With the NBA Finals around the corner, Doris Burke and ESPN’s top NBA broadcast booth have yet to reach championship form.
That much seemed clear on Monday night, as ESPN’s lead NBA analyst drew criticism for her curious commentary during the Oklahoma City Thunder’s victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.
Burke’s first eyebrow-raising comment came late in the second quarter as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drove toward the basket before being fouled by Rudy Gobert. As a replay showed Gobert clearly grabbing Gilgeous-Alexander before he rose up for a shot attempt, the former Providence point guard referenced the reigning MVP’s emerging nickname, stating, “that’s why they call him the free-throw merchant.”
Is it though?
As many on social media were quick to point out, calling someone a “free-throw merchant” typically indicates that a player is adept at fooling the refs into calling fouls that shouldn’t have been whistled. And while one could argue whether or not Gilgeous-Alexander is deserving of such criticism, this appeared to be an instance in which the official merely made the correct call.
Even Richard Jefferson seemed to agree.
“Every player in the league can do this,” Jefferson said in reference to SGA going into a shooting motion as it became clear he was being fouled. “Now, he drives more, he does it more. But if you put your hand there and you try to raise your left hand to shoot a jump shot — and for me, the free-throw merchant stuff, the numbers prove that it’s not true. It’s just a frustrating thing. I get it. But if the numbers don’t prove it, then it’s just your opinion. And you know what they say about opinions.”
While Burke’s analysis of SGA’s foul-drawing ability could be considered splitting hairs, she made another curious comment early in the third quarter as Gobert dunked over Isaiah Hartenstein. In calling a replay of the slam, Burke made note of both players’ nationalities with an apparent reference to the two World Wars.
“And I don’t know much about history, but I know the French and German don’t like one another,” Burke said. “And Rudy says, ‘Bonjour, Mr. Hartenstein! Have a little bit of that left-handed dunk!'”
“What are you trying to start here?” play-by-play man Mike Breen replied.
As the replies to our social media post of the clip show, Breen wasn’t alone in questioning what Burke was getting at. That’s not to say that her comment was nefarious; it was just odd. Especially considering the sensitive nature of such geopolitical matters even decades later.
Perhaps Doris Burke just so happened to make two head-scratching comments in a relatively short amount of time, but the attention that they both drew also led many to question the state of ESPN’s top NBA booth. After firing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers and JJ Redick’s jumps to the coaching ranks, the Worldwide Leader is now on its fourth different lead basketball broadcast team in the last three years.
Thus far, the feedback to the Breen-Burke-Jefferson trio hasn’t been particularly kind, with Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis calling attention to the booth’s chemistry (or lack thereof) on Monday night. That was evident in the reaction that Burke’s comments drew from her own colleagues and it will be worth monitoring how ESPN’s top NBA team continues to perform and evolve heading into the NBA Finals next week.