Earlier in the week, JJ Redick was officially introduced as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in a press conference. Redick was added to the lead NBA on ESPN broadcasting booth following the departure of Doc Rivers during the regular season to become the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Entering the season, Redick was part of another broadcast team with Ryan Ruocco and Richard Jefferson. Burke Magnus, the president of content at ESPN, recently sat for an interview on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast and outlined the situation that took place over the last year.
Magnus acknowledged that it was difficult to let go of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, who had worked alongside Mike Breen to form a trio that called 15 NBA Finals together. Looking back at the decision ESPN made, he believes they revamped the NBA on ESPN team in an innovative manner and had its best studio show in many years. Rivers’ departure, which came after he gave the network a three-year commitment and signed a contract where it was written that he was not going to return to coaching, presented a challenge for ESPN within the year.
“I thought JJ really stepped up and filled in at a very high level,” Magnus said. “By the way, if he ever wants to come back and be a broadcaster after coaching, I think we all know; I think the world knows now that he’s a great basketball mind, and he certainly has a bright future in our world if he ever finds himself in it again.”
ESPN has utilized a three-person broadcast booth for the NBA Finals in every year since 2014; however, it is not a construction towards which the network needs to adhere going forward. While Magnus acknowledged that Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy executed the games at a very high level for a sustained period of time, the network is not necessarily tied to the idea. Magnus conveyed that it depends on the personalities that are involved as it pertains to how many people are involved in the broadcast booth.
“We’re going to look at everything,” Magnus said. “I mean, with the only exception – I’ll give you this breaking news right now – Mike Breen’s not going anywhere, right, so that position is filled and now we have to work, and Mike will have a seat at the table in that conversation too because chemistry is an enormous part of it, so no, we’re not locked into any particular format there.”
The NBA is reportedly formalizing media rights contracts with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal and Amazon’s Prime Video, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal. While no announcement has been made at the moment, the deals are reportedly expected to be worth $76 billion collectively over the term of the agreement. Magnus discussed the NBA on ESPN earlier in the podcast, conveying that the network feels good about its position within the negotiating process.
“Obviously I can’t confirm anything, which probably doesn’t surprise you at all, but I can say that the team has been working really, really diligently over a long period of time at this point, and based on the existing relationship that we have with the NBA over many years and also the current state of it, which I would say is very, very good and strong, positive, productive, great two-way street, great collaboration with Adam and his team,” Magnus said. “We feel relatively confident about our future with the league as they work to finalize everything with all of their partners.”
Magnus stated that he recently read that it has been nearly two months of saying that the deals will be complete in two weeks. As everyone awaits a resolution, there are still questions surrounding the breadth of the matching rights clause within Warner Bros. Discovery’s contract and how it could be used to attempt to potentially keep the NBA intact. ESPN reportedly came to a handshake agreement on a deal during the 90-day exclusive negotiating window for incumbent rightsholders, which, if finalized, would extend its media rights with the league that resumed in 2002.
“I don’t know – it’s no secret they have a lot of things to work out with various facets of the deal, many of which don’t impact or involve us, so I know, or at least I’m confident having spent some time with them at Finals and games and playoff games along the way, that they’re just as anxious as the rest of the world and the industry to finalize this so we all can move on.”
