ESPN is preparing for the 2023-2024 NBA season by announcing new in-game and studio announcing assignments.
The big news coming out of the Worldwide Leader in Sports is the addition of ESPN NBA analyst Doris Burke and former Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers to its lead broadcast team, joining play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, who is entering his 19th season as the voice of the NBA Finals and ESPN’s lead NBA play-by-play broadcaster.
Burke will become the first woman to serve as a television analyst for the NBA Finals. She was previously an analyst for ESPN’s NBA game broadcasts, and before that, an NBA on ESPN sideline reporter, serving in that capacity for nine years.
Rivers has television experience as well. After his playing career ended he provided color commentary for San Antonio Spurs games and for Turner Sports in the 1990s, and later helped call the 2004 NBA Finals for ABC.
Burke, who recently signed a multi-year extension, and Rivers, who has reached a multi-year deal with the network, take over for former NBA head coaches Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, who were casualties of the July layoffs at ESPN, which were described at that time as “additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries.”
Longtime NBA on ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters will also join ESPN’s new top broadcast trio, who will call the NBA Finals, Eastern Conference Finals, NBA Playoffs, Christmas Day, and the NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC series. This new team will debut during ESPN’s opening week of NBA coverage in October.
ESPN also announced a second new broadcast team comprised of play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco, paired with former NBA players JJ Redick and Richard Jefferson. This new team will be ESPN’s second core NBA broadcast team and will call the NBA Sunday Showcase series on ABC, plus work together for other marquee events throughout the season and into the NBA Playoffs.
Legendary coach and NBA analyst Hubie Brown will begin his 20th season with ESPN and his 50th season involved with the NBA, calling games for ESPN during the regular season, primarily teaming up with play-by-play announcers Mark Jones and Dave Pasch. Jones and Pasch have called ESPN events for 33 and 30 years, respectively.
On the studio front, ESPN announced that Malika Andrews will now host all of ESPN and ABC’s NBA Countdown shows, including NBA Finals pregame and halftime broadcasts. Andrews was previously the host of the Wednesday editions of NBA Countdown. She takes over from Mike Greenberg, who will focus his efforts on ESPN’s morning show Get Up and his ESPN radio duties.
Joining Andrews on NBA Countdown this coming season is former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers. The two-time NBA executive of the year will serve as both a studio analyst and game analyst, and will appear on the ABC editions of NBA Countdown, including for the NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC and NBA Sunday Showcase on ABC series during the regular season and throughout the NBA Playoffs. He will also call select games during the regular season.
Myers will join Andrews, Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, and Adrian Wojnarowski to round out the new lead NBA Countdown team.
Andrews will also host the Wednesday and Friday editions of NBA Countdown on ESPN with analysts Richard Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Chiney Ogwumike, and Wojnarowski joining her on those days.
The network announced that Andrews will keep her weekday duties as host of NBA Today and will be joined by analysts Jefferson, Perkins, Ogwumike, and senior writers Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne. On select dates, Ogwumike will serve as host of NBA Today, a role she’s familiar with as having performed it last season.