ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reportedly in talks to join Atlanta Hawks front office

Longtime national NBA reporter Tim Bontemps is reportedly set to join the Atlanta Hawks’ front office and become the latest in a wave of reporters and analysts to leave the media to work for pro basketball teams.

Front Office Sports reported Bontemps is in “advanced talks” with Atlanta. He was notably absent from his usual spot on Brian Windhorst’s Hoop Collective podcast on Tuesday reacting to the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade to Miami.

Bontemps joined ESPN in 2018 and had gradually grown his profile there, appearing on Get Up and interviewing several superstar players for television in addition to reporting on the NBA’s top Eastern Conference teams and contributing to Windhorst’s podcast. Previously, Bontemps covered the NBA for the Washington Post and worked as the Nets beat reporter for the New York Post.

Pertinent to his new role with the Hawks, which FOS reported would be on the “basketball side” of the franchise’s management team, Bontemps’ bio on the ESPN Press Room website noted he had recently narrowed the focus of his NBA coverage to “team strategy, player movement and league trends that shape the sport’s future.”

The pipeline from media to front office is impossible to ignore in pro basketball. Already this year, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton and The Athletic’s Ben Pickman were hired to WNBA front offices. On the NBA side, beat reporters Royce Young and Mike Singer have recently joined the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, respectively. Former ESPN NBA editor Cristina Daglas joined the Washington franchise after being fired by ESPN. And new Dallas Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz completed a meteoric rise from ESPN.com NBA draft writer to lead executive in less than a decade.

Such moves have been common since the rise of online basketball analysis 20 years ago, but clearly teams are increasingly looking to the media for executive talent.