. Bruce enjoys taking long walks while listening to podcasts that are generally not sports related. He avidly follows current events and believes that personal growth requires people to try to understand opinions that differ from their own.
You can follow Bruce on social media (Twitter/X and Instagram) at:
@PureHoopsBruce
The “Hand” of God
BRUCE BERNSTEIN
My father died in 1960 when I was three years old. I never knew him and sadly, have no memories of him at all. I’ve never even seen an old photo of us together. Following his death, my mother, sister, and I moved from Virginia to Massachusetts. We lived with my maternal grandparents for a few years while my Mom, a widow at 33 with no college degree, battled through depression and somehow created a very loving home.
My mom’s father was an extremely religious Jew whose family emigrated from Eastern Europe around 1900 to escape persecution. He attended synagogue seven days a week – twice a day except on Saturday when he just attended a three-hour morning service conducted entirely in Hebrew. As my surrogate father, “Grandpa” took me everywhere, including to synagogue. While I didn’t go every day, I found it frustrating to utter words that I learned to recite in Hebrew but had no real understanding about what I was saying. After my Bar Mitzvah, I pulled back from Grandpa’s Orthodox synagogue. As an adult, I joined a Conservative synagogue, and ultimately chose a Reform version of Judaism.
Although I don’t attend services on a regular basis, I am convinced that God exists. Something about my early years by Grandpa’s side created a belief system in me that is hard to explain. The Old Testament says that the Jews are God’s “chosen people.” (1) Some have used that as a club to batter us with charges that we consider ourselves superior to others. I think these people completely miss the point. What were Jews “chosen” to do? I believe we were chosen to carry on God’s teachings and make the world a better place. Chosen to do the “hard” things like prevailing over those who killed us and continue to try. Chosen to embrace education and family. Chosen to be leaders in medicine, science, and entertainment which enrich all of mankind. Chosen to battle back against hatred and discrimination, even when it is directed against other groups. Chosen to reclaim the Holy Land from which we all sprang. And chosen to endure as a people perpetually under siege who refuse to go away.
With all of the trials and tribulations that Jews have endured, many might wonder why we still believe in a higher power? I personally believe that sometimes God grants our wishes and sometimes He does not. No one really knows God’s ways, but He has given me ample reasons to believe.
Here is just one of many. Remember how I never knew my father? I found out in my forties that his unfulfilled dream was to be a radio announcer. That was a part of my own career path that I pursued from the age of 14. I started out in radio, became a four time Emmy Award winning TV producer, and am currently a podcast host. My father’s unfulfilled dream became my reality. That is no accident. I believe that is the “Hand” of God.
Footnote:
1. Where does it actually say that the Jews are the “chosen people”? It says it all over the Old Testament literally, metaphorically, thematically and silently.
God says (in Exodus 19:3-6) “You shall be to me the most beloved treasures of all people, for mine is the entire world. You shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy nation.” It says these “are my beloved”, these “are my children”, “you’re my first born”, “I will multiply your seed”, “I love you”, etc. And at the base of Mount Sinai, the Jews are referred to as, “the Children of Israel”.