After losing JJ Redick to the Los Angeles Lakers in the offseason, ESPN has treated the NBA regular season as a tryout for a rotating cast of game analysts. And heading into the stretch run of the season, the winner appears to be Richard Jefferson.
According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, ESPN and ABC will use Jefferson alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke during marquee national TV games the rest of the season. However, the network has yet to commit to Jefferson calling the NBA Finals.
“The rest of the season … when they have three-person teams, the only three-person team they have the rest of the regular season is Mike Brain, Doris Burke, and Richard Jefferson,” Marchand reported on his podcast this week. “That would make you think, OK, that must be the Finals team. Not so fast … but it doesn’t make much sense that you go with any other trio that’s at least on your roster right now, if you’re not going to have them do any more games.”
Why is ESPN still hesitant on Jefferson?
The 44-year-old’s contract is up, and he is being pursued by Amazon Prime Video as it fills out its NBA broadcasting roster. This is the hole ESPN dug itself when it chose not to officially replace Redick while its new competitors at Amazon and NBC continue to make hires.
Jefferson called Brooklyn Nets games for YES Network soon after retiring from the NBA in 2018. The 17-year veteran and 2016 NBA champion got the call-up to ESPN in 2019, quickly vaulting up to the network’s No. 2 NBA booth alongside Redick and announcer Ryan Ruocco.
The former Net and Cav got a big opportunity in December when he filled in for Burke on the NBA Cup final when Burke was sick. The game averaged about three million viewers on ABC.
After getting burned by both Redick and Doc Rivers, ESPN entered this season without an official hierarchy to its broadcast teams. Jefferson predictably outran his competition and fits well alongside Breen and Burke, but ESPN is staring down even more turnover if it goes with Jefferson and has to replace him later this year.
