Report: ESPN demoting Doris Burke from NBA Finals' broadcast team

ESPN’s Doris Burke had been on the broadcasting team that called the NBA Finals for the past two years. She’s now reportedly been replaced on that call, though, by another NBA analyst with the network.

On Thursday, Andrew Marchand at The Athletic reported that Burke has been demoted from the top broadcasting team for the NBA at ESPN. That’s now led to Tim Legler taking her place alongside Mike Breen as play-by-play and Richard Jefferson as the color commentator.

“NEWS: ESPN is demoting Hall of Famer Doris Burke off its NBA Finals team and promoting Tim Legler, The Athletic has learned,” Marchand posted this morning.

Still, Burke, the first woman to be an in-game analyst for one of the four major sports’ championship events, is to remain with the network, with discussions for an extension soon. Marchand noted that it’ll likely be with another broadcasting setup than with their top team on the call.

“ESPN declined to comment,” Marchand wrote at The Athletic. “ESPN is discussing a contract extension with Burke, whose contract ends after this upcoming season. She could likely end up on ESPN’s No. 2 broadcast team.”

This is the most recent change to the network’s top broadcast team for the NBA. Since the firings of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, Burke moved up alongside Breen and a seat that has been filled by Doc Rivers, before his hiring as head coach by the Milwaukee Bucks, and then JJ Redick since his hiring as head coach by the Los Angeles Lakers, and Jefferson most recently.

Burke has been covering basketball, both college and professional, for ESPN since 1991. In her three and a half decades there, she has worked her way up through broadcasting in the NBA, becoming the first woman to be an in-game analyst in 2017 and working up to being a sideline reporter for nine years, a radio analyst by 2020, and eventually an in-game analyst for the NBA Finals since 2024.

Legler has been with ESPN since his career playing in the NBA ended in 2000. He played 11 years professionally with a decade of that being in the association, with the Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, and Washington Bullets/Washington Wizards.

Legler posted 7.0 points (44.7% FG, 43.1% 3PT), 1.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game as a Top 10 player in league history in three-point percentage. In his quarter-century at ESPN, Legler has regularly appeared on daily programming as well as being an in-game analyst, whether on radio or broadcasts for the NBA.