For the first time in NBA history, the Warriors vs. Jazz NBA broadcast on Wednesday night will be led only by women on-air and behind the scenes.
The ESPN broadcast, which starts at 10 p.m. ET, will feature Beth Mowins as the play-by-play announcer, Doris Burke as the color analyst and Lisa Salters as the on-court reporter.
There will be a total of 33 women on staff working the game, either on-site in Salt Lake City or in the ESPN control room back in Bristol, CT.
Mowins spoke on the Jazz’s Roundball Roundup podcast on Wednesday about what being apart of this broadcast means to her.
“There are a lot of women that have been around the NBA and have been working a long time at ESPN that have earned the opportunity to work on telecasts like this,” Mowins said. “I think what’s unique is they just decided, ‘Hey let’s get all the women that we have on the NBA together in the same building and on the same night.’ To have the chance to work the game is pretty special.”
Wednesday’s game marks the first time Mowins, Burke and Salters have worked as a team, but it won’t be any of their first times covering an NBA game.
Mowins already made NBA history this season when she became the first woman to call an ESPN NBA game back in December. Her historic announcing gigs don’t just end with the NBA—Mowins was also the first female play-by-play announcer for a nationally-televised NFL game back in 2017.
Burke has covered basketball for nearly three decades, but ESPN promoted her to the title of national NBA game analyst back in 2017. Since then, she became the first woman to provide analysis for the NBA Finals when she did so for ESPN Radio in 2020.
Salters is most known for her NFL sideline reporting on Monday Night Football, but she also regularly reports on the court during the NBA Finals.
