After years of watching their lead NBA booth turn into a revolving door of broadcasters, ESPN may have finally gotten it right with Richard Jefferson.
2025 marks the third consecutive season that ESPN will have a different group of broadcasters calling the NBA Finals. And even within those three seasons, ESPN ran through at least six different combinations before settling on their current trio of Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson and Doris Burke.
The carousel began when ESPN controversially decided to move on from Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson in 2023, breaking what was a long tenure of continuity. Doc Rivers and JJ Redick both came and left last season for coaching gigs. And this season featured a rotating cast of Jefferson, Jay Bilas and Tim Legler alongside Breen and Burke before ESPN ultimately gave the third seat to Jefferson.
This week, Burke spoke to Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports about the recent lack of continuity at ESPN, but sounded confident in Jefferson’s ability to flourish in his new role.
“What I find so fascinating about Richard is he has, moreso than J.J. and I, this very natural understanding that TV broadcasting is an entertainment medium,” Burke told Glasspiegel. “I don’t even know how to describe why I think that. I can tell you one moment in particular that drives the point home for me: We were coming out of a halftime break and Mike does the usual of bringing us back with a scene, and then the camera comes, and Richard just winks at the camera!
“Mike Breen being Mike Breen, picks it up immediately, and you can hear the laugh in his voice when he asks, “Why are you winking in the camera?” So I don’t know, there’s just this very innate ability that Richard has, whether it’s the inflection in his voice, mannerism—he is a more natural broadcaster than JJ and me.”
Doris Burke raved about both Richard Jefferson and JJ Redick as teammates, praising their willingness to share the microphone in a three-person booth. She also noted that Jefferson and Redick are similar in how passionate they are about the NBA.
But for ESPN’s sake, hopefully Jefferson and Redick are different in how passionate they are about coaching.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com