The start of the 2024-25 NBA season is just a few weeks away and for the third time in just over a year, ESPN’s top broadcast team remains unsettled.
After firing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson in the summer of 2023, the Worldwide Leader paired Mike Breen and Doris Burke with Doc Rivers, who left midseason to become the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. ESPN then replaced Rivers with JJ Redick, who is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
But while there has already been one report about four leading candidates — Grant Hill, Richard Jefferson, Jay Bilas and Tim Legler — to replace Redick in the broadcast booth, it doesn’t appear the Disney-owned company is in a rush to make a final decision. Rather, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand — who issued the initial report regarding the candidates — ESPN may use the first half of the upcoming season to tryout various candidates and combinations.
“Right now, the latest that I’m hearing is that they’re likely not gonna make any moves until maybe the end of the calendar year,” Marchand said in a clip posted from his podcast, The Main Event with Andrew Marchand. “So let the NBA season star, try out maybe some different combinations, and then you get to January.”
Why ABC/ESPN may wait to add to Mike Breen and Doris Burke for its No. 1 NBA team.
Sign-up and listen: https://t.co/yRnHUdymId for full pod pic.twitter.com/4eP39GDsNM
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) September 28, 2024
The January timeframe certainly makes sense, with NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC set to make its season debut on Jan. 25. That would also give ESPN roughly three months to try out candidates across a variety of different games.
As far as the idea of taking such an approach, it’s worth noting that Hill is the only reported candidate not currently under contract at ESPN. And if the company does opt to take tryouts into the season, it will be interesting to see whether the seven-time All-Star — who is currently under contract at TNT Sports, where he is a part of its Final Four team — would be willing to participate.
