Doris Burke is a basketball media icon and a role model to many female broadcasters. The ESPN analyst talked to FOS about her teammates on the network’s No. 1 NBA team, the coming playoffs, and why she left social media. —Ryan Glasspiegel and Michael McCarthy |
|---|
Doris Burke on ESPN Chemistry, Upcoming Playoffs Allen Kee / ESPN Images With the NBA play-in tournament tipping off Wednesday night and the playoffs starting Saturday, ESPN NBA color commentator Doris Burke joined Front Office Sports for a candid conversation about what it’s like to be on ESPN’s top announcing team, why she left social media, and her thoughts on the upcoming postseason. This interview has been slightly edited for clarity. Front Office Sports: With Richard Jefferson joining the top NBA booth, he’s now the third analyst in two years on your team after Doc Rivers and JJ Redick left for coaching jobs. How would you compare and contrast the three? Doris Burke: I think RJ and JJ are similar in maybe the two most important ways. First and foremost, they are both so passionate about this league. Both experienced long careers and played a variety of different roles on different teams. That experience is the first thing that bubbles up. But their passion for the NBA is exactly the same. They are both also incredible teammates. In a three-person booth, you don’t have the space to probably make every point you hope to make. Three people have to do their job, and the broadcast has to breathe a little bit. So, you have to be able to dial back and try to just get to the things you believe are most important. But I love, love, love working with both—and Doc—because of their passion and teammate skills. What I find so fascinating about Richard is he has, more so than JJ and I, this very natural understanding that TV broadcasting is an entertainment medium. I don’t even know how to describe why I think that. I can tell you one moment in particular that drives the point home for me: We were coming out of a halftime break and Mike does the usual of bringing us back with a scene, and then the camera comes, and Richard just winks at the camera! Mike Breen being Mike Breen, picks it up immediately, and you can hear the laugh in his voice when he asks, “Why are you winking in the camera?” So I don’t know, there’s just this very innate ability that Richard has, whether it’s the inflection in his voice, mannerism—he is a more natural broadcaster than JJ and me. FOS: Mike Breen is an immaculate broadcaster. Do you marvel about that when you’re sitting next to him? DB: We were in Dallas for what was a very big, emotional game [with the return of Luka Dončić]. Mike had to set the tone at the start of the telecast. All I know is we went to break, and I literally leaped out to him and said, “You are a blank-blank badass.” I got chills. He perfectly captured the moment. He spoke to the images and brought those to life. That guy is an absolute master of his craft. There are just certain people you sit next to and you are better because you sit next to them, and Mike Breen is that guy. To read about how Doris Burke feels when women in sports tell her she’s a trailblazer and why she left social media, you can check out Ryan Glasspiegel’s full story here. |
|---|
EVENT Like what you see? Join us Sept. 16 in New York City as we bring this newsletter to life for a day full of conversations with the biggest newsmakers in sports media. Learn more and get your tickethere. |
|---|
Golf’s Other Majors Should Emulate Masters No-Phone Policy Kyle Terada-Imagn Images Golf’s three other major championships can’t equal the beauty of Augusta National Golf Club or the mystique of the Green Jacket. But they can borrow something from The Masters that might improve their television coverage: Augusta’s strict ban on cellphones. Watching CBS Sports’s and ESPN’s tournament coverage for four straight days, I was struck by the impact of the club’s no-phone policy on spectators (oops, “patrons,” in the club’s arcane jargon). They were living in the moment, soaking up the atmosphere, enthusiastically relating to players and one another. They were fully engaged with the golf, rather than answering texts or emails. It created an electric atmosphere. That translated like a current through the TV screen. The story of Masters Sunday was Rory McIlroy’s quest to capture his first Green Jacket and complete the final leg of a career Grand Slam. As I watched the CBS coverage, there were no background shots of distracted fans checking notifications or posing for silly selfies. When the Northern Irishman dropped to his knees after sinking the winning putt, the crowd surged skyward—and roared as one. After calling the winning putt, Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman went silent for four minutes. They let the pictures of an emotionally exhausted McIlroy—and the crowd basking in his victory—tell the story for viewers back home. Another small, but telling, TV moment came when Nantz alerted on-air partner Immelman to watch the reaction of fans to McIlroy’s score being updated, by hand, on a wooden scoreboard. “Watch this, Trev. Watch this reaction,” said an excited Nantz. As the crowd went bananas around the old-fashioned scoreboard, I felt like I was stepping back into the 1960s, when “Arnie’s Army” cheered on Arnold Palmer. Or the roars as Jack Nicklaus defeated Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf in 1975. Some players loved the phone restrictions. Former Master champ Jordan Spieth noted it creates an “amazing” atmosphere for players and fans: “You feel like everyone is very, very present.” You can read Michael McCarthy’s full column on the value of banning phones from majors—and Caitlin Clark’s thoughts on what it added to the atmosphere—here. |
|---|
One Big Fig Colin Salao 12.99 million That was the average audience for CBS Sports’s coverage of Rory McIlroy’s sudden-death victory in the final round of the 2025 Masters Tournament. That was up 35% from 9.59 million for Scottie Scheffler’s drama-free win last year. The audience peaked at 19.9 million viewers from 7 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. ET. McIlroy’s first Masters win generated the most-watched golf telecast on any network in seven years. |
|---|
ESPN Will Broadcast, Stream 10 Savannah Bananas Games This Summer Savannah Morning News When Savannah Bananas founder Jesse Cole refers to the team’s events, he calls them “shows” as opposed to “games.” This summer, the show will be on the road for games in huge stadiums, and ten of them will air live on ESPN and Disney’s linear TV and streaming platforms. Two will be on ESPN, eight will be on ESPN2, and all ten will stream on ESPN+ and Disney+, the network announced Monday. ESPN has worked with the Bananas for several years, starting with the Bananaland docuseries and continuing with a smattering of games in the last couple of years. This summer will feature the most expansive package yet, as the barnstorming baseball-adjacent squad embarks on a tour that will include a sold-out extravaganza at Clemson’s football stadium with more than 80,000 fans on April 26 and two nights at the Panthers’ stadium in Charlotte with more than 150,000 fans combined. It’s a serendipitous partnership for Cole, who cites Walt Disney as an inspiration for his decision to take a considerable financial risk in launching the team in 2016 and the innovations the franchise has deployed to become a social media dynamo and woo hordes of young families to the events. “Where Walt Disney sat at a bench in Griffith Park with his two daughters on the carousel and said, ‘I wish there was a place where adults and kids could have fun together,’ I had a similar mindset when I was sitting and coaching in the Cape Cod League,” Cole told Front Office Sports. “I remembered how much fun it was playing, but it wasn’t as fun watching. I thought, ‘Well, what if people that love baseball can come out and have fun just for the entertainment?’ I put myself in fans’ shoes: Even if I didn’t love baseball, could I love coming to the ballpark to experience a show?” “We expect to have success both on live games, but also in a broader sense whether that’s via social, or Disney and ESPN synergy opportunities, and audience expansion with younger and female viewers,” ESPN VP of programming and content strategy Brent Colborne told FOS. “It’s truly innovative what they’re doing. We look at ESPN and Disney as innovative companies, and we want to be alongside for the ride on that.” The top Bananas game that ESPN aired last year drew 460,000 viewers, and other games, as Colborne alluded to, have drawn a higher percentage of young and female fans than typical events on the network. For more on the appeal of the barnstorming Bananas and what drew ESPN to them, you can read Ryan Glasspiegel’s full story here. |
|---|
Around the Dial Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
|
|---|
Loud and Clear Imagn Images “My life was ruined, and he went to the Hall of Fame.” —Former Jets team host Jenn Sterger recalling how Brett Favre harassed her during the 2008 season in the upcoming Netflix/Front Office Sports documentary, The Fall of Favre. You can read Michael McCarthy’s full review of the doc here. |
|---|
Question of the DayShould other golf majors copy the no-phone policy employed by The Masters? Yes No Friday’s result: 71% of respondents said golfers were doing their sport a disservice when neglecting to speak after rounds. |
|---|
Edited by Or Moyal, Catherine Chen If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here. Copyright © 2025 Front Office Sports. All rights reserved. |
|---|
Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletters
