After Mike Breen missed Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, ESPN is reportedly unlikely to have its full crew for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
The Athletic reported Wednesday that “there is a very good possibility” that ESPN will not have its regular NBA broadcast team intact for Thursday’s Game 1 of the Finals. Breen missed Sunday’s Celtics-Heat Game 7 after testing positive for COVID-19 and his colleague Jeff Van Gundy sounded under the weather during the actual game broadcast, as noted by a number of observers on social media.
Since the Game 7 broadcast, an ESPN conference call with Van Gundy and Mark Jackson to preview the Finals was postponed. Per The Athletic, tests are ongoing.
It has been far from unusual for broadcasters to miss games over the past two years. Holly Rowe missed what would have been her first-ever college football national championship early last year after testing positive. Mike Tirico and Tony Romo both called NFL playoff games remotely around the same time.
Nonetheless, it would be a first for a lead broadcast team to miss a championship-level game due to COVID-19 related reasons.
The last time any game in a “Big Four” championship aired without its lead play-by-play voice was 2014, when Mike Emrick missed Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final due to a family emergency.
Breen has called 91-straight NBA Finals games dating back to 2006 and Van Gundy 85-straight dating back to 2007. Jackson, who left briefly to coach the Golden State Warriors, has called 45-straight dating back to 2014.
[News from The Athletic 6.1]
