Did The NBA Order ESPN To Fire Jeff Van Gundy?

ESPN laid off NBA color commentator Jeff Van Gundy last week. Of the some 20 names cut, the firing of Van Gundy was most questionable.

Van Gundy called games next to Mike Breen and Mark Jackson during the NBA Finals, one of ESPN's most significant properties.

So, why cut Van Gundy?

Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo said he believes the NBA ordered the decision:

“I can’t fathom the idea that ESPN in these layoffs… would fire Jeff Van Gundy,” Russo said on Sirius XM Tuesday.
"You’re not going to convince me that ESPN (and Disney boss Bob Iger) woke up in the last two weeks, looked at the budget sheet, and said, ‘We gotta fire Van Gundy because we gotta save some money — if that’s the case, fire Mark Jackson.'
“ESPN will never admit it. They’re gonna say it’s our call. Nonsense. Why would they get rid of a great team? That team is a great team with …You’re not going to convince me that that team, that everybody likes. Nobody doesn’t like that team.
“That leads me to the conclusion that someone in the league office must’ve told ESPN, ‘I want Van Gundy out,’ We all know he’s biting. We all know he gets on the officials. We all know he doesn’t hold back with his NBA opinions.
“So, if you’re asking me, little talk show host, who may not know a thing, this is just my opinion, Silver is the one who fired Van Gundy. Silver told ESPN, ‘I want him out.'”

Russo is not a complete outsider on the topic. He recently re-signed with ESPN to appear weekly on First Take with Stephen A. Smith, the face of the NBA division that laid off Van Gundy.

Furthermore, the NBA has great influence over ESPN's bumper programming. In fact, Jeff Van Gundy maintains the NBA blocked his brother Stan from signing with ESPN in 2012.

“There’s certainly circumstantial evidence that something from the outside — presumably the NBA — changed thinking,” Jeff said of ESPN pulling an offer to sign Stan. “I was happy when they came to an agreement and shocked when they pulled their offer.”

And of the game analysts, Jeff Van Gundy was the most critical of the league's officiating and rules -- an annoyance for all sports leagues.

Russo is also correct in that ESPN would never admit to allowing a league partner to force its hand in terms of a layoff.

Thereby we can't rule out the NBA influencing the decision to cut Van Gundy.

That said, sources tell OutKick ESPN Vice President of Production Tim Corrigan had the option to dismiss either Van Gundy or his partner Jackson in an effort to cut costs.

Corrigan chose Van Gundy.

While Van Gundy is the better broadcaster, it's not hard to deduce why Corrigan chose to keep Jackson over him.

Mike Breen is the game-caller for the Finals. ESPN views Doris Burke and JJ Redick as its B and C color commentators. If the network chose to replace Jackson with Burke or Redick it would've created an NBA Finals trio of three white people.

ESPN and parent company Disney cannot have an all-white NBA broadcast team. The company would not consider such an option even for a moment.

This year alone, ESPN employees Kendrick Perkins and Mark Jones criticized the NBA media for being "too white" -- an obvious lie that morphed into a talking point.

Slashing Van Gundy and keeping Jackson ensures the 2024 broadcast team will feature one-non white commentator.

And if ESPN opts to replace Van Gundy with Doc Rivers, instead of Burke or Redick, it will draw the praise of social media.

Far be it us to challenge the great Mad Dog Russo. And perhaps Silver did nudge ESPN to move on from Van Gundy.

But we know race was a prevailing factor in the layoff period this year, and thus the likely reason for the firing of Jeff Van Gundy.