NBA

I love the draft. I’ve watched it every year for over a decade now. This year’s draft coverage was as bad as I’ve ever seen it. Please excuse my rant.

Last year’s broadcast had Rece Davis hosting, with Mike Schmitz, Kendrick Perkins and Jay Bilas as analysts.

ESPN lost Schmitz to the Portland Trail Blazers, yes, but that was a month ago. The 3-person desk was simply not enough.

Malika Andrews did a passable job, but it seemed like someone was in her ear every. single. pick. to tell the viewer “what a great moment this is.” Show us, don’t tell us.

Without Schmitz, we got more Kendrick Perkins talking, and while he’s no doubt getting better, he still is a puzzling choice for this spot. He seems like ESPN’s attempt at Charles Barkley’s “ho-hum charm” and it just isn’t working.

That leads me to my main bone to pick: ESPN’s presentation of Woj. I’m not upset at Woj specifically: he made his millions by tweeting out who the pick is 45 seconds before it is announced. I understand he’s always going to spoil picks. So I unfollowed him on Twitter yesterday, stayed off Twitter the first 10 picks or so, and then stayed 30 minutes behind on the app. I thought I was safe.

Wrong.

ESPN had on the crawl hours before the draft his report of the order being 1. Jabari 2. Chet 3. Banchero. So the fans had to think for hours that one of the most unknown top 3 in years was now known. Then, with the Magic on the clock, they put him on TV to ANNOUNCE THE PICK! Why ESPN thinks this is the best for their own product to have him deliver the news instead of Adam Silver is beyond me. They could have kept it quiet for 2 more minutes and presented it as a “major surprise pick.”

As the draft continued, we got the perfect mix of picks being spoiled on the broadcast, combined with trade details rarely being reported. The broadcast presented the Duren trade as the Pistons sending the 2025 Bucks pick for the rights to Duren, the 13th pick, which obviously makes no sense.

In addition, Woj is clearly not ready for prime time TV. He’s a reporter. Most of his on-camera appearances he stammers through his line, with absolutely no personality. My guess is ESPN is trying to find ways to justify his salary.