Report: ESPN Has Grant Hill And Jay Bilas On Its List To Join Its Top NBA Booth

ESPN has seen its top NBA booth go through some turmoil over the last year. After letting go of both Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, the network promoted Doris Burke and hired Doc Rivers to provide analysis alongside Mike Breen. But after Rivers left ESPN to take over the Milwaukee Bucks mid-season, the Worldwide Leader had to scramble and promote JJ Redick to keep a three-person booth.

Redick, of course, also left the network to take a head coaching job this offseason, as he joined the Los Angeles Lakers. This has put ESPN in a spot where it has to figure out next steps , and while Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported that just rolling with Breen and Burke is an option, there are apparently four names — three internally, one externally — that are on the list of candidates to join the booth.

Via The Athletic:

Grant Hill, Richard Jefferson, Tim Legler and Jay Bilas are atop ABC/ESPN’s list to join Mike Breen and Doris Burke as part of its top broadcast crew for the NBA Finals, sources briefed on the network’s plans said Friday.

Jefferson and Legler have experience calling NBA games for ESPN, with Jefferson frequently joining the booth in recent years and Legler, a standby for their studio coverage, doing more of that lately. Bilas is the network’s top college basketball analyst, while Hill is an analyst for Turner.