The NBA Draft takes place this Thursday on ESPN, and many of the faces you see will be the same as last year – with one noteworthy (and obvious, if you’ve been following the sports media news lately) exception. According to SI’s Richard Deitsch, Jay Williams will take Bill Simmons’ spot at the desk, joining Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, and Jalen Rose.
Davis, Bilas, Rose, and Williams will be joined by even more holdovers from last year in Tom Penn, Fran Fraschilla, Heather Cox, Andy Katz, and Jeff Goodman. Shannon Spake also joins the coverage, replacing Williams as the post-selection interviewer.
ESPN also has reporters embedded with three teams that have top five picks – Brian Windhorst with Minnesota, Ramona Shelbourne with the Lakers, and Chris Broussard with the Knicks.
It’s a deserved promotion for Williams, who was wasted in the interviewer role at the Draft. He’s done quite well as a studio analyst on ESPN’s college basketball coverage, so bringing him to the main set for the Draft is a logical move. It’s almost as if having analysts familiar with college players working the Draft is a good move.
You wouldn’t know that from ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft, which mainly consists of Mel Kiper, Todd McShay, and a litany of NFL reporters. Why not bring in an experienced college football analyst, like a Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, or Robert Smith?
Also worth noting – as usual, you’re not going to have an alternative to ESPN’s coverage on TV. NBA TV is airing Games 5 and 6 of the Finals opposite the Draft. It would be nice to see NBA TV get in on the act like NFL Network does during the NFL Draft, but that won’t be happening this year.
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