Last season ESPN went through an unprecedented revolving door of lead NBA game analysts. And the next man to be called off the bench is Richard Jefferson.
It all started with the controversial decision to jettison both Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy after years of service alongside Mike Breen in one of the longest running lead announce teams in the history of televised sports. First, ESPN decided to bring back Doc Rivers to pair with Doris Burke with Breen for their new lead trio. Then Rivers went back into coaching with the Milwaukee Bucks midseason to be replaced by JJ Redick. And now ESPN is left with an empty seat once again now that Redick has also gone into coaching with the Los Angeles Lakers.
But instead of just leaving Breen and Burke in place as a duo, ESPN seems committed to the idea of a three-person lead NBA booth.
So when their 2024-2025 season kicks off on Wednesday night, it will be Jefferson in the second analyst’s chair for ESPN’s first broadcast of the campaign when the Philadelphia 76ers play the Milwaukee Bucks.
Tim Legler, who recently signed a new contract with the network to do more games as an analyst, will then be alongside Dave Pasch for ESPN’s second half of their season opening doubleheader for Suns-Clippers.
ESPN will shake things up again on Friday night as new hire Michael Grady pairs with Burke for Pacers-Knicks while Jefferson and Ruocco reunite for Lakers-Suns.
So what does it all mean? Well, much like we saw with NBC’s golf coverage throughout 2024, it will be a rotation of analysts that join Breen and Burke for the lead announce team throughout the season. According to Andrew Marchand at The Athletic, Legler and Jay Bilas could also get a run along with limitless other possibilities. Has anyone at ESPN called Mike Fratello? What about Tom Tolbert?
For its opening game, ESPN will have Richard Jefferson work with Mike Breen and Doris Burke on Wednesday for Philly-Milwaukee.
Breen and Burke also have games where the third person in will be Jay Bilas and Tim Legler. There could be others, along the ways.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) October 21, 2024
While it appears to be an open competition at this point, it’s telling that Richard Jefferson gets the first chance to shine for ESPN’s first night of coverage. Expect ESPN to continue to shuffle announcers around for the first couple months until Christmas Day, when we should get a good idea of who else ESPN is strongly considering for the role depending on who joins Breen and Burke on the top crew.
If it’s Jefferson again, then he should have the inside track. But if it ends up being Bilas or Legler, we may not have our answer as to what ESPN’s lead NBA booth for the Finals will be until it gets much closer to June. And in that period of time, maybe all of them will end up leaving to coach in the NBA and Mike Breen will just have to call the NBA Finals solo.
[ESPN]
