For the fourth time since firing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, ESPN/ABC will have a new lead NBA broadcast team.
ESPN is replacing Doris Burke with Tim Legler on its top NBA broadcast team, the network announced Thursday. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic was first to report the news. Legler will join Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson on the “A” team, marking a quick ascension for the longtime analyst who began regularly calling games last year.
Burke, the first woman to serve as a game analyst on one of the “Big Four” major championship events, has reached a contract extension to continue working as an NBA game analyst for ESPN/ABC. She will primarily work with Dave Pasch, as first reported by Chad Finn of the Boston Globe.
ESPN’s lead NBA booth has been in a constant state of flux in the mere two years since the network fired Van Gundy and Jackson. Breen paired with Van Gundy and/or Jackson on ESPN’s lead team from 2006-23, with the three of them working together on 15 NBA Finals (2007-11, 2014-23).
Initially, ESPN went with Burke and new hire Doc Rivers to replace Van Gundy and Jackson, but that plan fell apart with Rivers left after mere months to return to coaching. He was replaced by J.J. Redick, who left at the end of the season for a coaching job. ESPN started last season with a rotation of analysts joining Breen and Burke before deciding on Jefferson midway through.
Between Breen, Burke and Rivers, Breen, Burke and Redick, Breen, Burke and Jefferson and now Breen, Jefferson and Legler, ESPN has had nearly as many lead broadcast teams in the past two years as it did in its first five — when it cycled through different lead broadcast teams every year (Brad Nessler and Bill Walton, with Tom Tolbert added midseason; Al Michaels and Rivers; Michaels and Hubie Brown; Breen and Brown; Breen and Jackson, with Van Gundy added in the playoffs).
As for Legler, the longest-tenured ESPN NBA analyst has been with the network since before it acquired rights to the league — part of an ESPN NBA roster that included Fred Carter and Jason Jackson. He has held prominent studio roles, including as part of ESPN’s lead “NBA Shootaround” team that may be best remembered for being on-air the night of the “Malice at the Palace,” but did not begin a regular game analyst role until the 2024 playoffs.
ESPN also announced Thursday that it will continue to use Jay Bilas and Bob Myers as NBA analysts and Ryan Ruocco and Mark Jones as play-by-play voices. Other than licensing TNT’s “Inside the NBA” studio show, ESPN has not picked up any of the TNT/NBA TV talent on the market since TNT Sports lost its NBA package.
