The one thing the ESPN folks can’t be is surprised. Disappointed, sure. Caught off guard — I mean, maybe, but even that’s a stretch. Mostly, they’re in scramble mode because what was almost inevitable wound up occurring sooner than they’d hoped.
But this was going to happen, because this is the beast they’ve built.
And for the most part, it is still very much the system they want.
Doc Rivers jumped the network last week after barely half a season as part of ESPN’s No. 1 NBA broadcast team. Rivers is a coach, and a job opened up, and, you know, coaches coach. And, certainly, it wasn’t just any job; it was the Milwaukee Bucks, a team with a very reasonable shot at an NBA Finals appearance this season.
Outside of the ESPN miniverse, it won’t register as a shock that a 24-year head coach with unbridled ambition would bounce on to his next gig, especially one in which a 30-13 team with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dame Lillard on the roster says, “Hey, roll right in.” Rivers would’ve been foolish to pass up an opportunity so rich — and at the risk of restating the obvious, he’s a coach.
We’re to believe that ESPN was surprised and disappointed by this turn of events. But let’s step back just a bit.
The network hired Rivers with eyes wide open; Doc gave absolutely no indication that he was retiring from the coaching profession even as he joined ESPN. According to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, ESPN executives “stressed to (Rivers) that they didn’t want the network to be a waiting room until he took his next coaching job.” Yet they clearly didn’t get that part down on paper, and I’m pretty sure finger-wagging a grown man won’t usually carry the day.
Why would a network with such extensive experience in these matters not require Doc Rivers to agree to a contractual obligation of at least some minimal amount of time in the No. 1 analyst’s chair – say, one full season?
Answer: Because they’ve done really well by this system. For decades.
You can say that coaches use ESPN as a way station between gigs, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But they’re not the only parties to the deal. The network has benefitted tremendously from such high-profile fly-bys and extended stays, whether it be Urban Meyer or David Ross or Mack Brown or Buck Showalter or — really, the list is way longer than we’ve got time for here.
Aaron Boone had a full MLB playing career, transitioned almost immediately to ESPN’s baseball coverage after retiring, and then parlayed years of exposure there into a job managing the Yankees. Being on ESPN raised Boone’s stock immeasurably. But part of the reason his stock rose was that Boone was really good at talking about baseball on TV, and ESPN’s coverage reaped the rewards of that for a long, long time.
It is ironic that when the network blew out top NBA analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson last summer, part of the reported reasoning was that ESPN was wary of the desire of both men to return someday to coaching. The firings were part of a brutal round of layoffs forced by parent company Disney, and the loss of Van Gundy and Jackson tore up ESPN’s No. 1 NBA game-day team, anchored by Mike Breen.
It’s hard to imagine that coaches aren’t welcome at ESPN just because they’re still interested in coaching, so let’s assume the money had a lot to do with all that. Either way, ESPN was rolling the dice that it could create another popular No. 1 NBA crew, even if it couldn’t replicate the unique chemistry among Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy.
Enter Rivers and Doris Burke. And the new group appeared to be clicking, with the sure-handed Breen running the show. But you’ll never convince me that ESPN didn’t still understand what the risks were, and that they were real. They went with Doc Rivers, who since his debut with Orlando in 1999 has held a head-coaching assignment in the league every single year without fail. The man has never stopped being a coach, ever.
ESPN’s folks could have made a different decision. They chose Rivers because they thought he’d deliver the best numbers — better than, say, JJ Redick or Richard Jefferson, two rising stars and talented basketball analysts at the network who still can’t come close to matching Rivers’ glittering profile in the NBA.
Whether one of those two — Redick or Jefferson — winds up joining the No. 1 ESPN crew in time for the NBA Finals is an open question. It would also be novel, and history-making for Burke, to see Breen and Burke simply work that gig as a duo. The network has options.
But don’t assume that Rivers’ quick exit marks the end of an era at ESPN. The network’s execs got burned on this one, but they’ll jump right back into the fire next time and chase down the biggest star power they can wrangle. What can you say? This hiccup aside, it’s good for business.
Mark Kreidler is a national award-winning writer whose work has appeared at ESPN, the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and dozens of other publications. He’s also a sports-talk veteran with stops in San Francisco and Sacramento, and the author of three books, including the bestselling “Four Days to Glory.” More of his writing can be found at https://markkreidler.substack.com. He is also reachable on Twitter @MarkKreidler.
