After the “Inside the NBA” crew handled ABC’s NBA Finals studio coverage earlier this month, one of its longest-tenured members will be part of the network’s NBA Draft presentation Tuesday night.
TNT Sports NBA analyst Kenny Smith will serve as an analyst on ABC’s NBA Draft coverage Tuesday, ESPN announced last week, joining Jay Williams and Richard Jefferson alongside host Kevin Negandhi. Previously, ABC’s presentation of the draft featured Negandhi alongside Bob Myers and Stephen A. Smith. The former left ESPN in the offseason and the latter was not a part of ESPN NBA coverage this season.
Smith remains a TNT Sports employee, but added a contributor role with ESPN early in the NBA season. He made multiple guest appearances on the ESPN-produced “NBA Countdown” studio show and was supposed to call select games, though the latter opportunity never materialized.
This year will mark the first time Smith has worked the NBA Draft since 2002, the last time the event aired on TNT. He covered the Draft in one form or another for five-straight years starting in 1998, the last three as an analyst on the main desk with Ernie Johnson, and the last two with Charles Barkley. The network lost rights to the Draft after the 2002 season, and it has been covered by ESPN ever since.
As for the main ESPN NBA Draft telecast, host Malika Andrews will be joined by Jay Bilas, Tim Legler, Andraya Carter and Bobby Marks. Legler, making what appears to be his debut on ESPN’s NBA Draft telecast, replaces Kendrick Perkins, who was part of the group last year and will be on a preview show this time around.
Andrews, Bilas and Marks return for the second round the following night.
Lisa Salters will serve as a reporter on Tuesday’s draft telecast, filling a role held last year by Monica McNutt. Vanessa Richardson will handle interviews on night two on Wednesday.
