For the third straight season, ESPN will feature a different three-person broadcasting crew for the NBA Finals, as Richard Jefferson debuts alongside fellow analyst Doris Burke and play-by-play announcer Mike Breen.
Jefferson replaces JJ Redick on the network's No. 1 NBA team, as Redick became the Los Angeles Lakers head coach after last season. A 17-year NBA player, Jefferson joined Breen and Burke throughout the 2024-25 regular season before ESPN officially announced he would be on the Finals call – which starts June 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers – in February.
Redick and Burke were already a makeshift analyst pairing next to Breen. ESPN's initial plan, following the 2023 firings of longtime top-game analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, was to have Burke and Doc Rivers as the No. 1 crew. But Rivers quickly jumped back into the coaching ranks with the Milwaukee Bucks, allowing Redick to join the top team.
"When it's two (analysts), it's not just my chemistry with Doris and my chemistry with Richard Jefferson, it's their chemistry together, and that's what makes it much more of a challenge," Breen said of a three-person booth on a May 27 episode of "The Sports Media with Richard Deitsch" podcast. "Richard, I think, has been a much better fit in a three-person booth than Doc was. Doc, I think he's a great analyst, but he had never really worked a lot three-person."
