Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
By Sam Neumann on

Whether they meant to or not, ESPN has managed to make the NBA Finals less about the players on the floor and more about the personalities behind the desk. The network has turned what should be a celebration of basketball’s best into something resembling WWE SummerSlam.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers are battling in the NBA Finals — two of the youngest, most exciting teams in decades. And somehow, the main storyline coming out of ESPN’s coverage isn’t Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Tyrese Haliburton. It’s Stephen A. Smith. It’s Pat McAfee. It’s Kendrick Perkins. It’s pajamas, solitaire, live promos, and on-air feuds.

In short, the Finals aren’t about basketball. They’re about ESPN.

Let’s walk through how this spiraled because it didn’t happen all at once. But it also didn’t happen by accident.

It started with Tyrese Haliburton. After a game in which he scored 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting, Haliburton pointed out something about the media: those who cover the game aren’t always excellent at providing context. “What do they really know about basketball?” he asked. He never mentioned anyone by name and didn’t launch into a rant. It was a comment rooted in how easily narratives get manufactured around things like injuries and stat lines, often without any understanding of what’s actually going on.

Rather than responding with analysis or perspective, Smith got defensive. He took Haliburton’s general media critique as a personal attack. On First Take, he essentially told Haliburton to “stop being so sensitive,” adding, “How’s that worked out for you?” And just like that, the conversation shifted away from Haliburton’s actual point and became a referendum on whether or not Stephen A. Smith’s feelings had been hurt.

Pat McAfee wasn’t having it.

On his show, McAfee told Smith to “relax,” adding that, yeah, the job is to judge players, but it’s not that deep. That could have been it. But McAfee also had a WWE promo to run as he took aim at his ESPN coworker during a break in play. Knowing full well that Smith was in the arena, McAfee, who has been lamenting the media’s “disrespect” for his beloved Indiana Pacers, took another shot at him.

Perhaps Smith was playing solitaire then, perhaps not, but Kendrick Perkins was listening to McAfee. And he made sure to get himself involved, too, during Game 4’s postgame.

The entire thing has become so self-aware that it’s now bleeding into the crowd. Pacers fans showed up to Game 4 in “Dumb and Dumber” tuxedos, mocking Smith and Perkins. If that wasn’t enough, it was the same day that Smith got caught wearing his pajamas on live TV, fiddling around with his computer to the point that ESPN nearly showed his emails, and then being caught playing solitaire.

It’s not a new trend. ESPN has long encouraged its on-air talent to become stars in their own right. But during these Finals, they’ve taken that idea to a new level, no longer just driving the conversation around the games but actively becoming characters within the narrative. And while the basketball itself has offered plenty to break down, a significant portion of the attention has focused on… the broadcast talent.

It also lets ESPN dodge some of the criticism that might otherwise be directed at its coverage. Do you want to ask why they’re not spotlighting more basketball voices? Why does their analysis get so shallow during the biggest games? Why the halftime show still feels like a first draft? You could, but by the time you’re done watching Stephen A. brush off those solitaire allegations, the moment’s passed.

And the worst part is that this isn’t just filler. These are choices.

This is the product ESPN is now selling. Not basketball analysis, not coverage of a Finals featuring two new-market teams making history, but meta-media theater. It’s less about who wins Game 5 and more about whether Stephen A. responds to McAfee on First Take or Countdown. The network has turned its Finals desk into a live-action, cross-promotional slap-fight between its employees. And the audience isn’t tuning in for insight anymore. They’re tuning in to see which personality cuts the next promo.

It works, of course. The clips trend. The moments go viral. The network wins the engagement war. But the cost is the coverage. ESPN has effectively turned its Finals broadcasts into its reality show, one where the players are extras, and the analysts are the leads.

That’d be exhausting even in a normal year. But in a year like this? When we’ve got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander evolving into a stone-cold closer, Chet Holmgren impacting every possession, and Tyrese Haliburton navigating injuries and expectations on the biggest stage of his career? It’s a disservice.

The Finals are supposed to be about basketball. ESPN has made them about themselves.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann