Grant Hill, Richard Jefferson, Tim Legler and Jay Bilas are atop ABC/ESPN’s listing to hitch Mike Breen and Doris Burke as a part of its prime broadcast crew for the NBA Finals, sources briefed on the community’s plans stated Friday.
Whereas ESPN may select to stick with a two-person sales space of Breen and Burke, ideally they want to create a three-person setup for the long term.
When reached, ESPN declined to remark.
The community’s lead NBA broadcast staff has been in flux for greater than a 12 months after ESPN determined to fireplace their long-running NBA Finals analyst Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson as a part of final summer time’s layoffs.
They first added Doc Rivers and elevated Burke to hitch Breen. After months of service on the community, Rivers broke his promise to stay with ESPN when he took the Milwaukee Bucks’ head-coach job.
ESPN then turned to JJ Redick, who has been a rising media star as a podcaster, studio analyst after which on video games. After the NBA Finals, he left ESPN to turn out to be the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
These departures had ESPN contemplating two different former Duke stars. Hill, 51, is at present beneath contract with TNT Sports activities, the place he’s on the lead Remaining 4 staff with Ian Eagle and Invoice Raftery. Hill additionally does broadcast work on NBA video games and has a number of outdoors enterprise pursuits.
Bilas, 60, could be a little bit of an outside-the-box selection. Whereas he’s ESPN’s prime faculty basketball commentator and works the NBA Draft, he by no means performed within the league. Though he has been thought of over latest weeks, one supply briefed on the ESPN inner discussions described Bilas as a longshot.
Jefferson, 44, was handed over in favor of Redick final 12 months. The chief beforehand in command of ESPN’s NBA protection, David Roberts, had anointed Ryan Ruocco, Jefferson and Redick because the potential Finals trio of the longer term.
Roberts is now not overseeing the NBA after community president of content material Burke Magnus’ latest reorganization positioned longtime ESPN producer Mike McQuade in command of the community’s protection of the league.
Legler, 57, has been an ESPN stalwart for many years. Usually ignored, he has been given extra recognition in recent times and has been a longtime favourite of Scott Van Pelt, featured on his late-night SportsCenter.
ESPN may simply stand pat and see how Breen and the trailblazing Burke work as a duo earlier than probably including a 3rd particular person.
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(Photograph of Grant Hill: Kirby Lee / USA At the moment)