The NBA on ESPN

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The NBA on ESPN
Genre	Basketball
Running time	3 hours
Starring	Various personalities (see below)
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	ESPN (1982-1984 and 2002-) ESPN2 (2002-2006) ABC (2006-)
Original run	1982–Present

The NBA on ESPN is the de facto title for the presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games on the ESPN family of networks. ESPN first televised NBA games from 1983 to 1984, and has been airing games currently since the 2002-03 NBA season.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Announcers 2.1 2002-03 2.2 2003-04 2.3 2004-05 2.4 2005-06 2.5 2006-07 2.6 Personalities 2.6.1 Current 2.6.2 Former 3 Studio team 3.1 NBA Shootaround 3.2 Other 4 Ratings 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Overview

ESPN airs NBA games on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Games on Wednesdays and Fridays air on the ESPN cable network, while games on Sundays primarily air on ABC as part of ESPN on ABC. Most NBA games on the ESPN cable network air on Fridays at 8:00 p.m ET and 7:30 p.m PT as part of "Coast to Coast" doubleheaders. Games on Wednesdays are mostly single games, televised at 9:00 p.m ET (usually following an ACC college basketball game). The ABC broadcast network airs ESPN NBA games on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 and 3:30 p.m ET. In addition to games on ABC, several Sundays throughout the season also feature ESPN televised games, usually during the evening.

ESPN's presentation of games is referred to as NBA (name of day) (i.e, NBA Wednesday, NBA Friday and NBA Sunday). Games on holidays or days when ESPN does not usually air games (Tuesdays, Saturdays, etc) are branded as NBA Special Edition.

As part of the NBA's cable-heavy TV deal, ESPN airs one Conference Final per year (the Eastern Conference Final in 2003, 2004 and 2006 and the Western Conference Final in 2005 and 2007). Most Conference Final games are televised on ESPN itself, with usually Game 4 and Game 7 set aside for ABC. Outside of the Conference Finals, ESPN airs playoff games only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (with competitor TNT airing the majority of games on the other nights of the week).

ESPN airs the NBA Draft each season, as well as the NBA Draft Lottery (with the exception of 2003, when ABC aired the Draft Lottery prior to a Conference Final game on the network).

For the 2006-07 NBA season, ESPN used ABC's theme music from the previous two years, marking the second time that the network took its corporate sibling's NBA theme. Also, NBA games used graphics that had previously been only used on ESPN's coverage of Monday Night Football. Because of the move from ABC Sports to ESPN on ABC, ESPN's graphics, music and complete presentation will be used on games televised on ABC.

[edit] Announcers

[edit] 2002-03

Originally, ESPN (and ABC's) lead broadcast team was Brad Nessler and Bill Walton. Nessler and Walton (eventually joined by Tom Tolbert on ABC) worked NBA Wednesday games most weeks during the 2002-03 season. For NBA Friday, Mike Tirico and Tom Tolbert worked late night West Coast games while John Saunders and Sean Elliott did the early games. For the playoffs, ESPN added Jim Durham to its list of television play-by-play voices and used the ABC main team of Nessler, Walton and Tolbert for its coverage of the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals.

[edit] 2003-04

After low ratings on ABC and for the Conference Finals, ESPN reshuffled its announcing group. With the addition of Al Michaels to the ABC NBA line-up, ESPN dissolved the Nessler-Tolbert-Walton team, keeping Nessler as the main announcer but pairing him with Sean Elliott and Dan Majerle. Walton was demoted significantly, working games sporadically (including most of the NBA Sunday games with either Jim Durham or Brent Musburger). Tolbert stayed with Mike Tirico in a new three-man booth that also included newcomer George Karl.

Also added to the ESPN line-up was Mike Breen, who became the number three announcer behind Tirico and Nessler. Breen worked most of his games with Bill Walton.

For the 2004 Eastern Conference Final, ESPN used Nessler along with ABC's lead analyst Doc Rivers for every game of the series. Game 6 between Detroit and Indiana was the last NBA game Nessler has called to date.

[edit] 2004-05

Brad Nessler was dropped from ESPN/ABC's NBA coverage altogether starting with the 2004-05 NBA season. Mike Breen was promoted to lead announcer for ESPN, continuing to work games with Bill Walton (including the Pacers-Pistons brawl). Sean Elliott was dropped, along with Dan Majerle and George Karl (who left during the season to coach the Denver Nuggets. Jim Durham's role increased and ESPN hired former NBC analyst Steve Jones (Durham and Jones would work several regular season games together). ESPN did not use Jones and former cohort Bill Walton in games together during the regular season. Tom Tolbert's role decreased significantly.

In the playoffs, ESPN used the team of Mike Breen and Bill Walton for its coverage of the 2005 Western Conference Final.

[edit] 2005-06

ESPN's announcing teams remained stable in the 2005-06 NBA season. Mike Breen and Bill Walton worked games together during the first half of the season; after Breen was promoted to lead broadcaster for ABC, Mike Tirico became the number two broadcaster and ended up working several games with Walton (and later, Steve Jones). During the 2006 NBA Playoffs, Breen worked games with ABC partner Hubie Brown, including the 2006 Eastern Conference Final.

[edit] 2006-07

For the 2006-07 NBA season, Hubie Brown moved to ESPN full time as the lead color commentator, paired with Mike Breen. Mike Tirico and Bill Walton remained as the number two team, with Steve Jones being replaced by newcomer Jon Barry. Tom Tolbert remained in his reduced role, in a broadcast team with ESPN WNBA play-by-play man Dave Pasch. WNBA player Becky Hammon was added as a sideline reporter, taking some of the workload from Lisa Salters (who had added Saturday Night Football to her duties). John Saunders, with former NBA Shootaround colleagues Greg Anthony and Tim Legler worked Sunday night games televised by ESPN, as they had in the previous season.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current

• Greg Anthony (studio analyst, 2002 - present)
• Jon Barry (game analyst, 2006 - present)
• Mike Breen (play-by-play 2003 - present)
• Dee Brown (studio analyst, 2005 - present)
• Ric Bucher (contributor, 2003 - present)
• Doris Burke (sideline repoter, 2004 - present)
• Jim Gray (sideline reporter, 2003 - present)
• Becky Hammon (sideline reporter, 2006 - present)
• Allan Houston (studio analyst, 2006 - present)
• Mark Jones (sideline reporter, 2004 - present)
• Steve Jones (game analyst, 2004 - present)
• Kara Lawson (sideline reporter, 2006 - present)
• Tim Legler (studio analyst, 2004 - present)
• Jamal Mashburn (studio analyst, 2006 - present)
• Brent Musburger (play-by-play, 2002 - present)
• Bill Raftery (alternate game analyst, 2004 - present)
• John Saunders (play-by-play, 2002 - 2004 and 2006-present, studio host 2004 - 2005)
• Lisa Salters (sideline repoter, 2005 - present)
• Stephen A. Smith (studio analyst, 2003 - present)
• Marc Stein (contributor, 2003 - present)
• Mike Tirico (play-by-play, 2002 - present)
• Tom Tolbert (game analyst, 2002 - present)
• Kiki Vandeweghe (studio analyst, 2006 - present)
• Bill Walton (game analyst, 2002 - present)

[edit] Former

• David Aldridge (sideline repoter, 2002 - 2004)
• B.J. Armstrong (studio anaylst, 2005 - 2006)
• Hubie Brown (game analyst, 2006)
• Jim Durham (play-by-play, 2003 - 2006)
• Sean Elliott (game analyst, 2002 - 2004)
• Kevin Frazier (studio host, 2002 - 2004)
• Tim Hardaway (studio analyst, 2002 - 2003
• Dana Jacobson (sideline reporter, 2006)
• Mark Jackson (studio analyst, 2003 - 2004)
• George Karl (game analyst, 2003 - 2004)
• Sal Masekela (sideline reporter, 2002 - 2003)
• Brad Nessler (play-by-play, 2002 - 2004)
• Dave O'Brien (alternate play-by-play, 2002 - 2003)
• Doc Rivers (game analyst, 2004)
• Dan Shulman (alternate play-by-play, 2005)
• Paul Silas (studio analyst, 2005 - 2006)
• Michele Tafoya (sideline reporter, 2002 - 2004)

[edit] Studio team

[edit] NBA Shootaround

NBA Shootaround is ESPN's main studio program, airing before each NBA Friday Coast to Coast telecast. Shootaround and other in-game studio programs originally consisted of Kevin Frazier and Tim Hardaway on Fridays with Stuart Scott replacing Frazier on Wednesdays. After horrible reviews for Hardaway, ESPN brought in Greg Anthony to replace him on Friday nights. Frazier and Anthony became ESPN's main studio team and worked most of the playoffs. For the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals, ESPN used ABC's halftime team of Mike Tirico and Sean Elliott for all the games.

2003-04 was the first year of the longest-tenured ESPN studio team. Frazier and Anthony were joined by controversial writer Stephen A. Smith and NBA legend Bill Laimbeer. Laimbeer, departing to continue coaching in the WNBA, was replaced by Tim Legler during the 2004 NBA Playoffs. Smith, Legler and Anthony were joined by John Saunders (replacing Frazier, who left to host Entertainment Tonight) from late 2004 to the end of the 2005-2006 season.

ESPN's studio team was generally more criticized ^[1] than praised. After the Pacers-Pistons brawl, ESPN's studio team came under severe criticism, both by the media^[2] and by ESPN itself ^[3] for their stance regarding the actions of Indiana Pacer Ron Artest (who infamously entered the stands to confront a fan, sparking the melee). Saunders came down hard on Detroit fans, referring to them as "punks", while Anthony and Legler defended Artest.

For the 2006-07 NBA season, Saunders was replaced by Fred Hickman, with the remaining team left in tact.^[4] Previous reports by The Big Lead.com and The New York Post indicated that Anthony, Legler and Smith along with Saunders would be replaced by Dan Patrick, Michael Wilbon and Mark Jackson^[5].

[edit] Other

ESPN airs several NBA-related studio programs, including NBA Fastbreak (a nightly wrap-up of NBA games), NBA Coast to Coast (a Tuesday night whip-around show, including live cut-ins to games) and NBA Matchup (a Sunday morning review of the week's NBA games).

[edit] Ratings

ESPN's highest rated NBA game was Game 5 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons. The game scored a 5.5 cable Nielsen rating, with nearly five million viewers. To put that in context, Monday Night Football on ESPN has posted ratings of 9+ in two of its first three telecasts. ESPN's highest rated regular season contest was the first matchup between Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming. The game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets scored a 3.82 cable Nielsen rating.

Generally, ESPN's regular season ratings are the same as competitor TNT's. During the playoffs, TNT has higher ratings, especially during the Conference Finals (from 2003 to 2005, TNT's Conference Final ratings were at least a full ratings point higher than ESPN's: 4.6 to 2.8 in 2003, 6.3 to 3.8 in 2004 and 5.0 to 4.0 in 2005). In 2006, for the first time ever, ESPN's Conference Final coverage averaged higher ratings than TNT's, averaging a 4.8 to TNT's 4.6.

[edit] See also

• NBA Friday Coast to Coast
• NBA Wednesday
• NBA Sunday
• NBA Shootaround
• NBA Fastbreak
• NBA Coast to Coast

[edit] References