ESPN’s NBA A-Team scoffs at load management to call a rare doubleheader

Mike Breen’s weekend began with a double bang in Miami, and it ended with a doubleheader in Los Angeles.

Friday night, Breen was in South Florida calling Knicks-Heat. That contest that ended in epic fashion as Julius Randle stumbled, bumbled and fumbled his way to a game-winning three-pointer that garnered a rare double bang from the Hall-of-Fame announcer.

Breen was back behind the mic on Sunday. And while there were no double bangs, there was an even rarer NBA doubleheader.

If you’re among the tens of millions of sports fans who haven’t yet transitioned from watching football on Sundays to watching the NBA, you may not have been aware of ESPN’s slate of Sunday games. And you certainly weren’t aware that Breen, Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and Lisa Salters were on the call for two of those games.

At 3:30pm ET, they called the Warriors-Lakers game in Los Angeles on ABC, and they were on-air again for the Grizzlies-Clippers 10 p.m. ET tipoff in Los Angeles on ESPN. Bubble aside, I don’t remember an example of this happening recently. Obviously, it’s a regular occurrence in baseball, but those crews aren’t having to prepare for four different teams.

Maybe this was ESPN cheaping out on sending two separate announcing crews to Los Angeles. But it’s hard to complain when the solve was using their lead broadcast team twice.

Regardless, kudos to Breen, Jackson, Van Gundy and Salters for working a doubleheader. While the NBA is getting ripped by fans and analysts for resting its stars too often, the league’s No. 1 announcing crew ignored the load management mindset to work a doubleheader in March.