Burke excited to focus solely on NBA
PROVIDENCE — It’s important to note for sure, but let’s not exclusively focus on the fact that Doris Burke is blazing a trail to become the first woman to be assigned a full-season rotation of games as an NBA analyst for ESPN and ABC.
Instead, let’s delve into the specifics that await the former Providence College women’s basketball standout.
For the past 25 years, the cordial and knowledgeable Burke followed the sport with fast-break speed, bringing keen insight to every single one of her basketball broadcast assignments. Whether it was men’s or women’s college hoops or the NBA, she never seemed to skip a beat.
Watching Burke on television, she never fails to give off an aura of supreme confidence. It didn’t matter if she was interviewing Mike Krzyzewski, Gino Auriemma, or LeBron James. She always seems to conduct herself with great aplomb – no small feat considering some of the larger-than-life personalities Burke has stuck a microphone in front of over the years.
Burke admitted that because of her hectic schedule, sitting in the makeup chair before going on the air afforded her a prime chance to apply the finishing touches to that night’s broadcast, whether it was listening to a podcast or pouring over the latest stats compiled by the Elias Sports Bureau. It wasn’t the ideal setting to digest and distill the wealth of information available prior to hitting the air at 8 o’clock on a Wednesday evening. As a matter of necessity, however, this was the gameday routine Burke immersed herself in.
For Burke, the 2017-18 season will represent a significant change of pace. Her professional life goes from employing a concerted effort to making sure she doesn’t spread herself too thin to something much simpler, as she gets to narrow her focus on one sport. College hoops has been stricken from her workload. Instead, the intrigue stems from NBA-only topics along the lines of the Warriors’ quest to repeat as champions, or whether the reconfigured Celtics are ready to unseat the Cavaliers in the East.
For a New York City girl who fell in love with the NBA in the 1980s when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson ruled the roost, Burke’s enthusiasm for her reconfigured role is sky high.
“To be perfectly honest with you, it will be an interesting transition,” Burke said prior to serving as the emcee for last Saturday’s Late Night Madness celebration at her alma mater. “I loved the madness of my schedule and trying to immerse yourself into all those sports, but I can tell you the ability to now immerse myself into the milieu of the NBA is drastically different than a year ago.
“My level of preparation is the same. I would say the pace I can prepare is now different,” she added.
Before this job came to be, Burke last February approached her bosses at ESPN. As much as she enjoyed keeping up with men’s and women’s college basketball and the NBA, she would welcome the opportunity to whittle it down to two subjects. Preferably, the NBA and men’s college hoops.
That was the plan heading into September. Then Doug Collins left ESPN to return to the NBA as a consultant for Kris Dunn’s new team, the Chicago Bulls.
The timing proved interesting. Had Collins not left roughly a month before the start of the new NBA season, who knows what would have happened as it relates to ESPN filling the opening on its NBA broadcast team. Judging by the ultimate decision rendered by the network’s powers-that-be, they felt Burke deserved and earned the right to strap on a headset and sit next to a play-by-by announcer on a regular basis.
“I’m thrilled they have the faith in me that I can do it. It’s moving,” Burke said.
Contractually, Burke is scheduled for 65 events per year, though typically it ends up being closer to 85. It goes without saying that preparing for 65-85 games of just one sport is a walk in the park compared to making sure how the Field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament is shaping up, as well as the race for home-court advantage in the NBA playoffs.
“I can tell you unequivocally that I felt more prepared at the tip for the two preseason games I recently did than for any game I did as an NBA analyst last year,” Burke said.
From time to time this season, Burke will reprise her sideline role. That’s the capacity she’ll be in for Wednesday’s Washington-Philadelphia game on ESPN and next spring for the conference finals and NBA Finals – appointment television for basketball junkies as she called it.
The analyst’s chair isn’t a new one for Burke, as she’s well versed when it comes to matchup breakdowns. What is new is that for the first time ever in her broadcast career, she has an unequivocal domain. The NBA is officially her oyster.
With the NBA season tipping off Tuesday night, Burke was asked what she plans to keep close tabs on:
“One of themes to me is seeing who has closed the gap with Golden State. You think about the Eastern Conference. For seven consecutive years, LeBron James either with Miami or Cleveland has gone to the NBA Finals. It’s been his job to lead the East against the West. I do 100 percent believe that the long-term health and effectiveness of Isaiah Thomas will have a direct impact on whether LeBron reaches an eighth straight finals.
“I also believe that Boston has closed the gap. They’ve added talent, closers, and playmakers. For me, it comes down to whether Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum are prepared to contribute at a high level. To me, it’s not a forgone conclusion that Cleveland goes back to the NBA Finals. That’s how close I believe Boston is.
“On the other side, Golden State is clearly the favorite. Oklahoma City and Houston have closed the gap and San Antonio will win at least 55 games.
“Position-less basketball has sort of been attributed to Golden State, but I look back to when San Antonio won it all (in 2014). You had Boris Diaw, who was an unbelievable passer and could also put it on the deck. He would make quick-minded reads. In position-less basketball, the ball moves and there’s an unselfish nature to everything that goes on. You have to be a triple threat. Everyone has to be able to score it, pass it, and rebound it. I love it.”