Charles Barkley made a guest appearance on ESPN's NHL analyst desk during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, joining the likes of Mark Messier, P.K. Subban and Steve Levy in between the first and second periods of Monday night's game.
Levy hinted at the potential for Barkley to make the leap over to ESPN, jokingly referring to him as the "newest member of ESPN's NBA coverage" while introducing the 61-year-old.
Steve Levy wasted no time trying to convince Charles Barkley to join ESPN's NBA coverage during his guest appearance on ABC's coverage of the Stanley Cup.
"Steve Levy, Mark Messier, P.K. Subban, and the newest member of ESPN's NBA coverage?"👀pic.twitter.com/WhLPgNFReT
"Welcome Mark Messier, P.K. Subban and the newest member of ESPN's NBA coverage? Maybe?" said Levy at the start of the segment.
Rather than immediately address his job, Barkley comically changed the topic and mentioned that Messier owes him $5,000 stemming from a delay of game penalty he took during his playing days.
After discussing Barkley's hockey fandom and his relationship with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, the crew circled back to the topic of Barkley's employment. The NBA Hall of Famer joked that he wished he had a job lined up and that he was back on LinkedIn.
With the NBA on TNT crew facing an uncertain future, the prospect of Barkley joining ESPN's NBA coverage isn't all too far fetched, and Levy wasted no time stirring the pot in that regard.
Halftime shows are like commercials. A necessary evil and a perfect opportunity to load up on more snack mix or perform a fluids check. Few people in the history of sitting on their couches have ever been deeply intrigued by a Coming Up At the Half tease. And the hardworking broadcasting crews that try to capture eyeballs and attention are fighting an uphill battle.
That's the bad news. The good is that all of this combines to create a low-stakes environment because, let's face it, average viewers don't really care if the halftime show is good or average or a trainwreck. As long as the second half begins on time then everyone wins and no one loses.
So it's kind of perplexing to see the aggregating of grievances concerning ESPN/ABC's mid-game fare during the NBA Finals. Awful Announcing got out the stopwatch and crunched some numbers following Game 1's halftime show.
All told, the studio crew got roughly a minute and 20 seconds of air time. And remember, that time was split between five people. Much of that time was spent on intros from and outros to commercial breaks.
Is this ideal? Certainly not. But is it a new phenomenon? Also no.
ESPN/ABC has been dinged for stuffing shot-clock-length opinions and observations between a crushing amount of bells and whistles for years. Those critiquing the operation are right when they say there's no flow and it can all be a bit disorienting. But they are also a bit silly for tuning into the Finals games and expecting anything different than what has been standard operating procedure for some time now.
It feels weird to defend something that could certainly be better yet at the same time complaining that viewers aren't getting enough opinions or analysis during what is essentially a content oasis feels a bit weird. Those are available on the network before the game and after the game, plus on-demand and on social media for anyone who may have missed the thousands of words and hundreds of segments devoted to Celtics-Mavs under the ESPN umbrella.
There simply cannot be a real world faction significant enough to warrant concern-trolling that Bob Myers and Josh Hart weren't given enough time to explore the space. Or that the real world is pining for another minute of Stephen A. Smith to fire off whatever he's going to fire off.
For as often this crew is compared to TNT's iconic foursome on Inside the NBA, which does move at a more beneficial pace, there's little apples-to-oranges consideration. First, broadcasting a champioship is going to afford the opportunity — and necessity really — to be more sponsor- and commercial-heavy. Then there's the problem of people conflating TNT's long postgame coverage with its halftime hits. Sure Barkley or O'Neal might say something hilarious and go viral during the mid-game break but more often than not the focus will be on Team X not turning the ball over or how Team Y looks sleepy out there.
Sunday night's Game 2 brought more of the same because, honestly, who would think it would change in the span of a few days. Unofficial numbers suggest the commercialization outpaced the analysis at around a 6-1 clip. But we're not going to go back and chart it ourselves because almost anything is a better use of time.
Something to keep in mind for Game 3 instead of hoping for a miracle that simply isn't going to come.
The Boston Celtics hosted the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Sunday night. During the "NBA Countdown" pregame show, Malika Andrews, Stephen A. Smith, Mike Wilbon, Bob Myers and Josh Hart discussed Mavericks coach Jason Kidd saying that Jaylen Brown was the Celtics best player. While the panel didn't have much to disagree on during the segment, it did lead to an interesting moment between Smith and Myers.
Myers was talking about how Kidd's comments might be an attempt by the Mavericks coach to divide the locker room, as Myers pointed out that's what happens when a team is on top. The former Golden State Warriors general manager also pointed out that more than ever, people are trying to tear teams down and suggested that Stephen A. Smith was one of the people who might be doing exactly that.
Smith took exception and blamed social media instead.
"We tear teams apart more than we ever have, maybe on purpose, maybe that guy down there (pointing at Stephen A. Smith)." - Bob Myers
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 9, 2024
"The Celtics are on top, right," said Myers. "And anytime you're on top people used to come at Curry and Durant. They'd come at you in the media. They come at you on the street. And the point is—and Josh knows this—what matters is your locker room. The fabric of that locker room and what they can withstand. That Knicks fabric, you had that this year, but it is hard to find. We tear teams apart more than we ever have. Maybe on purpose, maybe not, maybe that guy down there."
That's when Smith jumped in to defend himself by saying, "Not me. Not me. Not me. That's social media. That's not me."
While the rest of the panel laughed, Myers joked about how he must have been mistaken. "Maybe you might," Myers asked. "That's somebody else? I thought it was you for a second there."
This marks the second time in a week that an ESPN colleague has called out Smith on-air after Monica McNutt put him on the spot on First Take for not using his platform to promote women's basketball before the Caitlin Clark era. When that happened, Smith took serious offense. And he clearly did not enjoy this moment either. We'll have to wait and see if he lets this one go tomorrow. It would certainly be interesting to hear him explain how he doesn't play some part in this exact kind of thing.
When the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks begin on Thursday night, ABC/ESPN's Doris Burke will be making history of her own.
Burke, who was named to the lead NBA broadcasting crew for ABC/ESPN ahead of the 2023–24 season, is officially the first woman to call any major men's championship in the United States in history.
The long-time reporter will join Mike Breen and J.J. Reddick courtside for the game as they've done throughout the entire NBA season.
Burke is set to work all of the NBA Finals games this season as ABC is the primary broadcaster for the games.
Tonight, Doris Burke is set to make history as the first woman to call any major U.S. men’s championship on TV. pic.twitter.com/jR7ujRJgq0
This isn't the first time Burke's name will be written in the history books. One of her other significant career moments came in 2017 when she was named a regular NBA game analyst for ESPN, making her the first woman to hold this position for a full season. She called the NBA Finals for ESPN Radio back in 2020, making her the first woman to do so.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports. The news of who will get their head-coaching job is big. It’s important. It’s significant.
For sports media nerds like myself, though, the subplot to the Lakers' coaching job is much more fascinating. And that subplot is the battle between ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
There isn’t a reporter vs. reporter duel that gets more attention from sports fans than Woj vs. Shams.
The Woj vs. Shams grudge match came to the forefront early Thursday morning when Wojnarowski broke the news that the Lakers are targeting UConn’s Danny Hurley as their next head coach.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Lakers are targeting Connecticut’s Dan Hurley to become the franchise’s next coach and are preparing a massive, long-term contract offer to bring the back-to-back national champion to the NBA, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/6WPrigPvAW
Now, at the end of the day, who breaks the news is hardly that important. There’s no shame in Shams getting this one wrong. Sometimes sources aren’t accurate or a team changes its mind. Basically, s--- happens.
What made this particular Woj vs. Shams incident stand out is that ESPN’s biggest gun, Adam Schefter, even weighed in to send a message, whether it was intended or not.
“Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process,” per Woj. https://t.co/Sbs5yzXS1d
Again, whether intended or not, that sentence about Hurley being at the forefront of the search from the beginning is a direct shot at Shams.
Like I said, who ultimately breaks the news of the Lakers' next coach isn’t going to change anything. But Woj coming in to throw a bomb all over Shams's earlier report makes for very entertaining tweets and memes.
2. A brand-new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped this morning and it features an interview with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, who shares information and gives updates on the biggest news in sports media.
Topics covered include the latest developments with the NBA's future TV deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon and where things stand with Warner Bros. Discovery/TNT. Marchand also reveals what he thinks NBC's plan is for a lead broadcast team, what will happen with the Inside the NBA crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal, whether Barkley could end up at ESPN and why the relationship between TNT and the NBA deteriorated.
Following Marchand, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for our weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week's topics include new sports TV shows that are on the radar and the Yankees' dominance. Plus, we read the latest Apple reviews for SI Media With Jimmy Traina.
3. In Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts, I wrote about the ridiculous notion by some people that you need to know about the WNBA’s history in order to opine on the WNBA.
Just as nonsensical as that take is this take.
Hope all the “just talking heads” are tuned into @WNBA games tonite and tomorrow and the next nite and so on…..so they can equip themselves with a deeper sense of this league. And all of these opinions are great but let it come from watching the entire league.
Nope. You absolutely do not have to watch non–Caitlin Clark WNBA games if you do not want to. No sports fan or talking head has to watch anything they are not interested in. You are not required to have a “deeper sense of the league” to opine on general topics in any sport.
4. Pat McAfee WAS a punter, so it’s not totally shocking he’d have a good leg, but this was a hell of a pass.
5. If you missed the news last week, it was announced that ESPN sold two college football playoff games to TNT. College football released its postseason schedule on Wednesday and now we know why ESPN would pass up on airing a pair of playoff games.
On Saturday, Dec. 21, TNT will air two first-round playoff games at noon and 4 p.m. ET.
It just so happens that two NFL games will take place at the same time.
Texans at Chiefs will air at 1 p.m. ET on NBC while the Steelers visit the Ravens at 4:30 p.m. on Fox.
OFFICIAL RELEASE: The College Football Playoff has announced dates, kick times and broadcast information for the 2024-25 playoff, the first year of the expanded 12-team format.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 5, 2024
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: The longtime ABC news program, 20/20, debuted on this date in 1978. This seems like the perfect reason to post this clip that every old-school wrestling fan knows well.
Caitlin Clark has the entire sports talk industry turned upside down right now. Clark and the Indiana Fever have been playing nonstop since the season started and between the attention and pressure, she has struggledout of the gate. On top of that there's how she's being treated by other teams, which has not been very nicely, culminating in a cheap shot from Chennedy Carter over the weekend.
On Monday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the eponymous host got out from behind the desk and did a whole presentation about how important Clark is and how jealous all the haters are. He did this is in a McAfee-specific fashion as he swore on ESPN and identified Clark as the "white b----" who has lifted the entire sport.
Monday's Pat McAfee Show opened with a Caitlin Clark PowerPoint:
"I would like the media people that continue to say, 'This rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class'. Nah, just call it for what it is — there's one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar." pic.twitter.com/psGNQXts5O
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 3, 2024
"I would like the media people that continue to say this rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class. Nah. Just call it for what it is," said McAfee. "There's one white b---- for this Indiana team who is a superstar. And is it because she stayed in Iowa, put an entire team on her back, took a program from nothing to a multiple-year success story?"
"Is it because she would go on to break the entire points records in the history of the NCAA? Not just the women's by Kelsea Plum - shout out - but also "Pistol" Pete Maravich's. The dude's record as well. Is there a chance that people just like watching her play basketball? Because of how electrifying she is. What she did. What she stood for. How she went about going what she went for? Maybe. But instead we have to hear people say that we only like her because she's white. And she's only popular because the rest of the rookie class is doing what they're doing. That's a bunch of bulls----. And we think the WNBA, more specifically, their refs, need to stop trying to screw her over at every single turn. What you have is somebody special. And we're lucky to have her in Indiana."
McAfee also discussed the "Eminem effect," playing a clip of 50 Cent saying people didn't want to give Eminem credit because he was white. "Let's just take that into the WNBA situation," said McAfee. "That it is just a bunch of racist people who will only watch if a white superstar is there." Then the show put up pictures of Diana Taurasi, Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum and Breanna Stewart. "I think what we're trying to say is what the WNBA currently has is what we like to describe as a cash cow. There is a superstar."
All-in-all, a very colorful presentation by McAfee, who continues to make it clear that he can do whatever he wants on ESPN. Including defending Clark by trying to make sense of why so many people apparently hate her. By whatever means necessary.
James Cameron's Titanic came out in theaters on December 19, 1997. It made billions of dollars at the box office. It was released on VHS in September 1998 and DVD in August 1999. For nearly three decades it's been one of the most enduring pieces of popular culture, based on one of the most famous events in history. For 26 years it's been referenced, parodied, celebrated and rewatched. It's hard to believe there's a way to talk about this movie that hasn't already been covered.
And yet Joe Buck may have done it.
On Friday afternoon Buck was watching Titanic, as most people are wont to do. Near the end of the film, while Buck sat in a chair next to his neatly made bed, the former longtime voice of the World Series and current voice of ESPN's Monday Night Football, posted a video to his X / Twitter account pointing out a continuity error.
It turns out Buck really doesn't like how James Cameron sunk that boat and he could no longer keep it inside. So he made a video explaining his issues with the way this famous scene was shot. He did this while recording his television from across the room. Buck is completely off camera. Except for his feet.
Here’s an opportunity twitter - sorry, X - to tell me again that I’m stupid. Please, I’m begging you pic.twitter.com/z1iMP7Ck9J
"This shot doesn't make any sense," Buck says. "It's going in and now it's flat? Now you see the back of the ship. Going... There's no continuity there. This thing is going in nose down. The Titanic piece that is written there—hould be up in the air. Going in. This way. Instead all of a sudden it goes this way? What? It's always bothered me. One more time. It's going in vertically. K? The back of the ship's in the air. So if you're going to have the writing of the Titanic—it can't be that way! Now it's flat into the water? Now watch, it's going to be flat again... with the back. No! That would have been pointed up the other way. It would have been pointed away. Terrible."
We are not here to litigate the movie Titanic, which made $2.2 billion dollars in theaters on a budget of $200 million and was the highest grossing movie of all-time until Cameron released Avatar more than a decade later.
What we are here to litigate is the gratuitous shots of Joe Buck's feet in this video. Do you know how distracting something has to be to take people's eyes of Kate and Leo here? His toes have more screen time than Bill Paxton. If you were ever looking for an argument against vertical video, this is it.
Football season can't come soon enough. We need Buck and his bare feet grinding game tape, not crushing plot holes.
The 2024 NBA Finals begins on June 6th and will be broadcast by ESPN on ABC. ESPN has a whole new broadcast team lined up to call this year's Finals after going with a familiar team for the last decade. To make things more complicated, they had to adjust their plans midseason thanks to a high profile coaching move by a title contender.
So with all the musical chairs in the broadcast booth over the last year, who will be on the call for this year's Finals?
Mike Breen took over as play-by-play announcer for ABC in 2006 and has called the last 18 NBA Finals. His partners for many of those years were Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. The exception was Hubie Brown, the color commentator for Breen's first Finals.
With Jackson and Van Gundy leaving ESPN last summer, Doris Burke was promoted to the lead broadcast team. Burke has been working for the network since 1991 and began working the sidelines on NBA broadcasts during the 2003-2004 season. She's been the sideline reporter for the NBA Finals since 2009.
Breen and Burke were supposed to be joined by Doc Rivers, who joined the booth ahead of the 2023-'24 season. But he was named the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks back in January. The Bucks posted a worse record under Rivers than they did under previous head coach Adrian Griffin and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
In Rivers' place will be JJ Redick a retired player and current podcaster who is one of the brightest basketball minds in the media. Redick has been with ESPN since 2021 and was added to the lead broadcast team in February.
Lisa Salters will return for her third year as the sideline reporter, a position previously held by Burke. Salters originally worked the 2006 NBA Finals as sideline reporter when Tafoya was on maternity leave.
During the 2023 NBA Finals ESPN celebrated Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen calling their 15th Finals together. A short time later both Jackson and Van Gundy learned their contracts would not be renewed, possibly because ESPN was so excited to hire Doc Rivers and give him the job he had previously walked away from back in 2004. Rivers then did the exact same thing, except in the middle of the season.
Van Gunddy had called every NBA Finals on ABC / ESPN since 2007 with Jackson being the third man in the booth every year where he wasn't coach of the Golden State Warriors.
ESPN and ABC have been broadcasting the NBA Finals since 2003 after wrestling the rights from NBC. Back in '03 Brad Nessler called the Finals with Bill Walton and Tom Tolbert. Michele Tafoya and Stuart Scott were the sieline reporters with Mike Tirico acting as studio host.
Doc Rivers actually called the NBA Finals alongside Al Michaels for ABC in 2004 before he bolted for the Boston Celtics' head coaching job. He was replaced by Hubie Brown with Mike Breen taking over for Michaels in 2006. That same year saw Salters and Scott working the sidelines with Dan Patrick hosting a studio show that consisted of Mike Wilbon and Mark Jackson.
As you can see, fashion and the NBA Finals broadcast team is never finished. After 15 years of Breen, Jackson and JVG, ABC and ESPN clearly thought it was time to innovate. With Burke and Redick on the call, fans are in for a whole new broadcast.
The Boston Celtics finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA at 64-18. Then they rolled through the Eastern Conference playoffs, losing just two games in three rounds on their way to their second NBA Finals in three seasons. You would think things were going pretty well in Boston, but if you tuned into Get Up this morning, you might think the team was about to unravel.
During Day 2 of the conversation about Jaylen Brown being named MVP of the Eastern Conference finals, they showed a clip of Brown receiving his trophy and highlighted Jayson Tatum smiling while he clapped for his longtime teammate. This was apparently Tatum being "shocked" and not excited like his teamamtes.
This might be the dumbest ESPN segment in the Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown era. And thats saying a lot.
“When Jaylen Brown wins the award the rest of the team just goes crazy, they were so genuinely excited for him. And you did not seem to think it was mirrored in Jayson Tatum” pic.twitter.com/3LGv7lBs1w
"I think a lot of people were surprised," said Greenberg. "There was a lot of chatter online yesterday to whatever degree this is important and relevant about Jayson Tatum's reaction. When Jaylen Brown wins that award in the moment that it happens, the rest of the team just goes crazy. And you were talking about it in our meeting earlier this morning. They're all so genuinely... Look at them. They are just so genuinely excited for him and you did not seem to think that it was mirrored in Jayson Tatum."
Greenberg then turned to Udonis Haslem, who twice says he thought Tatum was "shocked." Again, the video clearly shows Tatum doing exactly what every other teammate is doing in the same video. He's touching Brown in congratulations. He's smiling. He's clapping. He has the same look on his face that everyone else does. In order to imagine this being some kind negative reaction you would have to be someone with a vested interest in the Celtics failing. Conveniently, Get Up had one of those people on set today in Udonis Haslem.
What is ESPN thinking having Haslem, who played two decades for the Heat and is currently employed by the team, commenting on Miami's most bitter rival? They're putting him on national television to sow doubt in the public's mind about how their stars feel about each other using a video of them celebrating a trip to the Finals. The fact that this came in the same episode that Haslem was worried about possibly tampering during a segment about LeBron James makes it an even more dubious decision.
While we probably shouldn't be surprised that Haslem would try to say this, it's downright amazing that Greenberg would not just humor him but set him up for it. There is literally nothing in this video that would suggest anything but joy, yet ESPN has Tatum lit up like he's being identified in CCTV footage at a burglary trial.. All he's doing is smiling!
The Ringer's Bill Simmons was among the many people to call Greenberg and ESPN out for this ridiculous editorial choice.
“Great segment Greeny. That might get us a million views online. Let’s try to keep the Tatum vs Brown storyline going heading into the Finals, Dave Roberts just texted me, he loves it!” pic.twitter.com/1ft9hPBtKE
The worst part about all this is that there is still a week until the NBA Finals start. If this is what ESPN's flagship morning show has turned to the morning after an actual Western Conference finals game we can't be far from wondering whether Tatum or Brown will demand a trade first this offseason. Sure, they've played together for seven straight years, had a ton of success and both signed max contracts at every opportunity, but maybe they want more!
Maybe Pat Riley or Alonzo Mourning can join the show to discuss trade destinations next week.
The Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers were tied 3–3 and battling in the final minute of Game 2 when the ESPN broadcast suddenly went dark.
The Rangers, who lead the Eastern Conference semifinal series 1–0, were on the power play and about to set up their attack with 50 seconds to play in regulation when the ESPN broadcast accidentally cut to the pregame scenes in Dallas.
The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche were about to begin Game 1 of their series at American Airlines Center, but the game was supposed to be nationally televised on ESPNU, not ESPN, until the Rangers-Hurricanes clash ended.
ESPN stayed on the Stars-Rangers broadcast for about 20 seconds before cutting back to Madison Square Garden. Luckily, no goals were scored.
ESPN accidentally switched to Dallas - Colorado with less than a minute left in a tie game. Figured it out pretty quickly at least pic.twitter.com/uTl98ecCPG
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 8, 2024
The game remained on ESPN as it went into overtime. But those 20 seconds away from the Rangers-Hurricanes game felt like an hour to New York and Carolina fans watching on television.
THE WAY I ALMOST YEETED THE REMOTE AT MY TV WHEN @espn SWITCHED FROM THE RANGERS GAME TO THE DALLAS GAME????
REALLY??? DURING A POWER PLAY??? WITH A MINUTE LEFT??? DURING THE PLAYOFFS??? IN A TIE GAME???? #NYR bruh I need it back on MSG pic.twitter.com/0dxNHGG3D8
— DJ Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire Evangelista (@WakandaBS_isDis) May 8, 2024
DID ESPN JUST SWITCH AWAY FROM THE RANGERS GAME DURING A POWER PLAY IN THE FINAL MINUTE OF A TIE GAME?!?!??!
