The NBA celebrated its’ second-ever Cup Finals this Tuesday night in Las Vegas, after an exciting clash between Milwaukee and Oklahoma City. The stage was set, the superstars were all ready to go, even Adam Silver showed up, but one of ESPN’s lead commentators wasn’t there to call the match.
Doris Burke, one of the network’s lead NBA game analyst, didn’t appear on the broadcasting team that evening, despite being announced last month that she would team up with analyst Richard Jefferson and lead basketball play-by-play announcer Mike Breen.
Nevertheless, both men had to deal without the iconic commentator in a night when the Bucks proved to everyone that they are back stronger than ever after a poor start to the 2024-25 regular season, as they beat the Thunder 97-81 to lift the trophy.
Doris Burke is out sick for tonight’s NBA Cup Final, and Mike Breen made sure everybody knew it wasn’t because she lost too much money at the blackjack tables 💸🏀 pic.twitter.com/fEwvN3dgM9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 18, 2024
ESPN announced that same morning that Burke would be absent after they released on social media a graphic of their broadcast teams for the game. Despite some rumours going around, luckily Mike Green was there to clear up the nature of Burke’s sudden absence.
“Doris Burke will not be with us tonight,” he started out. “Doris is not feeling well. And I think it’s important to state that her absence has nothing to do with the amount of money she lost on the blackjack tables in recent days. The authorities need to know that.”
In what was clearly a joke, Jefferson couldn’t hide his face, as he could barely contain himself at the moment. The co-star was visibly stunned and even struggled to gather his thoughts. Eventually he let out, “I, uh, yeah. I don’t think it has anything to do with that, Mike.”
After Breen’s remarks created waves on social media, with fans wondering if Burke actually did have a gambling misfortune this week in Las Vegas, ESPN later explained that the legendary analyst was out of the NBA Cup’s broadcast due to illness.
