After appearing in the NBA Finals four times as a player, Richard Jefferson is heading back to basketball’s biggest stage.

Only this time, it will be as a broadcaster, with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reporting that the former NBA swingman will officially be a member of ESPN’s top broadcasting team for the remainder of the current season, which will culminate with him calling the NBA Finals alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke.

The addition of Jefferson to the team brings some newfound cohesion — for now — to ESPN’s No. 1 NBA booth, which has been in a state of flux for the better part of the last two years. After Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were each let go as a part of ESPN’s layoffs in the summer of 2023, ESPN hired Doc Rivers to join Breen and Burke, only for him to take the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coaching job midway through his first season with the network.

As such, the Worldwide Leader was forced to replace Rivers on the fly, doing so by promoting JJ Redick, who had previously been calling games in the network’s de facto No. 2 booth with Ryan Ruocco and Jefferson. But with Redick becoming the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers following the season, ESPN was once again left with a void in its top NBA booth heading into the 2024-25 season.

While the Disney-owned network initially used the first half of the campaign to try out different talent — including Jay Bilas and Tim Legler — alongside Burke and Breen — Jefferson always appeared to be the frontrunner for the spot previously occupied by his former broadcast partner. That had crystalized in recent weeks with Marchand reporting that Jefferson would remain in ESPN’s No. 1 booth for the remainder of the season, although it had yet to be decided at the time whether he would ultimately call the NBA Finals.

Yet despite that decision having now reportedly been made, the future of ESPN’s No. 1 NBA broadcast team very much remains in question, with Jefferson’s contract with the network reportedly up after this season. Marchand also notes that the 44-year-old has already drawn interest from Amazon as the streamer continues to put together its coverage plans ahead of the 2025-26 season.

Nevertheless, Jefferson will be representing the network on basketball’s biggest stage, as ESPN will have a different NBA Finals broadcast team for the third time in as many years. And given his contract status, it will certainly be worth monitoring whether his promotion ultimately results in the stability the Worldwide Leader has been seeking or if we’re having a similar conversation this time next year.