As expected, ESPN is reportedly bringing back Doc Rivers and promoting Doris Burke after splitting its long-tenured broadcast team of Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson.
ESPN is close to naming Doc Rivers and Doris Burke the replacements for Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson on its lead NBA broadcast team, the New York Post reported Monday. Chad Finn of the Boston Globe first reported that ESPN was leaning toward Rivers and Burke. Per the Post, the deals are not finalized but are “quickly moving” toward that point.
ESPN laid off Van Gundy last month after a 16-year tenure and is also letting go of Jackson, who confirmed as much to longtime NBA reporter Peter Vescey on Monday. The Post is also reporting Jackson’s exit. Earlier reporting by the Post said ESPN was open to keeping Jackson and having him work alongside Mark Jones on its “B” team, but that the sides could part ways if he was not open to that option.
Rivers will enter his second stint with ESPN/ABC after joining the company for the 2003-04 NBA season. He served as the lead analyst that year alongside Al Michaels on ABC and Brad Nessler on ESPN. In the two decades between NBA broadcasting gigs, Rivers served as a lead studio analyst for NBC’s Olympic basketball coverage in 2012.
Prior to joining ESPN/ABC in 2003-04, Rivers was a top game analyst for Turner Sports in the 1990s.
Burke would become the first woman to serve as a lead NBA analyst and call an NBA Finals on television. She has previously worked the NBA Finals for ESPN Radio.
Breen, Rivers and Burke would be the sixth-different lead broadcast team for ESPN/ABC in its two-decade run carrying the NBA. The company had five different teams in its first five years before the sixteen-year run by Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson.
(News from NYP 7.31)
