Former ESPN NBA analyst Mark Jackson is back on the market, but do not expect to see him on the air during this year’s playoffs.
Sports Media Watch learned Tuesday that Jackson is unlikely to rejoin ESPN for the 2014 playoffs, but the network is open to him returning in the future. Jackson was fired Tuesday as coach of the Golden State Warriors after three seasons with the team.
Prior to joining the Warriors, Jackson was an ESPN analyst from 2003-04 and then again from 2006-11, serving as the network’s lead game analyst for his final five seasons.
It would not have been unprecedented for Jackson to rejoin ESPN during the same postseason in which he was fired. In 2007, Jeff Van Gundy was fired by the Rockets after his team lost Game 7 of the first round to the Jazz. He joined ESPN during the second round of that year’s playoffs and has remained there ever since, working with Jackson on ABC’s lead team from 2007-11.
