Tag: NBA on ESPN

The new NBA Christmas Jingle Hoops commercial is here and is lovely

The animated version is so fun!

The NBA is promoting its slate of games on Christmas Day by remixing a classic commercial, Jingle Hoops, from over a decade ago.

It was 2013 when the original version of this ad debuted and it is just as amazing now as it was then. While it featured those terrible t-shirt jerseys that fortunately didn’t last in the NBA, it remains a classic core memory from that era of basketball.

The original ad featured Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Steve Nash shooting to the tune of Jingle Bells before LeBron James dunked. It rocked.

RELATED: The NBA Christmas ‘Jingle Hoops’ ad from 2013 is still the best holiday treat

Meanwhile, the new version still features Durant and Curry with appearances by LeBron.

But it also features Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic as the new shooters.

Victor Wembanyama also appears, as do: Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, and Tyrese Maxey. We also get an apparance from Nikola Jokic, who is riding a sleigh like a horse chariot.

NBA on ABC’s Mike Breen and ESPN’s Malika Andrews have brief cameos as well.

The animated version of this ad is just as fun as the original in many ways!

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Shaq reportedly does not have a contract for Inside the NBA before its big ESPN syndication

Would this show even work without Shaq?

Now that we know Inside the NBA will air on ESPN, the good news is that the iconic TV program will continue beyond just this season.

There is still a lot we do not know, however, and that includes whether or not Shaquille O’Neal is part of the team. While there was some talk that Charles Barkley would retire from sports media at the end of the 2024-25 season, he has since change his mind and will return to Turner Sports.

Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith will also remain with the network and will continue the show during its migration to ESPN. But as for Shaq, his future is actually uncertain.

Here is more from Jimmy Traina (via Sports Illustrated):

“Sources say O’Neal’s contract with WBD expires on July 1, 2025.

O’Neal has a slightly different deal than his three castmates because they do other things for WBD, including the NCAA tournament. Shaq’s deal is strictly for the NBA and it’s up in about eight months.

While sources say Shaq wants to remain on the show, he’s frustrated that there has been congratulations and press releases hyping that Inside the NBA is remaining the same while he is currently not under contract to be with the company next season.”

The show would simply not be the same without Shaq, whose chemistry especially with Barkley is unparalleled.

Shaq still has plenty of time to strike a deal with either Warner Brothers Discovery, ESPN, Amazon, or NBC before next season begins.

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Fans think JJ Redick should coach NBA Summer League for the Lakers and they’re absolutely right

JJ Redick should gain as much experience as he can!

After a surprisingly long pursuit, JJ Redick will reportedly become the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

While he was long coveted for the position, Redick will join the organization without any prior head coaching experience in the NBA. He also doesn’t have a previous background as an assistant coach or as a head coach at other levels of basketball beyond his son’s youth league.

It is entirely possible that Redick, who had a long career in the league as a player and is now considered one of the sharpest minds in hoops media, may exceed expectations.

But his inexperience naturally leads to some skepticism about how he will do in his first role like this one, which is why some fans believe he should ramp up into the position by coaching the Lakers during NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

Last season, before first-time Adrian Griffin took over for as the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, he and his coaching staff got their feet wet in Las Vegas. While his tenure with the organization was ill-fated, it was still a wise move.

Steve Kerr, another former player who did not have any head coaching experience before he was hired, also coached the Warriors in NBA Summer League before his first official game with Golden State in 2014.

The previous season, Jason Kidd also made his head coaching debut during NBA Summer League for the Brooklyn Nets.

Redick should consider doing the same thing so he can have as many reps as possible before eventually stepping on the sidelines for his first game.

Fans and analysts shared their thoughts

 

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Doris Burke evoked recent Caitlin Clark discourse during a Mavericks foul in the NBA Finals

ESPN’s Doris Burke knew exactly what she was doing with this call.

After a hard foul on Kristaps Porzingis during Game 5 of the NBA Finals, ESPN’s Doris Burke made a spot-on observation.

Porzingis, who has played limited action during the series for Boston due to multiple injuries, hit the floor after he was met with overly physical defense from Dallas forward P.J. Washington.

You can watch the sequence as it unfolded below, but it didn’t look fun for Porzingis and he seemed reasonably and expectedly upset afterward:

As the broadcast showed a replay of the events, though, Burke noted that such a foul probably would have caused a week-long debate had it happened to WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark.

Recent fouls on Clark have, unfortunately, stirred far too many debates in the basketball world.

You can listen to Burke’s call, which was just so perfectly on the nose:

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Karl-Anthony Towns’ knee injury made Shams and Woj disagree about how much time he’ll miss

Reporters dramatically disagree about how long KAT will miss with his injury.

Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns has reportedly suffered a left meniscus injury, which is awful news for the big man.

Towns was named a Western Conference All-Star this season after he missed a large chunk of the last season due to injury. He has played an integral role on the Timberwolves, currently tied for the best record in the West and the second-best record in the NBA.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Towns was diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee. Charania reported that the Minnesota star is out indefinitely.

Charania then reported that Towns “has been gathering second opinions on the injury” over the past 24 hours.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, meanwhile, it “remains unclear” how much time Towns will miss due to the meniscus injury. In fact, per Woj, we don’t yet know if the Timberwolves star will miss any time at all.

Here is more from Woj (via ESPN):

“Karl-Anthony Towns has suffered a left meniscus injury, and doctors are evaluating whether that will require the Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star to miss a significant period of time, sources told ESPN on Thursday morning.

Towns is undergoing further evaluation to determine whether an immediate procedure is required, or whether there are rehab options that could return him to Minnesota’s lineup in the more immediate future, sources said.

A decision is expected soon, sources said.”

So to summarize, Charania’s reporting is that Towns is out indefinitely while Wojnarowski’s reporting is that the big could return in the “more immediate future” for the Timberwolves.

That is a bit confusing, of course, because Wojnarowski and Charania are considered the two most trusted basketball news-breakers in the industry.

The two reporters were also formerly coworkers at Yahoo Sports, where Woj was a mentor for Shams before the two became rivals. So it is especially interesting to see these two end up with such wildly different reports about how much time Towns will miss.

In reality, doctors have likely not yet determined the right treatment plan for the former No. 1 overall pick. But until then, this is a wildly important update for Minnesota’s title hopes.

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NBA fans were baffled when CNN Sports (of all outlets) reported that the Bucks hired Doc Rivers

This whole saga is incredibly bizarre!

After the Milwaukee Bucks suddenly fired head coach Adrian Griffin, NBA champion Doc Rivers emerged as a leading candidate to replace him.

Despite the winning record in Milwaukee, Griffin’s departure wasn’t exactly shocking. Rivers, who was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers until last season, makes plenty of sense as his successor. Rivers was already serving as an “informal consultant” for the team, per The Athletic.

What baffled everyone, however, is that the first outlet credited with breaking the news was CNN Sports. Even though CNN is a trusted news outlet, it isn’t a desk known for its sports department.

So what exactly happened here? How did basketball insiders like Adrian Wojnarowski (currently Rivers’ colleague at ESPN) and Shams Charania get scooped by an outlet that doesn’t have much of a sports presence?

During a broadcast of NBA on TNT, host Adam Lefkoe relayed that CNN Sports was reporting that Doc Rivers was accepting the head coaching gig with Milwaukee.

Jamal Crawford, the longtime NBA player who is now an analyst on the show, immediately asked Lefkoe to confirm that the outlet was indeed CNN. How is this possible? Others had the same question. Here is more from Awful Announcing:

“This Doc Rivers report is the first time CNN Sports has been mentioned as a thing in literally decades. CNN Sports Tonight, the highlight show alternative to SportsCenter from Turner, hasn’t aired since 2001. CNN was linked with the Sports Illustrated brand before the platform was taken over by Bleacher Report sports content in 2013. In fact, all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports branding had transitioned to Bleacher Report in the last several years before it literally just rebranded to TNT Sports earlier this month.”

A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports later reported, however, that the news was fully vetted by CNN before it was passed along to TNT.

It is important to note that CNN and TNT are both owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. But at the time of the broadcast, there was nothing on the CNN Sports website that mentioned Rivers.

Perez was told this was likely due to CNN’s coverage of the GOP primary in New Hampshire.

As noted on Twitter/X by New York Times reporter Kevin Draper, a CNN Sports correspondent named Coy Wire appeared on NBA TV (also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) to confirm that Rivers was hired by Milwaukee.

Draper added that he was also told by a CNN spokesperson that all of the reporting went through their “editorial process” at the network.

Later in the night, CNN Sports eventually published a story that credited “a source with knowledge of the conversations” but the reporting had no byline.

But this was far from the end of the story and the confusion continued.

Chris Haynes, who is widely considered the network’s top basketball insider and news breaker at NBA on TNT and Bleacher Report (which is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) refuted the report.

He claimed there is “no agreement” yet in place for Rivers to take over as the head coach of the Bucks. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports also reported that there is no agreement in place.

So what exactly happened here? Was this a giant miscommunication or was CNN Sports the first publication to break this news? Basketball fans had a lot of questions.

Charles Barkley made NBA on TNT’s crossover coverage with ESPN as chaotic as you imagined

This was always going to be wild.

ESPN and TNT collaborated on coverage for the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament, which produced exactly as much chaos as you’d expect.

It was a huge meeting of the minds between ESPN’s NBA team and TNT’s beloved Inside the NBA crew. That is a lot of strong personalities on one screen. But it was Charles Barkley who immediately took over control of the broadcast.

The former NBA big man complimented ESPN’s Malika Andrews and said that Mike Wilbon was his mentor and friend. He also added that he “loved” former Warriors executive Bob Myers. But then it got unhinged.

WARNING: The following clip contains language not safe for work.

But he had some sharp words for ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

Barkley warned Smith that if he came over being loud during the broadcast, it wouldn’t be First Take. Instead, he said that it would be the first [expleitive] whooping that he takes.

Shaquille O’Neal then asked the question everyone watching was wondering: Are you not entertained?!

He then came over to torment ESPN’s Smith for a bit as well with a prank of his own.

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ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has no plans to tweet picks during the NBA Draft. Should we believe him?

Should we believe Woj? Or will he actually tweet out the picks?

If you don’t like having draft picks spoiled for you, we have great news.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski says that he isn’t going to spoil picks on Twitter this year. Now, the only question is whether or not we should actually believe him.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the league insider suggested he would not spoil the results of the 2023 NBA Draft.

Who could forget when Woj found a silly loophole and used all sorts of synonyms in the 2018 NBA Draft? The following year, in 2019, he just said “focused on” but he tried a more creative approach again during the 2020 NBA Draft.

Now, however, it sounds like Woj may actually not tweet out the results of the 2023 NBA Draft before it happens on TV. At least that is what he told The Ringer podcaster Ryen Russillo.

Here is more from Woj (via The Ringer):

“Going from Yahoo to ESPN and sort of seeing what the responsibility is on the broadcast and feeling like I need to be more fully engaged in the show … I’m not doing the picks this year … But the pick-by-pick, I don’t think it has value anymore for me or for ESPN.”

Woj says he will focus on breaking any trades that happen and provide “more storytelling” on the TV broadcast. This is good news for basketball fans.

Remember: Last year, fans were very upset at Woj for spoiling draft picks hours before the event even started. My colleague, Prince Grimes, opined about how frustrating it is when picks are tipped on Twitter.

“The reality is that drafts exist. And as they are, they can sometimes make for decent television – which is why they’ll probably always be here.

But you know what ruins that television product? When you already know what’s going to happen. And that’s my most immediate issue with the NBA Draft. When the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets make picks 1, 2 and 3 tonight, there will be little to no suspense. We already know what’s going to happen thanks to Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA insider for the network that broadcasts the draft.”

As it turned out, however, Woj was actually wrong about two of the first three picks he projected and bettors lost their minds.

Unfortunately, however, there is no way that all reporters agree to this same embargo. We can almost definitely expect the likes of Shams Charania, Chris Haynes, Jake Fischer and others to try to get their scoops out on draft night.

Is it possible for Woj to see Charania and Haynes and Fischer breaking news and resist joining the party himself? We will find out on June 22.

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A mic’d up Bam Adebayo sure seemed upset at someone during his walk-off interview after Game 2 win

Adebayo was NOT happy.

Bam Adebayo had a dominant performance in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, leading the Heat to a victory over the Nuggets.

Adebayo finished the game with 21 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks (although one was potentially goaltending) and he was massively helpful to secure the win.

Following the game, Adebayo spoke with ESPN’s Lisa Salters about his performance. It was a standard walk-off interview from someone who just evened the win count in a championship series.

After the conversation with Salters, however, the broadcast also captured an exchange in which Adebayo was very frustrated with someone.

(WARNING: These videos contain some language not safe for work.)

ABC’s broadcast only picked up some of the audio, though it was obvious he wasn’t happy.

An alternate telecast, however, more clearly picked up what the big man said.

It was not one hundred percent clear what Adebayo said, but it seemed like it went something like this:

STAFFER: I’m sorry that you had to do two and Jimmy [indecipherable].

ADEBAYO: Bro, what did I tell you about that, bro? What? Bro? Stop doing that [expletive], bro.

STAFFER: It’s my fault. It’s my fault.

ADEBAYO: You’re good.

STAFFER: It’s not Michael’s fault. It’s not Michael’s fault. It’s my fault.

ADEBAYO: Stop doing that [expletive], man.

While we do not know exactly what happened, the most likely scenario is that after Adebayo was asked to do his walk-off interview with Salters, he was then asked to do another interview hit.

Adebayo, perhaps, only wanted to do one of the interviews. Because the staffer mentioned Jimmy Butler, perhaps Butler was originally supposed to do the other media availability but left beforehand.

Regardless of what caused the confusion, it was likely resolved fast because Adebayo appeared much happier during his postgame press conference while discussing his teammate Gabe Vincent.

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NBA fans are missing the giant trophy logo decal at center court and a special ESPN scoreboard

When fans are watching the NBA Finals, they want it to feel different.

When fans are watching the NBA Finals, they want it to feel special.

While the competition between the Nuggets and the Heat is phenomenal, some basketball fans are left unfulfilled by some elements of the production value. Whether it is the court itself or the broadcast on ABC, there are just a few elements that we used to have that we no longer see.

Beginning in 1992, the arena floors featured the cursive NBA Finals logo and/or the Larry O’Brien Trophy to illustrate the significance of the event. This was a simple aesthetic decision, but it creates iconic images during the games like the ones you can see below:

The NCAA stopped using decals on the court in 2012, citing safety issues after some players slipped on the inconsistent parts of the floor.

As we wrote a few years ago, the NBA made the same decision in 2014. An NBA spokesman explained why (via The Cauldron):

“We decided to remove the playoffs logo from the court for a variety of reasons, including cleaning up the playing surface … Throughout the postseason, the logo will appear on pole pads and seat backs, and on digital LED stanchions and courtside signage. With this added exposure for playoffs branding, we determined the logos on the court were unnecessary.”

Several notable college coaches complained about the intrusive stickers, so while disappointing for some fans who miss seeing the trophy, this decision was understandable.

Although the league moved away from the boring NBA Finals logo they introduced in 2020 back to the throwback script font, it just doesn’t feel as special when it’s superimposed on your screen YouTubeTV as the presenting sponsor.

But it isn’t just the on-court decals that are missing from the product. Some fans feel that the broadcast on ABC/ESPN is also missing the fun pomp and circumstance.

Not that long ago, the team logos used to turn gold on the broadcast scoring bug during the NBA Finals. Now, we are getting the same theme music and scoreboard from the regular season.

It isn’t just basketball fans who are expecting to see more, though. Players, like Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, have voiced their frustration as well.