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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Roger that. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell gave his yearly interview at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Idaho yesterday, and when pressed about the league’s opportunity to exercise its “change-of-control” provision regarding CBS’s impending merger with Skydance, the commissioner made it clear the league isn’t looking to dump CBS. “We’ve had a long relationship with CBS for decades. We also have a relationship outside of that with Skydance. So I don’t anticipate that that’s something that we’ll see,” he said. “We have a two-year period to make that decision. I don’t see that happening, but we have that option, and that’s something we’ll take a look at.”

✍️ Taylor in KC. The second most-famous Taylor involved with the Kansas City Chiefs has a new gig. One day after announcing his departure from The Athletic, ESPN announced Nate Taylor would be joining the network as the Chiefs’ beat writer. Taylor has served as a Chiefs beat reporter since 2018, covering multiple Super Bowl runs for the team.

🎵 Cutting the Blues. Longtime St. Louis Blues television voice John Kelly is out at FanDuel Sports Network Midwest amid apparent cost-cutting measures. Kelly will be replaced by the Blues’ old radio team, Chris Kerber and Joey Vitale, who will now simultaneously call games for both a television and radio audience. Predictably, Blues fans weren’t thrilled with this development.

️‍🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Amazon’s NBA crew comes together

After a steady IV drip of NBA talent announcements throughout the course of 2025, Amazon officially revealed its broadcast roster for its inaugural season of NBA coverage this fall. Included in the announcement were a number of people we already knew would be headed to the streamer — Ian Eagle, Kevin Harlan, Stan Van Gundy, Cassidy Hubbarth, etc. — but also a few we didn’t.

The names headlining the “didn’t know” list are a pretty enticing bunch filled with talents that haven’t necessarily called NBA games for a national audience before. Charlotte Hornets play-by-player Eric Collins, who has become widely known for his excitable calls, will contribute his voice to Prime Video’s NBA coverage.

On the analyst side of things, Collins’ Hornets partner Dell Curry, father of you-know-who, was also part of Amazon’s announcement as was Brent Barry, who has recently held jobs with the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs after a stint with TNT.

All told, it looks like Amazon is taking a similar approach to its NBA coverage as it took with its NFL coverage three years ago when the streamer began airing Thursday Night Football exclusively. Amazon has tabbed some big, reputable names for its top teams, while identifying some new voices for its other roles.

Collins, and Curry haven’t held broadcasting roles on the national stage. Neither have Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki or Blake Griffin, all of whom will feature on Amazon’s studio coverage. Michael Grady, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ play-by-play announcer, will also need to introduce himself to a national audience. The combination of new and old should give Amazon’s coverage a level of comfort on the one hand — it won’t feel like they’re doing this for the first time — but a freshness on the other.

One interesting thing to keep an eye on when it comes to Amazon’s coverage next season is what the broadcast pairings will look like. Yesterday, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reported that the streamer plans to mix and match its broadcast teams with both two- and three-person booths.

Luckily, Amazon has the luxury of experimenting a bit more than usual next season. Prime Video won’t air a Conference Final until 2027, with NBC getting first dibs in the rotation for 2026. That means the streamer has a bit more time to settle on its lead team before they tackle the bigger assignments. You can be sure, however, that it’ll be Ian Eagle or Kevin Harlan filling that chair when the time comes.

💬 AROUND AA 💬

DeMaurice Smith blasts prominent NFL media figures

Former NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith did not hold back his feelings about CBS host James Brown, NBC play-by-play voice Mike Tirico, and NBC analyst Tony Dungy in his new book “Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America’s Game.” Smith blasted the trio for cleansing former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s image after a series of 2021 emails revealed the coach described Smith in racist terms.

Awful Announcing contributor Daniel Kaplan reports the scathing details here.

📣NOTABLE QUOTABLES🗣️

• “This was the biggest joke I’ve ever watched in professional tennis.” — American tennis star Andy Roddick ripping billionaire Bill Ackman for participating in an ATP Challenger Tour event as a “wildcard” entry.

• “If I was running the union and I got this ruling in which Roger Goodell was caught saying this stuff in coordination with the owners … I would be calling for Roger Goodell’s job.” — Meadowlark Media’s Pablo Torre on new reporting surrounding the NFL and NFLPA’s collusion coverup.

• “I came close to very seriously entertaining other places.” — ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky describing his summer of free agency before returning to the Worldwide Leader.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Is the NBA Summer League kinda good?

Last night, former Duke Blue Devils superstar Cooper Flagg made his NBA “debut” with the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas. It won’t be must-watch TV by any stretch of the imagination. But boy, does the Summer League kind of hit.

I feel like the Summer League was made for people like me. I’m a big basketball fan, but I skew much more towards the college game than the NBA during the season. In the summers, golf is my preferred sport to throw on television. Tennis if it’s a Grand Slam. And soccer, when it’s a tournament like the Gold Cup, Euros, or Copa America. I’ll get some dirty looks from my coworkers for writing this, but baseball doesn’t come on in my household until October.

For the next few weeks in July, my nighttime sports viewing habits are pretty hamstrung. The golf and tennis are both happening overseas, and by the time the sun sets here on the East Coast, it’s already long done for the day. Unfortunately, the Gold Cup is over. And there’s only one more match left in the Club World Cup. Primetime soccer viewing is over for me this summer, unless I stumble across a rare MLS game on FS1.

What’s a man to do? Spend time with friends? Go outside? Watch something that isn’t a live sport? Hell no. NBA Summer League is on, and it’s the prettiest girl left at this almost empty bar. Time to spark a conversation.

I’m not going to try to put lipstick on a pig; NBA Summer League viewership is not great. Most games average between 200,000 and 400,000 viewers. But games that feature highly anticipated debuts can pop.

Zion Williamson’s debut with the New Orleans Pelicans averaged 1.64 million viewers in 2019. Two years ago, Victor Wembanyama scared up 1.39 million viewers for his San Antonio Spurs debut. Lonzo Ball had similar drawing power in 2017, averaging nearly one million viewers across his first two Summer League appearances.

The NBA is certainly trying to manufacture some level of excitement this year. Flagg and the Mavs played Bronny James and the Los Angeles Lakers to kick things off. As far as Summer League matchups go, that’s about as tasty as you can get.

And for a college hoops junkie, Summer League feels like an Easter egg hunt. Flip on a game and you’re bound to see “that guy from Utah State” or “the clumsy center that played a year at UNLV.” It’s fun. Most of these guys will never sniff NBA rosters, but Summer League can serve as a quick trip down memory lane.

When you’re as desperate for live sports as I am this time of year, that’s not a bad thing to flip on. Is Summer League going to be the next big viewership play for ESPN? Of course not. Will the product ever appeal to anyone outside of hardcore basketball fans or people desperate to disassociate on the couch after a long day of work? It probably won’t do that either.

But we’re not asking for Sunday Night Football. Heck, we’re not even asking for the Hall of Fame Game! It’s the middle of July, and we get to watch some hoops. That’s pretty damn good.