NBA on ESPN Radio

NBA on ESPN Radio
Genre National Basketball Association
Running time 150 minutes (approximate)
Country United States USA
Home station ESPN Radio (1996-)
Starring Kevin Calabro
Jon Barry
Marc Kestecher
PJ Carlesimo
Stan Van Gundy
Air dates since January 21, 1996

The NBA on ESPN Radio is a broadcast of National Basketball Association games on the ESPN Radio network. The program began on January 21, 1996 and the current contract runs through the 2025-26 season.

Overview

As the primary national radio partner of the NBA, ESPN Radio broadcasts games on a weekly basis including some of the league's marquee events:

Broadcasters

Since the debut of NBA games on the network, ESPN Radio games have featured the lead broadcast team of Jim Durham on play-by-play and Dr. Jack Ramsay as the color commentator. Other broadcasters have included Kevin Calabro, Brent Musburger, Tim Legler, Howard David, Dave Pasch, Dave Flemming, Doug Brown, and Will Perdue. Musburger has called several NBA Finals for ESPN Radio, his last being the 2004 NBA Finals.

In June 2006, ESPN announced that Mike Tirico would replace Jim Durham on NBA Finals games starting in 2007. Initially, Dr. Jack Ramsay said that he would retire.

“ Working with [Jim Durham] is a pleasure, he's the best play-by-play guy in the business, and I will miss very much not working with him. But we were not going to work the Finals together, and I didn't want to do it with anybody else. ”

Ramsay did not retire; as of the 2008-09 NBA season, he worked regular season games with Durham, until Western Conference Finals. Tirico along with Hubie Brown calls Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals. Ramsay joined them in the 2009 NBA Finals. Durham called the 2010 Finals, as Tirico was on assignment at the World Cup. Tirico did not call either of the conference finals played in 2012 due to other commitments; Durham and Ramsay called the Eastern Conference Finals, while Calabro and Brown called the Western Conference Finals. The Durham-Brown-Ramsay trio called the 2012 NBA Finals. Durham's last assignment was the opening game of the 2012–13 NBA season between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat, shortly before his death on November 5. Durham was replaced by Calabro, who called the remainder of the network's regular season games. Ramsay stepped away from the booth in May to focus on his cancer treatment. Calabro and Brown called the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals, while Dave Pasch and Chris Mullin called the Western Conference Finals. The ABC secondary team of Tirico and Brown called the 2013 NBA Finals.

For the 2013–14 NBA season, ESPN assembled a brand new team for the games. Kevin Calabro returned as the main play-by-play voice for the NBA on ESPN Radio, and joining him as the analyst was Jon Barry. They also announced the secondary team would consist of Marc Kestecher and PJ Carlesimo for the occasional double headers. Stan Van Gundy would also serve as an analyst for 10 games.[1] Jim Spanarkel would be brought over as an analyst for one playoff game when Barry was away for TV duties, Carlesimo was calling the other weekend game for ESPN Radio, and Van Gundy wasn't available during the 2014 NBA Playoffs on ESPN Radio.

Availability

The NBA on ESPN Radio is carried in over 325 ESPN Radio affiliates across the U.S. and is also available in most countries such as Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the UK.

Most NBA on ESPN Radio games can be heard on mobile devices via the ESPN app as well as many other radio apps (e.g. SiriusXM and TuneIn) and on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita video game consoles via the iHeartRadio and TuneIn applications, respectively (mostly from ESPN Radio affiliates streaming on the aforementioned apps).

References

  1. ↑ "Jon Barry Named NBA on ESPN Radio Lead Analyst; PJ Carlesimo and Stan Van Gundy to Call Select Games; Kevin Calabro and Marc Kestecher Provide Play-by-Play". ESPN Media Zone. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
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