NBA on ESPN Radio

NBA on ESPN Radio

Genre	National Basketball Association
Running time	150 minutes (approximate)
Country	USA
Home station	ESPN Radio (1996-)
Starring	Jim Durham Dr. Jack Ramsay Mike Tirico Hubie Brown
Air dates	since January 21, 1996

The NBA on ESPN Radio is a broadcast of National Basketball Association games on the ESPN Radio network. Games on ESPN Radio are distributed on over 200 radio stations in the United States and Canada. The program began on January 21, 1996 and the current contract runs through the 2015-2016 season. The coverage can also be heard on ESPN Radio.com and on DGamer.

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:

• Thursday night regular season games.
• Mid-season Sunday afternoon games, occasional double-headers (since 2004).
• Christmas Day games.
• All Star Game festivities.
• Most of the NBA Playoffs, including all of the Conference Finals and NBA Finals.

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, 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.

References

• Press Release: 2006-07 NBA SEASON ON ESPN BEGINS NOV. 1
• Press Release: NBA ON ESPN RADIO TIPS OFF NOV. 2
• Houston Chronicle: Durham-Ramsay team to sign off after Finals

External links

• ESPN Radio show page
• ESPN Radio official website