Media
Burke agreed to a multiyear extension while accepting the change in roles.
ESPN/ABC again has shaken up its lineup of NBA broadcasters, demoting Doris Burke from its No. 1 team and elevating Tim Legler.
Burke, a former Providence College basketball star and 1987 graduate, had been a color analyst on ESPN/ABC’s top team since the 2023-24 season. She began working for ESPN in 1991.
During the 2024 NBA Finals, she became the first woman to call a championship television broadcast in a major American men’s professional sports league.
Burke, who entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 as the Curt Gowdy Media Award winner, now will be paired with play-by-play voice Dave Pasch on ESPN’s No. 2 team. The sideline reporter is to be determined, but Katie George is a possibility.
Burke, whose contract was set to expire after the upcoming NBA season, agreed to a multiyear extension while accepting the change in roles.
Legler, a former NBA player and 3-point contest champion, has been with ESPN since 2000 in an assortment of basketball-related roles.
He will join play-by-play voice Mike Breen and analyst Richard Jefferson — who agreed to a contract extension over the summer — on the No. 1 team. Lisa Salters will remain the sideline reporter.
ESPN’s top NBA broadcast team has been in frequent flux in recent years, since longtime analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were fired during the summer of 2023.
Burke was elevated to the top team after their dismissal, and former Celtics coach Doc Rivers was hired as the other analyst. But Rivers left in the midst of the 2023-24 season to take the Bucks’ coaching job.
JJ Redick was promoted in-season to replace Rivers, but he stuck around just through the Celtics’ NBA Finals victory over the Mavericks, departing ESPN to become coach of the Lakers.
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