The 2025 NBA Finals are just beginning to take shape and hit a stride. The series is completely up for grabs with two lightning-fast, exciting, new-wave, young teams battling it out for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. These are, indeed, the small market NBA Finals. Both the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder have been constructed with shrewd trades, keen drafting, and smart usage of money. These Finals prove that you do not have to have the words Boston, Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago in front of your team name to be successful.
Almost since the 2024–25 NBA season began, sports talk shows have been droning on incessantly about the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, and in the case of Stephen A. Smith, the New York Knicks. Funny, I don’t see any of those teams playing into June right now. No sir, these NBA Finals are about a group effort. It’s not LeBron James hanging up a 40-burger and hoping that everyone else will do their share. It’s not the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown show leading the Celtics to a title last year, and it certainly is not about the reincarnation of any fabled Big Three.
In short, the Pacers–Thunder Finals are about teamwork. The same can be said for ABC’s NBA Countdown pregame show talent. For the Finals, the network has put together a lineup of basketball perspectives and résumés emanating from different areas of the game. The likes of Malika Andrews, Kendrick Perkins, Shams Charania, Smith, and Bob Myers could not be more different, but their varied skills and backgrounds meld nicely to give viewers a wide-ranging look at this, the most intriguing championship matchup.
Every Talent Plays Their Role Accurately
When you have big talents with even bigger personalities like Smith and Perkins, it takes a skilled host to maintain balance and give everyone a chance to speak. Malika Andrews is that skilled host. Her subdued, professional, and “show first—me second” approach brings credibility and just the right dose of enthusiasm to the proceedings. Andrews is really good at what she does and continues to grow into one of the best studio hosts not only in sports, but across the television landscape. She is also a terrific interviewer and has become one of the foundation talents at ESPN.
If Andrews is the glue that holds NBA Countdown together, then Kendrick Perkins is the absolute nail gun. Like Andrews, Perkins has honed his broadcasting craft and is slowly learning when to interject his brand of basketball bombast and when to chill. Perkins is a giant of a man and possesses an even more gigantic presence. Whether he is dissecting the clutch play of Tyrese Haliburton or sharing real talk about where league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rates among the game’s greats, Perkins can take it and dish it out with the best of them.
When ESPN’s famed NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski, aka “Woj,” left the network in 2024, the question loomed as to who would become the network’s next hoops version of football reporting ace Adam Schefter. The answer became clear almost instantaneously: Shams Charania. I’m pretty sure that before he left Bristol, Wojnarowski might have shared at least a smidge of his contact list with Charania, but make no mistake—this dude stands alone on his own merit.
Charania is Woj 2.0—an absolute nonstop fountain of information, intelligence, and insight. Wojnarowski set the standard for hardcourt journalistic chops, and with Charania now in full force, the ESPN information flow has not missed a beat. Charania is progressive, aggressive, and impressive. I love the way he mixes his scoops and reports into the flow of the conversation. His studio mates don’t have to break free from the subject at hand in order for Charania to do his thing. ESPN is home to the two best sports reporters in the business in Charania and Schefter—guys who break stories like the late Darryl Dawkins used to break backboards.
Stephen A. Smith also knows a thing or two about breaking stories. He also breaks ratings records as the face of ESPN’s wildly popular daily debate program First Take. There are few people who don’t have an opinion on the number one star at ESPN and, really, across a multimedia landscape. Smith has become so huge that there is actual conversation about him running for president in 2028, and it is not all in jest.
Still, beyond all the fame and fanfare, Stephen A. Smith is really all about heart—and his heart is with NBA basketball. His over-the-top affinity for the perennially disappointing New York Knicks aside, there are few commentators who are more intrinsically woven into basketball than Smith. He loves the game, breaks down the game, and is unafraid to voice his views on the game. Smith is a key part of NBA Countdown because he understands what a TV group discussion is all about. He never holds back and moves from subject to subject with grit, power, and boisterous opinions.
The Addition From The Front Office
Perhaps the most intriguing member of the NBA Countdown studio crew is former Golden State Warriors president and general manager Bob Myers. To be honest, I have never been a fan of executives moving to television. I put them in the same category as ex-referees turned TV apologists for their fellow officials. Honestly, I really did not care what a GM or player personnel executive thought about the game. I’d rather watch and listen to an ex-coach or player who has been on the court and in the action.
Myers is unique, however. His commentary goes beyond the draft room, contract negotiations, and player signings. He actually talks ball. Myers earned his bones as one of the lead architects of the Golden State Warriors’ championship bonanza over the last decade-plus, and with money and player movement being such a huge part of today’s NBA, I understand why he got the ESPN/ABC gig. I will say this—he has grown on me as the season has progressed. I especially like the way Myers comes right back at Perkins and Smith and engages in a full-on debate. These NBA Finals have given Myers a great platform, as both the Thunder and Pacers have been built through shrewd front office decisions.
Their successes have not just been about spending the most money or signing the biggest-name players. Both OKC GM Sam Presti and Indy’s GM Chad Buchanan have been meticulous in building a roster with players who complement each other. That is largely how Myers constructed the Warriors into one of the greatest teams of all time.
This NBA Countdown team is the perfect cluster to cover this dynamic NBA Finals matchup—whether it is Andrews moving the conversation from topic to topic, Perkins falling back on his own NBA Finals experience, Charania providing more scoops than Häagen-Dazs, Smith with his emotional and raw takes on player performance, or Myers offering his unique team-building perspective. The Pacers and Thunder may come from small markets, but ABC is providing big-time talent.
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John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
