Michael Kay Says Doc Rivers Situation Makes ESPN Looks Terrible

Doc Rivers signed a multi-year, $40 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday and officially became the new head coach following a confusing couple of days on the reporting front. The basketball consequences will be fun to watch play out over the coming months and into the spring. The sports media consequences are much more immediate, though. Rivers' departure means ESPN's grand plans are all shot.

The four-letter network fired Jeff Van Gundy and let Mark Jackson walk because they wanted Rivers alongside Doris Burke as the top broadcasting team with Mike Breen. After they ditched the two incumbents, reports leaked out that ESPN was nervous JVG or Jackson would leave to return to coaching so they got ahead of the problem by moving on early. Their fears have now come true, but about Rivers instead of Van Gundy or Jackson. Worse, it happened midseason, forcing ESPN to restructure everything about their national NBA broadcasts on the fly.

The way it went down apparently rubbed Michael Kay the wrong way. He did not hesitate to lay out exactly how bad ESPN looks in the wake of Rivers' departure, despite hosting an ESPN radio show.

Egg on their face indeed. It's pretty embarrassing for such a massive media company to get burned like this, no matter what the context is.

The argument can be made that ESPN doesn't really care because they ended up in an OK spot anyway; Burke has stepped up to the plate in her duties as the top analyst and now the network doesn't have to pay Rivers what was undoubtedly a mighty salary. But even if the end result was fine, the process was still bad. It made ESPN look foolish. They got rid of a tried-and-true team for an unproven booth. The prized acquisition that was supposed to make everything work left after half a season's worth of work-- and it was a move just about everybody saw coming.

Except the ESPN suits, apparently. Now they're left scrambling while personalities they employ criticize them on airwaves they pay for. A pretty tough week for the Worldwide Leader, eh?