In the past year-plus, ESPN has made some massive changes to their NBA coverage team. A year ago, Jalen Rose, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson were all let go as part of company-wide layoffs. Doc Rivers stepped in to the lead booth along with Doris Burke but left for the Bucks head coaching job midseason. JJ Redick was elevated into Rivers’ spot, but promptly took the Lakers job at the end of the season.
Most recently, the league’s top newsbreaker, Adrian Wojnarowski, announced his shocking retirement to go work for his beloved alma mater, St. Bonaventure. With Woj already gone, another bomb dropped on Thursday when The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand brought word that ESPN was also laying off its top NBA writer and podcaster, Zach Lowe. Per Marchand, Lowe being let go falls in line with the Robert Griffin III and Samantha Ponder departures earlier this year, as Lowe made north of seven figures annually and was fired for budget reasons.
Lowe was the most prominent NBA writer not only on ESPN’s staff, but arguably in the entire league. Beyond his written work, Lowe’s podcast, The Lowe Post, has been extremely popular and he has been a regular contributor on TV with NBA Today and other studio shows. Lowe had been at ESPN for more than a decade, starting his career at Grantland and then moving over to the dot com after they shuttered the Bill Simmons-led site. As such, many would expect the Ringer to be a potential landing spot for Lowe, who immediately becomes the most sought after free agent in the NBA writing and podcasting space. He also could be in play for NBC and Amazon, as they both get set to be new national broadcast partners of the NBA in 2025-26.
As for ESPN, they are now tasked with not only reshaping their NBA coverage on the TV side, still needing to figure out their lead booth and the potential domino effect that will have on their other game broadcasts, but also their written coverage with Lowe and Woj both gone.