Doris Burke made American professional sports history on Thursday night when she called Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks. Burke became the first woman to serve as a TV analyst for any major men’s professional championship event.
Burke, a mainstay on ESPN basketball broadcasts over the years, has teamed up with the No. 1 announcing team for the network this season alongside play-by-play announcer Mike Breen and color analysts Doc Rivers, and later, JJ Redick.
Redick made sure to recognize Burke for her achievement during SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt.
“I do have a final word though, Scott,” Redick said before the segment with Van Pelt ended. “I do have one final word. I just want to say how proud I am of my teammate Doris Burke, who made history tonight calling this NBA Finals game. Look, I’m a newbie at this. I called my first tonight. It’s meaningless in the grand scheme of things. What she did tonight is historic. I am so proud of her. I love you. It’s so great working with you.”
“Don’t make me cry,” Burke replied. “You’re the best teammate, so thank you.”
The duo has plenty of chemistry with Breen on the air, and they’ll have a chance to continue to showcase what they can do throughout the rest of the NBA Finals.
Game 2 is set for Sunday night in Boston. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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.
Doris Burke will make history on Thursday night as she becomes the first woman to serve as a game analyst on television during a major men's professional championship event when she's on the call for the 2024 NBA Finals.
Ahead of her Finals debut, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James shared some heartwarming words of encouragement and appreciation for the renowned analyst.
"Important moment for our sport tonight. Love and respect to DB and everything she does to elevate all of us! You’re a [goat emoji]!" wrote James on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of tipoff of Game 1 on Thursday evening.
Important moment for our sport tonight. Love and respect to DB and everything she does to elevate all of us! You’re a 🐐! 🙏🏾🤎🫡 https://t.co/eckUkkP2Bk
Burke will be on ABC/ESPN's lead broadcast team for each game of the NBA Finals series between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks, joining the likes of Mike Breen and JJ Redick in one of the most coveted seats in the business.
James was overjoyed to see Burke get an opportunity and continue to pave the way for women in sports, and he congratulated her on social media.
During a recent appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," Burke spoke on the importance of the opportunity for herself and all women in sports.
"I’ll be honest with you, it’s meaningful," she said. "There’s no doubt that that sentiment hasn’t dawned on me. Obviously, what could be better for me if in some way this assignment helps women in some way? There could be nothing more meaningful."
Burke has been a full-time NBA analyst since 2017, having previously been ESPN's top sideline reporter. She called the NBA Finals on ESPN Radio in 2020, becoming the first woman to do so, and continues to blaze trails with her latest achievement during this year's championship.
