yeah newer guys like perk have to be wayyy cheaper than the ones like suzy who have been there forever

Sounds like the most likely explanation.

But according to the stories, ESPN has to pay out the contracts and for example Keyshawn Johnson signed a new 5 year deal worth $18mil just last year. Maybe they find a way around paying the full contracts though.

Yeah idk that doesn't make sense then either.

They know Keyshawn likes to hear himself talk. Maybe they are hoping he signs on somewhere else and has to negotiate with ESPN about giving some of that contract back.

At least Van Pelt and Stanford Steve appear to be fine. The " Bad Beats " segment is the only thing I enjoy there besides the games.

+1

I did enjoy kellerman on ATH, easily the only tolerable iteration of that show, but once he actually started giving sports takes, jesus

Ok, now it all makes sense. Admittedly this one was horribad.

That's a designed hot take. The question is strictly asked to create that kind of response and Kellermann knows it. Otherwise his reaction would probably be an eye-roll.

We can certainly blame Kellermann for playing his part though.

Sucks that it came to all of that but that's today's sports media in a nutshell.

Max Kellerman was the ultimate muppet meatball. I’m glad he got **** canned.

You’re not wrong that this is where we are but I also refuse to watch or listen to anything skip or Screamin on principle alone

Every now and again on the ride to work my radio would default to kellerman and Keyshawn’s horseshit radio show and I’ll hear him say some clown ass contrarian buffoonery in the 30 seconds I have it on before I immediately shut it off

Sidenote: Keyshawn might be the whiniest voice ever put into the media. **** him too

now the nfl leaks will only come from the fossil fuels in mel kiper's hair.
he'll retire in two years and espn will sign mcshay for the same contract he could have gotten yesterday with a better agent

I’m absolutely blown away that schefter makes 10 mil and woj makes about that

No wonder they’re ****ed

contracts should be contingent upon the impending twitter implosion

Skip looks and acts like that one uncle in every family who is always kinda annoying but gets really going after his second bottle of wine.

Good thing is that you can just ignore him most of the time. I don't understand how anyone would watch that guy unless they're the contrarian in their own social circle and need his takes for that. Stephen A. is basically everywhere. Can't even watch the NBA finals without him and for whatever reason he even got into MMA, a sport he clearly has zero knowledge about. I hope that experiment is done.

I literally don’t know a single person who admits to liking or watching Stephen A and Skip but apparently the ratings are just always better when they have these kind of guys on. That’s why they just splash Stephen A over everything. Like when the LIV/PGA stuff broke they just throw him on even though he clearly has no idea WTF he’s talking about. Probably the same role they want for McAfee - just generate 90% of your content with a handful of big faces and “news breakers”.

I liked This Just In as a daily recap show. Some days were better than others w/ guests but he'd have guys like Barnwell on. I knew it wasn't going to be around for long tho, I assumed it was largely a spot to wait out his contract (after the split from SAS).

I used to listen to his solo radio show out of ESPN NY, but once he went to LA and teamed up with Marcellus I was largely out. Never listened to his new iteration as I'm not a big fan of Keyshawn and actively dislike Jay Williams. I like him more as the sole host who chimes in (his role on ATH and TJI) as opposed to playing devil's advocate when reduced to co-hosting.

Stephen A can be hilarious at times especially after something notable happens with the Cowboys or Knicks. But yeah, definitely shouldn't be covering a sport he knows nothing about. The problem is these networks want people who are instantly recognizable so they plaster them all over the place. Exactly why Greeny is on all the time now.

Skip is absolutely terrible and seems completely disingenuous. No way he believes half the **** he says.

Can someone explain why ESPN replaces Mark Jackson with two years left on his contract with Doc Rivers?

I get why they replaced white man Van Gundy with Doris Burke because removing white men from air is what they do, but paying millions to replace one black former player/coach with another black former player/coach?

That said, when Doc Rivers is on air, teams might listen in in the 4. quarter to hear what his suggestions are. And then do they opposite.

Rivers is a huge paycut since he’s being paid by the 6ers

Unless Rivers is paying ESPN to work there, he's more expensive than Mark Jackson who they have to pay anyway.

doc is roughly a 1000x better basketball analyst than mjax, so there's that

Maybe, but that clearly isn't any criteria for ESPN.

ok so whats your theory then

I don't really have one that's why I asked the question.

The only thing I could come up with was that Donna Burke didn't want to work with Mark Jackson or that ESPN decided to do the NBA a favor by replacing two guys who frequently criticized players and the league. I have no idea how Rivers is going to handle that but I would assume that Burke is going to be much more player/league friendly than van Gundy and Jackson.

FWIW, my main issue here isn't that they replaced Jackson. I never liked him anyway. But paying him millions for two years of not working for them while doing budget cuts everywhere will probably cost a decent number of lower level workers their jobs.

The thing is that ESPN has two guys who they want in bigger roles. JJ and Jefferson. Theyre too invested in them to keep them the 4th and 5th analyst on the roster.

I could have seen either of them jump Doris. But the symmetry of Breen, white woman, and black man is too good to pass up.