When ESPN announced its broadcasting plans for the 2024-25 NBA season, there was no clear successor to J.J. Redick.
The plan was a work in progress, with a rotating cast of analysts, including Richard Jefferson, Tim Legler, and even longtime college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, filling in throughout the year.
Now, with the postseason underway, roles are becoming clearer.
In February, Richard Jefferson joined Mike Breen and Doris Burke on ESPN’s lead NBA broadcast team for the remainder of the season (and postseason). As The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported, Jefferson will call the NBA Finals, marking his first appearance in that role after four Finals appearances as a player.
Meanwhile, Jay Bilas will make his NBA playoff broadcasting debut this weekend.
The longtime ESPN college basketball analyst will call his first-ever NBA playoff game Saturday night when the Lakers face the Timberwolves in ABC’s primetime slot. Mark Jones and Jorge Sedano will join him in a rare crossover from college basketball to the NBA postseason.
As for the lead team, Breen, Burke, and Jefferson will cover Knicks-Pistons on Saturday and Magic-Celtics on Sunday, mirroring last season’s top team’s early-round assignments.
Then there’s Bilas.
The 61-year-old is a bit of a wild card. He’s been one of ESPN’s most authoritative voices in college basketball for two decades, anchoring College GameDay, calling marquee matchups, and leading the network’s NBA Draft coverage.
This season, he quietly made several appearances on NBA broadcasts — enough to dip his toe in but not enough to signal a full-blown transition.
While he’s long had the basketball IQ and on-air presence to handle the jump, his role in ESPN’s NBA coverage remained limited. As Marchand noted, Bilas was considered a “longshot” to land a significant assignment on ESPN’s NBA team.
For Bilas, this weekend marks a new chapter. After decades of owning March, he finally gets a taste of April.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.