Ex-Warriors coach Mark Jackson's ESPN tenure is finally over
Mark Jackson's lengthy stretch calling the NBA Finals is over, according to multiple reports.
This news comes just over one month after the Worldwide Leader laid off numerous on-air personalities, including Jackson's longtime broadcast partner, Jeff Van Gundy.
“ESPN is closing in on” reshuffling its NBA booth and “laying off Mark Jackson,” according to the New York Post.
Jackson went straight back into the broadcast booth in 2014, returning to ESPN's top booth after a rocky run as Warriors coach from 2011 to 2014. On either side of his Warriors tenure, Jackson called the Finals with Van Gundy and Mike Breen from 2007 to 2011 and from 2014 to 2023. He was in the booth for all four of the Warriors' titles after coaching Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for three seasons.
Doris Burke and Doc Rivers are expected to take over Jackson and Van Gundy’s spots on the main broadcast team with Breen, as the Post report outlines. It would be a step up for Burke, who has been a national NBA analyst for the network since 2017. Rivers was fired as the 76ers’ head coach at the end of last season and worked in television in his one year away from coaching in 2003-04.
The Post's Andrew Marchand has a few noteworthy pieces of reporting about the shuffle. The first is that ESPN executives reportedly believed Burke wouldn’t have the same chemistry with Jackson as Van Gundy did — which probably means Burke simply can’t meander into strange stories from her childhood the way Van Gundy could. The other is this: “Unlike Van Gundy, Burke and Rivers are popular at the league offices. The league has always been a fan of Rivers in the broadcast booth.”
Jackson isn’t directly mentioned in that quote, but given that he complained about officiating almost as much as Van Gundy did, he easily could have been.
Moving on from Van Gundy while keeping Jackson seemed baffling at the time. Getting rid of both at least has the potential to create a far more appealing NBA booth.
This developing news story has been updated.
Source: SFGATE
