Michael Kay Slams ESPN For Doc Rivers Chaos: “You think that was a smart play?”

Michael Kay attacked ESPN for appearing terrible as the network endured Doc Rivers quitting their main NBA broadcast before the honeymoon had ended.

Michael Kay Slams ESPN For Doc Rivers Chaos: “You think that was a smart play?”

Over the summer, ESPN made an attempt to makeover what was mostly regarded as the greatest NBA broadcast booth by removing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson and pairing play-by-play voice Mike Breen with Doris Burke and Doc Rivers.

However, Rivers officially left ESPN to take a head coaching position with the Milwaukee Bucks, meaning the redesigned booth was not even in place for a season. Furthermore, Michael Kay, a close friend of Breen, said that the sequence of events was a bad representation of ESPN.

With Rivers gone, ESPN will probably have to work to build chemistry on the fly with a new commentator or stick with Breen and Burke as their main broadcast team for the remainder of the season.

“The rumors about why you let go of Van Gundy and Jackson was you were afraid that they would pursue coaching jobs and you didn’t want to break up the booth by them getting a coaching job,” Kay said on his eponymous radio show.

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“So you go out of your way, you let them go, which broke up the best booth in professional sports. Sorry. The best. And you got Doc Rivers and Doris Burke. Doc Rivers interviewed for the Bucks job [during the offseason], you don’t think Doc Rivers wanted to be a coach again? He leaves midseason. Their booth now is Mike and Doris for the NBA Finals. You think that was a smart play by ESPN? I’m sorry, there might be bosses that will be upset, but they look terrible!”

“And on top of that, the news was broken by CNN? Doc Rivers who you paid a boatload of money to be your top analyst didn’t even give you the story first?” he fumed.

Peter Rosenberg, co-host of “The Michael Kay Show,” did bring up the possibility that the network was attempting to manipulate the narrative by withholding the information.

“It’s an awful look,” Kay continued. “You broke up Van Gundy, Jackson and Breen. You put together this group which still hasn’t gelled, and now he’s gone. So, what do you do?”

It would appear like Rivers ought to have been kind enough to inform ESPN that he was on his way to Milwaukee, and it’s still conceivable that he had that intention but CNN beat him to the punch. Strangely enough, CNN was the first to report that Rivers was leaving ESPN to join the Bucks, but it’s unclear if they planned to leak the news first.

Nothing changes the reality that ESPN is looking foolish. It was well acknowledged that Rivers would likely pursue a new coaching position before Jackson or Van Gundy did. Though few would have predicted that coaching opportunity to present itself at this particular time, ESPN is not alone in being taken aback by Rivers’ decision to switch from broadcasting to the sidelines.

 

 

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