“Levy NOT Lounging’s” California dreaming tour continues

Levy on working at ESPN’s Los Angeles Production Center: “Next stop on that national tour, the City of Angels and some LA SportsCenter.”

Wednesday night/Thursday morning from Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.: Levy holds court with (l-r) ESPN NBA analyst Doug Collins, SportsCenter co-anchor Neil Everett and NBA analyst Jalen Rose after the host Warriors clinched the NBA Western Conference title.

Steve Levy and Kenny Mayne anchored the 1 a.m. ET SportsCenter today; Levy had an early wakeup call to prepare for his flight back to New York. He’ll anchor SportsCenter tonight after Game 7 of the Lightning-Rangers NHL Eastern Conference Finals series.

On Wednesday, Steve Levy and SportsCenter co-anchor Neil Everett rode Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to Oakland for coverage of the Rockets-Warriors Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Said Everett: “I sweated getting on the right train, Steve just sweated.”

He probably fell asleep on the plane leaving LAX this morning with the opening verse of Neil Diamond’s “I Am…I Said” trailing off in his mind.

Just four hours after leaving the set of Thursday’s “overnight” (1-3 a.m. ET Friday) SportsCenter in Los Angeles (“L.A.’s fine, the sun shines most the time” as Diamond sings), Steve Levy was up and headed for Madison Square Garden. He’ll anchor the show after Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, the Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers (“Well, I’m New York City born and raised.. .”).

“The only good reason for a 4 a.m. wake-up in LA? Game 7 in NYC tonight,” Levy, the water-bottle’s-half-full kinda guy, said before starting his trek east.

You have to admire Levy’s stamina.

Wednesday night in Oakland, Calif., he anchored SportsCenter in Oracle Arena after the host Warriors beat the Rockets to clinch the NBA Western Conference title. The next day, Levy was off to ESPN’s studios in Los Angeles. The sports fan echewed photos of Disneyland or the Hollywood Walk of Fame for a shot of, for example, the local ESPN Radio affiliate.

“Next stop on the national tour: City of Angels and some L.A. SportsCenter,” he said.

A Rangers’ win tonight would give Levy his first home-ice advantage since he began this coast-to-coast-to-coast marathon. He left for the Bay Area on Monday, May 18 in advance of Game 1 of the Rockets-Warriors series the next night; his duties intensified Thursday, May 21 when he covered both a Dodgers-Giants contest and Game 2 of the Rockets-Warriors series. He returned to Bristol for a Sunday, May 24 stint anchoring SportsCenter before returning to California for the assignments documented above.

The next few weeks will see Levy with ESPN NHL analyst Barry Melrose throughout the Stanley Cup Finals which might start in Levy’s New York (the team with the most regular-season points would have home-ice advantage for the Finals, which are scheduled to begin Wednesday).