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.
On Thursday night the New York Knicks moved on to the second round of the 2024 NBA playoffs by way of a 118-115 win in Game 6 over the Philadelphia 76ers. Jalen Brunson was magnificent once again, recording 41 points (including 14 points in the fourth quarter) to put the persistent Sixers away. ESPN analyst Jay Williams was so in awe of his performance he went on Friday morning's episode of Get Up to sing the point guard's praises.
He may have gone a bit far, though. Even for the most diehard of Knicks fans. Williams said he believes Brunson will go down as one of the greatest Knicks of all-time— if not the greatest.
"I really think Jalen Brunson is going to go down as one of the greatest Knicks, if not the greatest Knick ever."
Brunson has been incredibly impressive and the marks he's hit as noted by the chyron are historic. However, Williams himself acknowledges he may be getting a bit over his skis by speaking so highly of Brunson's place in franchise history when he hasn't won a championship yet. Patrick Ewing didn't get one but Walt Frazier and Willis Reed both did. Even the most ardent Brunson supporter would balk at arguing Brunson is above any of those three in the franchise hierarchy as of now.
This sort of Brunson-mania is completely understandable through the lens of recent Knicks history. The organization was desperately searching for a new face of the franchise for nearly five years after Carmelo Anthony left and hadn't been seriously competitive in nearly a decade. The years between Ewing's retirement and the Melo trade aren't even worth discussing in this space. The Knicks were seriously lacking in 21st century legends before Brunson came along.
And he is perfect for the Knicks, just like franchise faces of old. Anthony was a walking highlight reel but didn't draw the love of the more gritty, earn every inch segment of the fanbase in the same way Brunson has. Knicks fans love a grinder and Brunson, if anything, is exactly that. Plus, before Brunson signed the best point guard to grace Madison Square Garden was 2007-'08 Stephon Marbury and he didn't win a single playoff series. It's been a while.
Brunson is very exciting to watch and feels tailor-made for the New York Knicks. He's still a long ways off from the heights reached by Frazier and Willis and even Ewing. A great first round series makes a franchise legend not, but perhaps this is the year when that changes.
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.
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.
