With the Warriors set to tie or break the NBA’s wins record, Kobe Bryant‘s final game will have to take a backseat.
ESPN announced Saturday that it has added Wednesday’s Grizzlies/Warriors NBA regular season game, in which Golden State will almost certainly tie or set the NBA’s single-season wins record. The network’s previously scheduled Jazz/Lakers game, the final NBA appearance of Lakers G Kobe Bryant, will move down to ESPN2.
The ESPN family of networks will carry three NBA games on the final night of the season, with Heat/Celtics airing on ESPN in the early window.
ESPN has now added four Warriors games beyond the maximum ten it is allowed under the NBA’s current television deal — one each against the Nuggets and Suns during their 24-0 start to the season and two against the Grizzlies this month. Any time a team makes more than the maximum number of appearances on a network, the national broadcast is blacked out in their home market. As a result, Wednesday’s ESPN coverage will not be seen in the Bay Area.
Prior to this season, ESPN went three games above the maximum for the 2012-13 Miami Heat, who went on a late season 27-game winning streak. ABC went one game above the max for the 2007-08 Los Angeles Lakers, in order to add a game against the then-streaking Houston Rockets.
(Sat. news from ESPN Media Zone)
