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Jay Bilas will fill the role Michael Malone vacated on ESPN’s coverage of the NBA playoffs, Front Office Sports has learned.
With Malone leaving for the UNC head coaching job after less than one season at ESPN, Bilas is poised to call at least three or four games during the NBA playoffs that tip off this Saturday. Those games were supposed to be TV showcases for Malone, before he signed a six-year, $50 million deal to coach the Tar Heels.
Bilas, who joined ESPN in 1995, has long served as one of the network’s top college basketball analysts. But he’s also been a staple of the network’s NBA draft coverage since 2003. In 2024, he expanded his coverage to the pro ranks and was a candidate to replace Doc Rivers on ESPN’s top NBA team—a role that was ultimately filled by Richard Jefferson. Bilas called his first NBA playoff game in 2025.
Here’s ESPN’s postseason announcer lineup leading up to ABC’s coverage of the 2026 NBA Finals:
- No. 1 game team: Play-by-play: Mike Breen. Analysts: Tim Legler, Richard Jefferson. Reporter: Lisa Salters.
- No. 2 game team: Play-by-play: Dave Pasch. Analyst: Doris Burke.
- No. 3 TV team: Play-by-play announcer: Ryan Ruocco. Analyst: Jay Bilas.
As far as sideline reporters, Lisa Salters and Malika Andrews are locked in, say sources. But ESPN could add additional reporters to its bench. With the exception of Breen’s No. 1 TV team, ESPN could mix and match announcers and analysts on other games.
From the Eastern Conference Finals onward, Breen, Legler, Jefferson, and Salters will call all games on ESPN and ABC. Breen is poised to call his record 21st NBA Finals.
Meanwhile, this will be the first time in ESPN’s 24-year history with the league that Charles Barkley’s iconic Inside the NBA will serve as its top studio show during the NBA postseason via the network’s licensing agreement with TNT Sports.
Meanwhile, Rivers—who briefly served on ESPN’s No. 1 announce team with Breen and Burke in 2023 before leaving for the Bucks—is not expected to return to the four letters. The 64-year-old Rivers announced he was stepping down as Milwaukee’s head coach on Monday after nearly three seasons with the Bucks.
ESPN says it will announce its coverage plans sometime this week.
