NBC is committed long-term to its lead NBA analysts Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford, Sports Media Watch has learned.
The pair, which called last year’s seven-game Spurs-Thunder Western Conference Finals alongside Mike Tirico, will continue as the network’s lead team this season and beyond. “They’re our lead team, Mike, Reggie and Jamal,” Sam Flood, EP/president of production for NBC Sports, told Sports Media Watch on Monday. “As long as they’re here, they’re our lead dogs. They’ve earned it, and they work so well together.”
Tirico, Miller and Crawford will begin their second season together with Sixers-Knicks on NBA Opening Night a week from Tuesday. Prior to joining NBC Sports last year, Miller and Crawford worked for TNT Sports and paired together on NBA games during the 2024 playoffs.
“Those guys are wonderful, giving,” Tirico said. “We all got along as a team. Having Zora [Stephenson] and Ashley [ShahAhmadi] as our sideline reporters. The five of us had a blast during those playoff series, and especially that West Final. And we just really love the game, and that sense hopefully is transmitted through the TV to the people who are watching.”
During the offseason, NBC hired added former NBA head coach Doc Rivers as a game and studio analyst. Rivers, who was ESPN’s lead analyst to start the 2023-24 season before leaving for to coach the Milwaukee Bucks, told Sports Media Watch that he is fully retired from coaching — reiterating a point he made upon his hiring by NBC last month.
When asked if he expects to be part of NBC’s NBA conference final broadcast next season — the network does not have a conference final this year — he said it is “not a goal” of his, citing the network’s young talent. “I’d love to do something on it, but I’m not worried about it.”
Rivers joins an NBC roster that also includes his son Austin, who last season primarily contributed to the network’s “On the Bench” broadcasts on Peacock — wherein game analysts are situated aside the competing teams rather than behind the broadcast table. Flood said “On the Bench” will expand to all Monday night games on Peacock this season, rather than one a week.
“We think it’s a signature element for Monday nights, and the league was on board with us to help the access and get us on those benches,” Flood said, “so we’re all in with that.”
“I actually didn’t like the idea when I first heard about it,” the elder Rivers said. “I said, ‘I don’t know how this is going to work,’ and then when I watched it, I absolutely loved it. I thought Austin and Robbie [Hummel] in particular, they got things that you would have never got if they were at the table.”
The network has no current plans to incorporate its Major League Baseball approach — using analysts from the participating teams — on NBA coverage. Its lead MLB voice Jason Benetti, who will call NBA games for the company this season, said that while that approach could translate to basketball, it is particularly well-suited to baseball.
“I think it’s a little bit different with sports that play fewer games, but expertise is expertise,” Benetti said. “We need more of it in the world, not less. The one thing I’ll say is NBC has an extraordinary roster of people who’ve been in and followed the NBA for a long time and are really ingrained in it, so any way you go, I think you’re pretty happy with it.”
