ESPN’s latest round of layoffs has claimed another notable name from their NBA coverage. Following news Friday morning that around 20 on-air figures overall were expected to be impacted in this round of cuts, including NBA on ABC/ESPN lead analyst Jeff Van Gundy, Andrew Marchand and Ryan Glasspiegel of The New York Post reported that studio analyst Jalen Rose (currently known for work on NBA Countdown, Get Up, First Take, and more) has also been affected:
NEWS: ESPN has let go NBA Countdown analyst Jalen Rose, The Post has learned.https://t.co/WuZyLB0TIo
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 30, 2023
As with Van Gundy, this is a cut of an extremely prominent long-time ESPN figure. Rose had worked at ESPN since 2007 in some form, first as a college basketball game and studio analyst and as a NBA analyst for platforms including SportsCenter, then as the co-host of the Jalen and Jacoby TV show/radio show/podcast with David Jacoby from 2011-2022, as a NBA Countdown analyst since 2012, as a launch host of Get Up in 2018, and as a regular figure on other ESPN studio programming over the last decade-plus.
This does come after a reduction in what Rose was doing for ESPN, though. Notably, Jalen and Jacoby ended with Jacoby’s departure from the company after 23 years last December. ESPN initially planned to launch a separate podcast with Rose after that, but he actually wound up partnering with the Post for one.
And while Rose was still heavily involved in ESPN and ABC NBA coverage, that wasn’t without controversy. Some of the incidents there over the past year include asking for Ime Udoka’s accuser to be named, conducting an interview of Ja Morant critics labeled as “soft,” confusing everyone with his flip-flopping on his choice for MVP, and blaming the Miami weather for the Knicks’ struggles against the Heat.
Still, this move appears to be much more about getting rid of top salaries than about anything specific Rose had said. And Rose likely had a pretty significant salary; a 2018 Hollywood Reporter piece around the launch of Get Up had him making $3 million annually. And while that was less than his initial fellow co-hosts Mike Greenberg and Michelle Beadle (reported to be pulling in $6.5 million and $5 million respectively in that same THR profile) and may have changed over time with his shifting responsibilities, it seems likely he was still doing well. Here’s ESPN’s salary-emphasizing statement on the layoffs, which they deem a “public-facing commentator exercise” and say are “based more on overall efficiency than merit”:
“Given the current environment, ESPN has determined it necessary to identify some additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries, and that process has begun. This exercise will include a small group of job cuts in the short-term and an ongoing focus on managing costs when we negotiate individual contract renewals in the months ahead. This is an extremely challenging process, involving individuals who have had tremendous impact on our company. These difficult decisions, based more on overall efficiency than merit, will help us meet our financial targets and ensure future growth.”
We’ll see what’s ahead for the 50-year-old Rose (who, it should be noted, has significant interests outside of sports media, including his Jalen Rose Leadership Academy tuition-free charter school in Detroit). We’ll also see how ESPN replaces him in his various roles at the company.
