For the first time in over a decade, ESPN will reportedly keep their NBA studio show in the studio during an NBA conference finals.
According to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s pre, halftime, and postgame shows will be done in their New York City studios. It’s claimed that budget cuts are the main cause for the lack of travel, as Disney is in the midst of cutting 7,000 jobs.
While taking a studio show on the road is somewhat costly, having that playoff game atmosphere on the broadcast is nice. It’s expected that ESPN will take NBA Countdown on the road during the NBA Finals, with Mike Greenberg, Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, and Jalen Rose on the show. So it appears this will be a one-time thing during the Western Conference Finals.
This also doesn’t seem to affect the in-game broadcasting crew, as the play-by-play person and analyst(s) will be on-site. This isn’t ideal, but at least the in-game product isn’t affected. It would be one thing for the play-by-play and color commentator to work off a monitor away from the arena, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
The Western Conference Finals will pit the winner of the Denver Nuggets-Phoenix Suns series and the winner of the Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors series against each other.
