Tim Legler explains why ESPN’s NBA Finals broadcast didn’t dig into crucial De’Aaron Fox’s decision in real time
Tim Legler has a pretty good explanation for why ESPN’s NBA Finals broadcast didn’t give De’Aaron Fox’s crucial late-game decision the scrutiny it deserved at the time: the pandemonium that followed.
Legler was a guest on the Awful Announcing Podcast last week and addressed the criticism that the ESPN/ABC broadcast crew of Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson, and Legler barely examined Fox’s decision to go for a breakaway layup rather than hold the ball and force a foul in the closing seconds of Game 4 of the Knicks-Spurs series. The layup was blocked by OG Anunoby, helping set the stage for New York’s stunning comeback victory, and the debate over whether Fox should have taken the foul instead immediately consumed the collective sports media, with First Take, Get Up, and social media all piling on the next morning.
Legler acknowledged the play deserved more attention and said he wished the broadcast had gotten a comment in. But he was also clear about what made that difficult. The moment Fox’s layup was blocked, the Knicks were already racing the other direction, and the broadcast had to immediately reckon with whether the Spurs could take a game-winning shot.
“You got a chance potentially to be calling a game-winning shot right there going the other direction,” Legler told host Brandon Contes. “So it’s like a lot was going on in that moment.”
Then came a bizarre sequence in which Jose Alvarado was fouled at half court with both feet in the front court and the ball in the back court, which had viewers convinced it was a backcourt violation.
“We had to basically work through that — wasn’t a backcourt, here’s why — let’s show the replay, explain that,” Legler said, “because people are freaking out.”
The broadcast worked through the call, explained why it wasn’t a backcourt violation, and went to commercial. Coming back, ABC briefly showed the sequence again but only to address the backcourt question, not Fox’s decision to shoot.
“I wish maybe one of us could have got a quick comment in,” Legler said. “But by no means were we looking at that the next day, saying, ‘Oh, damn,’ you know, beating ourselves up because of what was still happening in the moment. The play continued on, and then there was a very bizarre call that we had to reference.”
Legler also offered substantive nuance on the Fox decision itself, pushing back on the notion that it was as indefensible as the next-day coverage made it out to be. Taking the foul is the prudent play, he acknowledged — it’s never wrong, and nobody is going to scrutinize it. But Fox’s quickness is rare, and he told the broadcast team the next day he could count on one hand the number of times in his entire life he had been tracked down with a one-step lead in the open floor, going all the way back to youth basketball.
“He’s always been the quickest guy on the court,” Legler said. “And I think that’s what he processed. There’s a window there. Let me go lay this in.”
Charles Barkley was the first voice on ESPN’s air to say Fox should have taken the foul, doing so five minutes into the Inside the NBA postgame. As we noted at the time, the absence of any meaningful booth analysis on the most consequential play of the series was a significant oversight. Legler’s account makes the circumstances considerably more understandable. It doesn’t change what the broadcast missed.
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