Hubie Brown in final NBA season at ESPN, exec announces

The 2024-25 season marks Hubie Brown’s 21st at ESPN and 51st in the NBA.

It also appears it will be his last with the Worldwide Leader, with ESPN content president Burke Magnus making the announcement during an appearance on SI Media with Jimmy Traina.

“We are going to give Hubie one last shot on a game. He deserves that,” Magnus said. “We think the world of him. I think it’s absolutely remarkable the level he still calls games at age 90-plus… we’re going to honor Hubie this year during the regular season at some point to be determined and send him off in style.

“I don’t think there’s a single human being that’s ever had a longer association with professional basketball.”

To Magnus’ point, the 91-year-old Brown has been connected to pro basketball dating back to his first season as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971. The New Jersey native proceeded to enjoy a Hall of Fame coaching career, which included stints as the head coach of the Kentucky Colonels, with whom he won the 1975 ABA championship, as well as the Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies.

After resigning from the Grizzlies due to health issues early in the 2004-05 season, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year joined ESPN as an analyst and went on to call the 2005 and 2006 NBA Finals. He’s remained a staple of ESPN’s television coverage ever since, in addition to calling the NBA Finals for ESPN Radio until the 2020 NBA Finals.

Over the course of both his coaching and broadcasting careers — which also included stints at CBS and TNT in-between coaching gigs — Brown has received numerous honors, including inductions into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. It’s currently unclear how many games he will ultimately call for ESPN this season, as well as when his final game for the network will be.

[SI Media with Jimmy Traina]