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A consumer’s guide to the best and...

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”

The concept behind this HBO program--a “60 Minutes” for the world of sports--is a noble venture, attempting real journalism in the era of Sta-Puft interviews, play-of-the-day hysteria and nicknames courtesy of Chris Berman.

“Real Sports” brings Bryant Gumbel back to his roots--to borrow the phrase: real sports--and is created very much in the image of its host. Which is to say “Real Sports” is best when it hits hard and tackles the serious subject, less effective when it tries to loosen its tie and stir up some laughs.

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The show’s latest installment went half-and-half--examinations of Steffi Graf’s financial affairs and the mysterious disappearance of Russian boxer Sergei Kobozev, followed by a tag-along with those nutty Florida Panthers and Frank Deford on Super Bowl commercials.

The Graf segment, reported by Jim Lampley, delves into allegations of Graf violating Women’s Tennis Assn. regulations by accepting appearance fees. The evidence against Graf is as telling as the evidence against the WTA. If Graf has indeed been accepting under-the-table appearance fees--the piece puts the cumulative dollar total in the millions--she faces fines and a three-month suspension.

But, Lampley reports, the WTA has been reluctant to investigate because Graf is the tour’s top meal ticket and cannot afford to take her name off tournament marquees for three months.

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The story of Kobozev, a once-promising Russian boxer who has been missing for more than a year, is fascinating in itself, and “Real Sports” plays it out like a detective whodunit.

Interviews and document searches rule out several dead ends--with $12,000 in his bank account, Kobozev was an unlikely target for Russian mob extortionists--while producing a possible lead: A fistfight outside a New York restaurant in which Kobozev broke the nose of a patron who turned out to be a Russian underground figure. A day later, Kobozev disappeared.

From there, the program opts for the “lighter side” of sports, a good idea that forgot that key tenet of athletic achievement: execution.

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Final “Real Sports” totals: 30 minutes of intriguing television. Next assignment: Go for 60.

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