ESPN Makes Surprising Decision on Doris Burke's Role in NBA Finals Coverage

ESPN is making a big change to its NBA Finals broadcast team.

On Thursday, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported the network was demoting analyst Doris Burke and replacing her with Tim Legler. Burke was named to the No. 1 broadcast team alongside Mike Breen for the four-letter network after mainstays Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson left their longtime roles in 2023.

ESPN's NBA Finals team will now consist of Breen, Legler, and Richard Jefferson.

Burke, 60, made sports broadcasting history by becoming the first female analyst to call an NBA Finals game and was ESPN's first female No. 1 analyst on a sports broadcast. She called the 2024 Finals alongside Breen and future Lakers head coach JJ Redick before calling last year's Pacers-Thunder series with Jefferson and Breen. Game 7 wound up the trio's final broadcast.

Legler, 58, is a former NBA player who has worked for ESPN since 2000. He's well-regarded as a basketball analyst and is not unfamiliar with the spotlight; Legler has appeared on the occasional ESPN broadcast over the last few years. His intimate knowledge of the game and experience breaking it down for the viewers should make for a good fit alongside Breen and Jefferson.

The look of NBA games will change significantly this season with Amazon and NBC replacing TNT as broadcast partners. But ESPN/ABC retained exclusive broadcast rights to the NBA Finals throughout the new 11-year media deal kicking in this season.

Clearly those in charge felt the Breen/Burke/Jefferson trio wasn't clicking. The Finals will look and sound a lot different next June.