ESPN’s NBA Finals crew barely discussed De’Aaron Fox’s costly mistake

The new lead ESPN NBA broadcast team of Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson, and Tim Legler delivered a strong performance during the New York Knicks’ historic comeback against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals.

But one of the game’s most consequential decisions received surprisingly little attention.

With the Spurs clinging to a one-point lead in the final seconds, De’Aaron Fox raced in for a breakaway layup rather than forcing the Knicks to foul. The shot was blocked by OG Anunoby, helping set the stage for New York’s stunning victory.

Yet ABC’s broadcast never meaningfully examined the decision.

That was a major turning point for the Spurs, and social media criticism of Fox quickly became abundant. But there was a notable lack of criticism of Fox from Breen, Jefferson, and Legler in the broadcast booth.

A review of the game by Awful Announcing finds that the first mention of Fox not needing to shoot the ball did not occur until five minutes into the Inside the NBA postgame show. That is, even though just seconds after Fox missed the layup, the Spurs would commit a foul and call a timeout.

During the timeout, Legler briefly declared the foul, which was also committed by Fox, smart because of the scramble-drill-like chaos ensuing during the play. Some on social media also criticized Fox for the foul, arguing that Knicks guard Jose Alvarado was seconds away from a backcourt violation. ABC would then go to commercial.

This would have been the perfect and most logical point to at least show a replay of the missed shot. But ABC neither mentioned nor showed Fox’s shot.

After coming back from commercial, ABC briefly showed a highlight of the moment right before the timeout, but only to see if Alvarado committed a backcourt violation. Again, nothing was mentioned or shown discussing Fox’s decision to shoot.

Just seconds later, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson would miss a three, allowing unguarded inbounder OG Anunoby to tip the ball in for the eventual game-winning basket.

The Spurs would call another timeout with 1.2 seconds left in the game. ABC did not go to break, but spent the time discussing the go-ahead basket and what the Spurs could do on an inbound with little time remaining. They again made no mention of Fox, but that is not particularly surprising right after a game-changing basket.

After the game ended, ABC focused more on setting the scene than on analyzing what had happened before throwing to Lisa Salters for an interview with Anunoby.

A few minutes later, the regular broadcast would sign off with no further mention of Fox.

It was Charles Barkley, five minutes into Inside the NBA on ESPN, who first mentioned that Fox didn’t need to shoot the basketball.

It’s worth noting that ABC had a very narrow window to analyze Fox’s decision during the game (right after the second-to-last Spurs timeout), and it spent most of that time in a commercial break.

Still, for such a pivotal game-changing play not to be mentioned or replayed until the postgame is a huge miss by ABC. Especially with criticism of Fox quickly going viral on other platforms. Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler have been strong otherwise, and it would have been worthwhile for viewers to hear their reactions seconds after the play.

Unfortunately, we never got that opportunity.