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ESPN has poached one of the top NBA beat writers in the country from The Athletic.
Warriors reporter Anthony Slater is leaving for ESPN later this summer, sources told Front Office Sports. At ESPN, Slater joins fellow Athletic ex-pat Shams Charania, and will continue to focus on Steph Curry’s Warriors as well as contributing to national coverage. An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.
Slater’s departure represents a continued sea change at The Athletic, which was acquired by the New York Times for over $500 million in early 2022. The Athletic’s Bay Area bureau drove a considerable proportion of the outlet’s paid subscriptions in its early days. However, Ethan Strauss left to start his own subscription site in mid-2022, and Tim Kawakami and David Lombardi left for the San Francisco Standard last year.
Marcus Thompson remains a lead columnist at The Athletic, primarily covering the Warriors and the NBA.
“He was always so good that he was going to end up as a national type and ESPN is the best spot for that,” Kawakami told FOS. “It is a little sad, but I’m just glad it happened,” he said of The Athletic’s Bay Area bureau. “A lot of people did their best stuff there. The whole thing was good for everybody.”
ESPN will have to make several other key talent decisions this off-season. As first reported by FOS, both reporter Brian Windhorst and NBA Countdown host Malika Andrews could become free agents by the start of next season. Windhorst’s deal is up this summer while Andrews’s contract expires this fall, sources said.
It’s a good time to be an NBA media free agent. Both NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video have been on million-dollar hiring sprees as they staff up for live game coverage starting with the 2025-2026 season.
With Mike Tirico as lead play-by-play broadcaster, NBC has hired Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford as color commentators and Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter as studio analysts. Noah Eagle will also call play-by-play, and Michael Grady is expected to as well. In the biggest talent get of all, the network announced that Michael Jordan will be a special contributor to its coverage. NBC has also forged a deal with composer John Tesh to bring back his “Roundball Rock” theme from its coverage in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Prime has hired Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker, Steve Nash, Cassidy Hubbarth, and Udonis Haslem for its first hoops coverage in the U.S.
Prime previously had a live-streaming deal with the NBA in Brazil.
