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ESPN’s Coverage of the Knicks’ Historic Comeback Lived Up to the Moment

The game broadcast, postgame show and “SportsCenter” perfectly captured the insanity of New York’s surreal win.
Jimmy Traina|
The Knicks pulled off a miraculous comeback to beat the Spurs in Game 4, and ESPN rose to the occasion with its coverage of an instant classic.
The Knicks pulled off a miraculous comeback to beat the Spurs in Game 4, and ESPN rose to the occasion with its coverage of an instant classic. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

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1. After many years of having so many issues, like a TON of issues, with its NBA coverage, ESPN has finally put together a close-to-perfect package. From the game to the postgame to SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, ESPN nailed every single aspect of last night’s surreal Game 4 that saw the Knicks pull off the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history.

(The Finals games are airing on ABC, while the pregame and postgame shows are on ESPN. For simplicity’s sake, I’m just going to use “ESPN” and not “ABC/ESPN” to refer to all coverage.)

Once ESPN ridiculously dumped Jeff Van Gundy, who was by far the best analyst on television, in 2023, its lead booth became a bit of a circus. Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were out after working with play-by-play man Mike Breen for 14 seasons.

Doc Rivers and Doris Burke replaced Van Gundy and Jackson. Then Rivers left to coach the Bucks. So, J.J. Redick was in. Then Redick left to coach the Lakers. Then Richard Jefferson was in.

After Breen, Jefferson and Burke called last year’s Finals, Burke was reassigned and Tim Legler was in.

It seems ESPN has FINALLY hit on the right combination because Breen, Jefferson and Legler have been more than solid in this year’s Finals.

Breen does all the heavy lifting as the play-by-play voice, but Jefferson and Legler manage to contribute useful information. Legler is very good with X’s and O’s while Jefferson is particularly sharp on pointing out what’s going on with players in terms of matchups, when someone is tired or when someone makes a mistake.

The best thing I can say about Jefferson and Legler is that they aren’t annoying. Neither guy tries to dominate the broadcast, they don’t step on Breen and they don’t speak in that “I’m an analyst, I know more than you so let me educate you” tone. The three-man booth has turned into a very good listen.

Legler was on top of what the Knicks were going to do on their final possession, saying, “The Knicks will go flat for Jalen Brunson, allow him to operate at the top, one-on-one.” That’s exactly what happened. And then Breen showed why he’s one of the best to ever do it because a tip-in doesn’t let a play-by-play person set up their call. So Breen just called what he saw, but used his inflection to tell the story. “The shot, no good. The tip. “IT’S GOOD! IT’S GOOD! IT’S GOOD!”

If you have six minutes to spare, I highly recommend you watch this video and listen to Breen for the final closing minutes of the game. Every call, every second of play-by-play was perfect.

The only criticism I have is that neither Breen, Jefferson nor Legler pointed out that De’Arron Fox committed an all-time bonehead play by attempting a layup (which was blocked by Anunoby) instead of dribbling around to chew clock. I can give the three of them a little pass here because the action was so frantic and the Garden was complete bedlam, as Breen pointed out, but it would’ve been nice if someone took Fox to task.

As for ESPN’s pregame, halftime and postgame shows that have been a complete mess for way longer than its lead game crew. For whatever reason, ESPN has never been able to get is NBA studio show right despite using an endless cast of characters. Some of the problem was that the competition (TNT) had the greatest sports studio show of all time. Going against that was always a problem.

So in a move that hasn’t gotten ESPN the credit it deserves, the network brought in Inside the NBA once TNT lost rights to the NBA. ESPN’s executives should get massive praise for not just saving Inside the NBA and licensing it from TNT, ESPN but also for leaving the show alone.

I’ve said this a bunch of times over the past couple of weeks. You cannot overstate enough how much Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal have elevated ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Finals. Pregame, halftime and postgame have become must-watch TV for ESPN. That has ever been the case before when it came to the network’s basketball coverage.

While Breen, Jefferson and Legler didn’t call out Fox for his dumb play, Barkley unloaded, while also praising the Knicks.

Once Inside the NBA wrapped up its postgame show, Scott Van Pelt took over coverage. There isn’t a better person on sports television to take the baton from the iconic foursome.

Van Pelt put on a clinic Wednesday night on how to do game highlights when he spent about five minutes breaking down the Knicks incredible 107–106 comeback win. I wish ESPN posted the full video, but it does not appear that it did. Van Pelt just kept going and going, without a prompter, and it was like watching the game all over again. I was on the edge of my seat watching Van Pelt’s highlights after just watching them in real time. That’s when you know someone is good.

After doing the highlights, Van Pelt interviewed Spike Lee, which was a mess, but in a good way. New York, New York was blaring. Lee was distracted. There was euphoria mixed with confusion. It was the perfect summation of the moment.

The Knicks gave us an all-time sports moment. Not just an all-time NBA moment. An all-time sports moment. And ESPN could not have done a better job covering every single aspect of it.

2. I was tempted to make this entire column about Jerry and Larry, but I had to give ESPN props first. But I enjoyed Larry’s reaction to seeing Jerry as much as I did the Knicks’ comeback.

3. And we were also treated to CLASSIC Jerry and Larry reaction shots.

4. I just want to send a message to Knicks radio analyst Monica McNutt: Stay strong. Don’t let the Swifties get to you.

McNutt will probably hear it today after she expressed her displeasure with Taylor Swift attending Game 4 on Wednesday.

5. Speaking of McNutt, the video of her and radio partner, Tyler Murray, calling the final seconds, is tremendous.

6. A brand-new SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped this morning. This week’s show features an interview with ESPN’s Kevin Clark.

The host of This Is Football explains why he doesn’t have World Cup Fever, why he’s outraged by the Brendan Sorsby two-game suspension and why it’s just not right for the Bears to play in Indiana instead of Chicago.

In addition, Clark talks about the state of the sports media business and the phasing out of columnists, why Tom Brady is is dream guest for his podcast, people saying he looks like WWE’s Danhausen and the out-of-control costs to attend sporting events.

Following Clark, Sal Licata from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include: the NBA Finals and the behavior of Knicks fans, Sal’s interview with Bill Parcells, an outstanding new movie trailer, the art of making a music playlist and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Since Shaq addressed it during Wednesday’s Inside the NBA ...

... I feel like I should post it.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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