Gus Johnson will call NBA playoff games for TNT this year; the Sunday Night Football sideline job is going to Melissa Stark — not Kathryn Tappen; the Big Ten expects to award its remaining media rights next month.
Gus Johnson to call NBA playoff games for TNT
Fox Sports broadcaster Gus Johnson will call NBA playoff games for TNT this year, working alongside Greg Anthony on Raptors-Sixers Game 2 Monday night and Bulls-Bucks Game 2 on Wednesday. Johnson called some NBA Summer League games last season and has served as an occasional voice of the Milwaukee Bucks and previously the New York Knicks.
TNT regulars Brian Anderson, Kevin Harlan, Ian Eagle and Spero Dedes will fill out the rest of the network’s play-by-play rotation.
In other play-by-play news, Beth Mowins will lead off ESPN’s NBA playoff coverage Saturday calling Jazz-Mavericks alongside Jeff Van Gundy — marking the first time a female play-by-play voice has called a national playoff telecast in the four major sports.
Stark to get SNF gig as NBC skips over Tappen
NBC Sports has made the surprise decision to name Melissa Stark the new sideline reporter on Sunday Night Football, the New York Post reported Friday. In selecting Stark, the sideline reporter on ABC’s Monday Night Football from 2000-03, NBC is passing over Kathryn Tappen.
Tappen was widely considered the heir apparent to the departing Michele Tafoya on Sunday Night Football. Not only did she fill in for Tafoya on several occasions during last season, she also worked the sidelines alongside Tafoya during February’s Super Bowl.
Stark replaced Lesley Visser as ABC’s MNF sideline reporter in 2000, joining Eric Dickerson, Dennis Miller and Dan Fouts as newcomers on the series that season. She lasted the longest of the four, her tenure extending into the first two years of the Al Michaels-John Madden partnership before she was replaced by Lisa Guerrero in 2004.
After leaving the industry for four years, Stark returned in 2011 with NFL Network where she has worked ever since.
With Fox deal set, Big Ten expects to award remaining rights next month
The Big Ten already has a media rights agreement in place with Fox Sports and expects to award the remaining rights by the end of next month, Sports Business Journal reported Friday. The conference has had discussions with CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon and Apple about the remaining rights and Turner Sports is expected to begin formal discussions soon. CBS would use the Big Ten to replace the SEC package it will lose after 2023 and NBC is said to be interested in pairing Big Ten and Notre Dame games in doubleheader windows.
Details of the agreed-to Fox extension will not be clear until the remaining rights are negotiated.
