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Richard Jefferson Will Join ESPN's Top NBA Broadcast Team
ESPN announced on Monday that its new lead NBA analyst will be Richard Jefferson as he officially joins the top broadcast team of Mike Breen and Doris Burke, with Lisa Salters reporting. Jefferson will now help call the 2025 NBA Finals for the first time in his career.
Jefferson has been working with the team this season, even calling the In-Season Tournament with them, but the promotion has now been made official. However, the partnership might not last long as Jefferson's contract with ESPN is up after this season, and he may have interest from Amazon Prime to join their coverage, The Athletic's Andrew Marchand reported.
ESPN has had quite the time looking for a lead analyst ever since Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were laid off in the summer of 2023. The network started the 2023-24 season with Doc Rivers in the role, until Jan. 2024 when he was hired as the Milwaukee Bucks' head coach. JJ Redick replaced Rivers in the role for the rest of that season, but then he was hired as the Los Angeles Lakers' head coach in last June.
Jefferson has worked for ESPN since 2019 shortly after he retired from the NBA in Oct. 2018. He played for 17 seasons, winning an NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
The retired player has appeared on shows such as NBA Today, NBA Countdown and the network's NBA pregame show.
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Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.