Doris Burke says she does not struggle to balance a desire to call the NBA Finals as an analyst with the loyalty and friendship she has for ESPN colleagues Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson.
I’ve interviewed Burke many times over the last decade-plus, and I believe her. In the last conversation I had with her for The Athletic, she made it clear that she was satisfied with her career arc.
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“I want you to think about this: If I spent the remainder of my career at ESPN as an NBA analyst, essentially in the third spot behind Hubie Brown, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, how lucky would I have been in my career?” Burke said at the time. “We are talking about three of the best to ever do it. Mark, Jeff and Mike have held down the NBA Finals for over a decade with commentary that is the best of the best. Hubie Brown is a living legend. All of those men have been nothing but gracious and supportive of me. I don’t navigate it. If and when those men decide to go back to coaching, or they decide they want to do something else, ESPN would then say, ‘OK, who do we have in our rotation?’ For 30 years in the business, regardless of what role I have or what game I am calling, I have focused on that game and done the best job with that. To me, it is unseemly to even discuss it.”
That’s a good answer, and at the time we spoke, ESPN’s NBA Finals booth was in a stable place. But that may change. As The Athletic and others have reported, Jackson was a finalist for the Sacramento Kings head coach opening before it ultimately went to Mike Brown. He also, per Shams Charania and Bill Oram, has interviewed with the L.A. Lakers for their head coaching job. Jackson has called games as a broadcaster for ESPN since 2014, but he clearly wants back in as a head coach.
Obviously, Jackson’s potential departure from ESPN would lead to a big staffing decision: Who gets one of the most prominent seats in sports broadcasting? That will likely fall to a combination of Dave Roberts, the head of ESPN’s NBA and studio production; longtime NBA producer Tim Corrigan; and ESPN Executive Editor Norby Williamson. All report, if not directly, to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, who would certainly have an opinion on a product that reaches tens of millions of his viewers.
Sports network executives have to make some challenging choices, but if Jackson leaves, this may be the easiest talent decision in the history of ESPN. Burke checks every box to be one of the analysts on the NBA Finals broadcast — performance, preparation, professionalism, experience, collegiality with colleagues, I could go on. She’s also already doing the functional job (In 2020 Burke became the first woman to serve as a game analyst for the NBA Finals when she provided commentary on ESPN Radio.) Internally, such a move would be well-received given the standing Burke has among ESPN staffers, especially younger women who see her as a pioneer. The current group of Breen, Van Gundy and Corrigan think the world of her. And she’s already vetted by the league as a made broadcaster. While this rarely gets acknowledged, networks will typically not hire someone who a sports league and rightsholder partner does not want. Multiple people at ESPN say Burke has not politicked for any job, and she’s always been deferential to those with longer analyst tenures than hers, including Brown.
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The first time I wrote about Burke was in 2002, as a young reporter at Sports Illustrated filling in on a media column. In the May 13, 2002 issue of SI, along with discussing Fox’s new No. 1 NFL team (Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth) and pondering the price of $54.95 for Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis, here is what I wrote about ESPN’s NBA coverage.
“Over the next few weeks ESPN will assemble its announcing teams for the 2002-03 NBA season, and the usual suspects (Brent Musberger, Marv Albert) will likely be paraded out like Thanksgiving Day floats. Here’s a vote for a name that lacks cachet but not credibility: Doris Burke. The 36-year-old ESPN hoops analyst and play-by-play voice for the WNBA’s New York Liberty is a superbly prepared broadcaster blessed with an innate feel for the game. In February 2000 she shone as an analyst on a Knicks game and has been excellent on both men’s and women’s college basketball telecasts. ESPN would be wise to find room on its roster for her.”
ESPN ultimately did. Now, 20 years to the month later, Burke is one job away from the ultimate step in her career. If Jackson leaves for the NBA, she should be sitting next to Breen and Van Gundy calling the NBA Finals. A no-brainer.
The Ink Report
1 . On her flight back from Louisville to the New York City area on Sunday afternoon, Lindsay Schanzer finally had a chance to reflect on one of the most memorable sporting events in recent history. In her debut as the lead producer of the Kentucky Derby — the first time a woman had the lead producer role in the broadcast history of the event — Rich Strike, the second-longest odds of any Derby winner in history and the longest since Donerail won at 91-1 in 1913, pulled off a horse racing miracle. An 80-1 shot, Rich Strike flew past race favorite Epicenter to win the 148th Running of the Kentucky Derby. Frontrunners have mostly won the Derby over the last decade, and it had been a long time since viewers saw a horse come from deep in the pack to win the race.
“It was barely on my radar that this could even happen,” Schanzer said. “It was so far from how I expected the day to play out, and yet it’s exactly what I would have wanted if I could have handpicked it in advance. It was pure joy when the horse crossed the wire, and a dream story to be able to tell the millions of people watching. I’m so grateful to have been a part of what will inevitably be one of the most memorable Kentucky Derbies in history, and so incredibly proud to have shared it with a team that is second to none.”
I caught up with Schanzer on Sunday to ask her what it was like being in the production truck for the event.
As specific as you can, how would you describe the production truck when Rich Strike hit the line?
Schanzer: Well, it really started before the line as Rich Strike was making his final push up the inside. There was a palpable sense of energy building as this horse came on. You think it’s a two-horse race, and then all of a sudden, a flash of red is in the picture. All the while, [racecaller] Larry Collmus’ call is blaring through the truck speakers, and it’s just a perfect manifestation of how I think we were all feeling in that moment – shocked and absolutely thrilled. Our director, Drew Esocoff, and I are looking at each other like ‘oh my goodness ‘– this is insane, in the best way. There were audible expressions of astonishment from all corners of the truck, and a genuine sense of excitement. We could all feel what we were a part of in that moment.
As the lead producer, what needed to be done at that moment?
Before anything else, it was to let the moment play out. It was the time for Drew to capture all of the images in the immediate aftermath, for Mike Tirico to provide the emotion and the context for what had just happened, and for Wendel Stevens (who is responsible for audio) to ride the sounds of the winning jockey who had just made history. That was first. Then it was to answer the question every viewer was asking – where did this horse come from? We had extensive camera coverage from every angle, but it was really from above that did justice to the feat of this horse and this rider. We were able to utilize a dual tracking system on our aerial coverage to follow both Epicenter and Rich Strike from the far turn down the lane, and I think that gave viewers a crystal clear understanding of how he wove through traffic, kicked into a ridiculous gear, and won the race. Finally, it was to meet the emotional connections of this winning team, and get their immediate reactions to what had just happened. I am incredibly proud of how our team reacted to the moment.
It was the longest shot of the race and understandably not much focus during the show. What stands out in pre-show production, if anything, about Rich Strike after the horse was added to the field?
When you have a horse that gets into the field at the last opportunity and he’s not made much of an impact on the road to the Derby, inevitably you spend less time focusing on him. But there is one thing that sticks out on race day. We’re in our final production meeting, where we have about 30 minutes to gather the entire group before we all separate for what will be an extremely long day of coverage. Larry Collmus is going through pronunciations with our whole announce team so that the group is on the same page. Then he takes us through the jockeys. He goes through each one and at the very end he gets to Sonny Leon – a name we’ve barely heard, but it’s the last name we hear as we “break” for the day. Eight hours later, Sonny Leon is inked in the Kentucky Derby history forever.
1a. What a gorgeous aerial shot of the Derby stretch run of Rich Strike.
1b. Thought this was a great Derby feature produced by David Picker on a photograph of two kids found on Claiborne Farms 100 miles away from the kids’ home which was destroyed by a tornado.
2. For anyone who has contemplated leaving their job, Episode 202 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with three women who transitioned from sports media into other businesses — Amy Moritz, a former Buffalo News sportswriter; Amy K. Nelson, a former ESPN and SB Nation writer and on-air commentator; and Kat O’Brien, a former baseball writer for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Newsday. They are followed by T.J. Quinn, an ESPN investigative reporter. In this podcast, Moritz, Nelson and O’Brien discuss transitioning from working in the sports media to other professions; the challenges of that process; where they have found success; what, if anything, they miss most from their previous jobs; how identity plays into working in the sports media; how they view the sports media business today; advice for those in the business who want to leave; and more. Quinn discusses the latest on Britney Griner; what changed with the case; how the WNBA is involved; the challenge of reporting on Griner; the future of women’s basketball abroad; what’s next; and more.
You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and elsewhere.
2a. Larry Collmus will be my podcast guest for an episode that comes out on Tuesday.
3. If I were charged with staffing Sunday Night Baseball, as I wrote here, I would have made Jason Benetti the lead voice of Sunday Night Baseball. (The current SNB crew is good, by the way. I think they have something heading forward). So I was predisposed to liking Peacock’s new Sunday morning Major League Baseball package (MLB Sunday Leadoff) that debuted yesterday (it also aired on NBC for its opening broadcast). NBC paid homage to its baseball roots at the top with an intro from Vin Scully, and followed with a professional production that was eminently watchable. Benetti was joined by analysts Steve Stone and Kevin Youkilis, as Peacock will be using a rotating cast of analysts for each team they air, a smart choice. They got an excellent game too — a 3-2 White Sox win. The broadcast is something I’d want to watch again, and it’s a template for the streaming services on how to approach these broadcasts. The schedule calls for 18 games, with start times for the first six Sunday games at 11:30 a.m. ET and the following 12 Sunday games beginning at Noon ET. Peacock will be the exclusive home of live MLB action until 1:30 p.m. ET on those Sundays, when the remainder of the day’s schedule will begin. Great start.
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3a. The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan wrote about Sinclair’s streaming rate as the latest example of sports viewing’s rising cost.
3b. Per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal: The NFL Draft across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NFL Network averaged 5.2 million viewers over the three days of coverage, down from 6.1 million last year from Cleveland and the lowest audience since 2017. One bright spot: The Saturday afternoon drew 2.8 million viewers, up from 2.7 million last year.
3c. On Sunday Duke forward Paolo Banchero was misidentified as Patrick Mahomes as part of a classic Martin Brundle F-1 grid walk.
4. Sports pieces of note
• Thanks, Mom, for not throwing out my baseball cards. By Steve Stecklow of Reuters.
Non-sports pieces of note
• The Holocaust started with my great-uncle murder’s. By Mattie Khan of The Atlantic.
• The quid pro quos of Gordon D. Sondland. By Dan Zak of Washington Post.
• The Secrets Ed Koch Carried. Matt Flegenheimer and
• Where have all the leaders gone? By Theodore R Johnson of The Bulwark.
• TikTok’s Work Culture: Anxiety, Secrecy and Relentless Pressure. By
• Scooping the Supreme Court. By Jane Mayer of The New Yorker.
• The Class of 2022 Is in Demand. What Do New Grads Want? By Lindsay Ellis of The Wall Street Journal.
• U.S. police trainers with far-right ties are teaching hundreds of cops. By Julia Harte and Alexandra Ulmer of Reuters.
(Top photo: David Dow / NBAE via Getty Images)