The NBA Draft is set to take place this Thursday, June 22, and will be available for consumers to watch on ESPN, ABC and additional ESPN digital platforms. The consensus No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembaynama should draw interest and subsequently garner high ratings, but there is a preponderance of enticing talents on the board thereafter and a potential flurry of transactions during the event.
Just one week after the conclusion of the NBA Finals, the network will utilize two of its NBA Countdown crew members – Stephen A. Smith and Adrian Wojnarowski – across the coverage, along with basketball analyst JJ Redick and reporters Andraya Carter and Monica McNutt. ESPN Radio will also have coverage of the draft from Barclays Center featuring Marc Kestecher, P.J. Carlesimo and Cory Alexander on the air, and an edition of The Hoop Collective featuring Brian Windhorst.
Jay Bilas will be on the desk for the 21st time for ESPN. He will be an important part of the NBA Draft on ESPN and sit alongside reporter and host Malika Andrews to offer his perspectives on the draftees on Thursday night.
“We always do the very best we can to not only tell you about what the player can and can’t do and where the player projects,” Bilas said, “but [also give] our best judgments as to the fit in the NBA with a particular team and the player’s value and then background information on the player. So many of these players now are younger, and certainly younger than they used to be coming into the process.”
There are many different roads to the NBA, with more and more players deviating from the typical path of playing NCAA college basketball. Instead, the NBA G-League has a developmental basketball team called G-League Ignite, and Overtime launched an amateur league of its own for prospects between the ages of 16 and 20 years old.
“There’s a little bit more [of], ‘Maybe some fans don’t know them as well as we do,’” Bilas said of the current landscape, “so we try to give them a preview of the up-and-coming attractions once they get to the NBA.”
Foreign-born athletes including Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić have left an indelible mark on the league, and Wembanyama is projected to do similarly if everything plays out correctly. Similarly enough in the dichotomy, there are players born in the United States who have fallen drastically short of expectations, including Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and R.J. Barrett, although they had received considerable media attention and associated hype. There has been conversation of late regarding revamping the NBA All-Star Game format to have players from the United States face off against others from around the world, drawing intrigue from fans and media personalities alike. Yet Bilas wants consumers to be aware of the influx of athletes deriving from other countries and willing to recognize that the United States does not own the game of basketball per se.
“I think it’s to be expected that you have great talent coming in internationally,” Bilas said. “I don’t necessarily buy into the idea that basketball’s not taught as well or the same just because international prospects are doing really well. I think we should have expected that, but now the game is coached and taught so well globally that international coaches are the equal of American coaches.”
