ESPN NBA Finals presentation is the most auraless in sports

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https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/nba...sentation.html

"This is the third year in a row that ESPN/ABC’s presentation has made the Finals feel like a Tuesday game in January."



By Matt Yoder on 06/05/2025

It’s another year of ESPN broadcasting the NBA Finals, and another year of disappointment for NBA fans.

There have been certain bones that basketball fans have had to pick with ESPN over the 20 years plus that they have been broadcasting the NBA Finals. Most of those have dealt with the revolving door studio show over the years and a deluge of ads.

But this year, everything feels off. And the entire presentation of the NBA Finals makes it feel like a Friday night in January.

Let’s start with the broadcast booth that we all know has been thrown together on the fly thanks to the layoffs of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson have never truly replaced. Mike Breen, Doris Burke, and Richard Jefferson are all great on their own merit, but they are admittedly a brand new team still trying to figure it out. And the fact that it leaked that ESPN is considering replacing Burke for next season before the series even began tells you all you need to know about how much of a disconnect exists.

The studio and halftime show is the same thing it’s always been. Game 1 of the Thunder-Pacers series greatly expanded what the set was able to do last year by giving the studio crew a whopping three minutes. However, most of that was filled with Stephen A. Smith yelling about Tyrese Haliburton. Don’t worry though, there was still tons and tons of commercials.

But most troubling of all is the total lack of aesthetics and big-game feel. Gone is the Larry O’Brien trophy on the court. Gone is the national anthem. Gone is the starting intros. Gone is pretty much anything and everything that would make you believe this is the NBA FINALS save for a small miniature logo at the bottom of the screen.

If the NBA is wondering why fans aren’t excited about the Thunder-Pacers matchup, it’s not the size of the markets involved. Look no further than what the league and its leading broadcast partner are communicating about the importance of the series.

The most perplexing issue here is these are all simple fixes that have been done before. It’s not like we are asking ESPN to figure out how to broadcast the game from Mars or find a way to do a 7D telecast.

Show the anthem and the player intros. Allow us to be sucked into the incredible arena atmosphere in Oklahoma City. Put the Larry O’Brien trophy on the court instead of a bunch of CGI and YouTubeTV ads. Are basketball fans here to watch the NBA Finals or is it just an opportunity to hype the upcoming Fantastic 4 movie? Give your personalities some actual time to talk about the game.

Even the NBA Cup easily communicates that their regular season games are different with their crazy court designs. And yet for the NBA Finals we can’t have anything? Make it make sense!

ESPN’s NBA coverage during the season, especially in their studio shows, has left a lot to be desired in recent years. The network has a tendency to focus more on off-court drama and storylines than actual basketball. The Pacers probably got less time on ESPN airwaves than Stephen A. Smith’s feud with LeBron James this year. And the Thunder didn’t get much more than that in spite of building what may be the NBA’s next great dynasty.

But if ESPN is also struggling to make the NBA Finals feel like they matter during the NBA Finals itself, then we have even bigger problems.

• Will Thunder-Pacers draw an audience for ABC?
  
• Haliburton heroics not enough to save NBA Finals from Game 1 low
  
• What does the NBA think about its television ratings?
  
• ESPN’s Burke “not guaranteed” to return to lead NBA team

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But most troubling of all is the total lack of aesthetics and big-game feel. Gone is the Larry O’Brien trophy on the court. Gone is the national anthem. Gone is the starting intros. Gone is pretty much anything and everything that would make you believe this is the NBA FINALS save for a small miniature logo at the bottom of the screen.

If the NBA is wondering why fans aren’t excited about the Thunder-Pacers matchup, it’s not the size of the markets involved. Look no further than what the league and its leading broadcast partner are communicating about the importance of the series.

Everything about this 2025 NBA Finals presentation looks like a regular season game. Why!?

What Happened to the NBA Finals? And HOW do we fix it?

This video takes a deep dive into the history of NBA Finals branding, and researches why the NBA decided to strip its biggest stage of its identity. Following Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers, it's about time we answered some questions! After a game winner from star Tyrese Haliburton, we look ahead to how the NBA can re-establish the Finals as their marquee brand.

End of an era. Hope you enjoy.

• 0:00 intro
• 1:56 Sponsored by Fabletics
• 3:09 Bill & Red's Excellent Adventure
• 13:00 Bird & Magic: Twin Dynasties
• 22:41 Black Jesus
• 33:45 Shaq & Kobe
• 40:34 Fundamental
• 49:41 The Last Dynasty
• 54:20 The Era of No Dynasties
• 1:17:02 The Death of the Dynasty
• 1:19:52 The Depth of the Dynasty
• 1:24:20 Playmaking & Philosophy
• 1:29:00 The Power of Friendship
• 1:31:33 The War For Gary
• 1:35:59 Distractions
• 1:40:55 Product
• 1:43:34 Message 2 All Dorks
• 1:45:45 So is the NBA Broken?
• 1:52:26 Continuity, Decline, and Hope
• 1:54:14 Thank You

• 10 easy ways to fix ESPN's NBA Finals presentation
  
• Opinion | ESPN had the perfect NBA broadcast team. Then it blew it.
  
• On-air chemistry? What to expect from ESPN's NBA Finals announcers
  
• The NBA Finals Have Been a Total Disaster For ESPN
  
• Viewers again not thrilled with ESPN’s NBA Finals halftime show
  
• NBA Finals 2019: ABC/ESPN Overcomes Multinational Challenges To Create Largest Finals Production Ever

A post shared by on Jan 01, 2022 at 12:00pm PDT

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Aura. Hope you enjoy.

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