ESPN doesn’t feel threatened to improve their draft coverage because they’ve owned it for decades and there’s no competing broadcast that would force them to actually put out a good product.

They literally just increased the picture resolution of their Finals broadcast because of Amazon and NBC’s game coverage.

Just another thing that needs to be taken away from ESPN.

Even on here it was wonky. The NFL Draft is so clean and the sub has like generated stupid little player cards things for each draft pick. You come in here and it was a bot shitting out ticker tape nonsense.

The endless identical puff piece interviews kill any momentum, and ditching the fun player comps and analysis for more ad time feels like a slap to actual fans. Stretching it over two nights just to milk it more is classic Silver. Everything’s about maximizing revenue, not making the product watchable. Bring back the old-school format where it actually felt exciting please

Media training sanitized everything. Too confident? Cocky. Humble? Weak. There’s a bad spin to everything, so now guys are taught to say politician-level, white-bread shit.

I never watch the draft in any sport and dont really get the appeal

Even if my team had the #1 pick I’d proabbly just watch them pick the guy then stop watching

“ i jus wanna thank goddddd, i love my mother. I can’t wait to play for this city”

It’s literally people reading a list of names .. the fuck are you expecting, fireworks? 

i feel like i’m being gaslit by reddit i feel like they were spending a minute or two talking about each player and a highlight package of each guy’s strengths. How confusing the trade situation is completely valid though that’s idiotic and the interviews weren’t very interesting either so sure i get that too. Splitting the draft to 2 nights is also cause team Front offices wanted that in order to let teams strategize in the second round more too.

*i was watching the espn broadcast with actual college and draft analysts so i could see the ABC broadcast being a lot worse

Respectfully the 3-4 minutes of highlights is how the draft always has been.. like how much time do you think they have between picks/interviews to talk about a given player

On the whole though, I deff thought it was a corny job by ESPN this year

I think people just need to understand draft content is for nerds and if you aren’t a nerd don’t watch it. And if you are a nerd there’s no need to watch the actual draft because the interesting part is who is getting drafted where are not the theatrics of it

I didn’t think it was bad at all

Stretching this night into two nights is also insane.

I don’t get why anyone cares about this.

If they cared about the people watching the stuff they wouldn’t be racing to sell out to gambling companies that exploit and ruin the lives of their fan base

ESPN has a knack for ruining the experience for anything. They ruined the wnba expansion draft too

It is brutal. The interviews are way too long and just awkward. I’m sorry but I don’t need to see 10 interviews in a row where a mom who’s never spoke into a mic before says “I’m so proud of my son”. And how in 2026 can they still he so bad with trades. Not changing the graphic and showing where the player is actually going is insane. When the grizzlies traded back from 17 to 21 last night it was literally 15 minutes before they cut to Shams to explain that Okorie was actually going to Detroit.

It feels like I may be alone in this, but I thought the draft coverage with Andrews, Bilas, Legler, etc was just as fine as it’s always been. Bilas may not have brought up player comparisons, but he still shared his insights on the players skillsets and who he thinks could be up next like he usually does. Also, Legler had some fine takes about who he thinks a team might be looking for based on needs.

I’m not saying the draft coverage is amazing but am I crazy for thinking that it never was? Like I don’t think it’s any worse than it’s been before.

I’d love for a different company to get broadcast rights though. Based on their studio crew, I feel like Amazon could field a very solid team to cover the draft.

Adam Silver and the Philadelphia 70 selectors

To say everything Adam Silver has done hasn’t made the nba product better is a lie. The NBA cup is amazing. We just saw the two cup finalist in the nba finals. As much as I dislike the play-in that joint is a hit too most of the time. Everybody complained about the decal not being there guess what he brought it back. NBA is in a much better place coming off the most watched finals since 1998. You can disagree with how the draft went but in the words of KD…NBA fans don’t like anything about the nba. I also dislike Silver but come on.

I could do without all the fucking interviews. I mean, I hate to say it……but interviewing a bunch of 18-22YO young dudes isn’t exactly spell binding. They happen to be excellent at basketball, but usually you wouldn’t want to actually talk to them. It’s not like interviewing Steph or Steve Kerr or Lebron or any actual adult player where they have something to say. And the parents are boring as shit too, “We’re just so proud of him. He’s worked so hard.”

The girlfriends can be mildly amusing, but it’s not like Lisa Salters is like, “So…..front door or back door?”

I’d rather see Bilas breaking down tape of them for 5 minutes or how these guys fit on the team that took them.

I feel like the draft is a microcosm of everything wrong with ESPN.

They think the internet does it better, so they don’t even try to compete. Instead they just want to see how many ads they can cram between pithy remarks from ex-pros.

They know there are some die hards who will watch the draft regardless so they wanna maximize the ad revenue on that contingent.

The announcers just straight up ignored the trades, often speaking about the draftee’s fit with the team they had been openly traded from, instead of their fit with the team they have been traded to. Also, the family interviews are mindless repetitive bs. Show me more basketball highlights, with a light dose of player interviews. Unless the parent/guardians are former prominent players/coaches, I do not need to hear from them. There are more than enough scrappy reality shows to scratch that itch.

was the worst decision to split the draft into 2 days imo. + interviewing every single player is unnecessary

I’m sorry but I don’t need to hear “what does moment mean for you” 30 times along with your mom holding the mic 10 feet from her face.

🌎🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀

It always was unwatchable

Ppl watch the draft? Just watch the board light up while doing something else. Much more entertaining

The draft was horrible and splitting it into two nights will be another Silver disaster. It was clear who was ever in charge last night had no idea what they were doing the first 10 picks took like a half hr then all of a sudden it was like someone realized they had 3 hrs to fill so if slowed down. Then by pick 20 it slowed to a snails pace and with the Knicks and Lakers picks it took like 30 min to announce those two.

Why can’t the NBA figure out draft pick trades? We knew the Bucks owned Miami’s pick before the draft. But for the 13th pick, the broadcast and stage graphics say Miami, Silver announces the pick as Miami, and they give Amnet a Miami hat but he’s going to the BUCKS??? It’s such a pet peeve of mine.

The legler/bilas broadcast was average at best but something tells me you caught one of the alternate broadcasts.

Not to be another “wow the NFL does this way better” guy, but it feels like on every level the NBA is just an inferior product. It’s insane that the most watched sports league in the country actually has more reverence and respect for its game and its players than the NBA. Not that the bar is set very high.

i don’t see how anyone is captivated by hours of roster updates. just check in the morning and see who went where.

Y’all have no idea how superior NFL media is compared to NBA media

i like when the parents use the little side interview as an opportunity to talk about their parenting philosophies like im writing ts down if i ever wanna make an nba player

lisa salters sitting down w both the parents: ‘so he really looks up to you mom and dad, but especially you dad…’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsWY6BOIO9I

I didn’t get to watch the draft. I have the ESPN app and have the Hawks as one of my teams to follow. They gave me a notification for the first 7 picks and then completely stopped. Never gave me a notification on who my actual team picked, but made sure to notify me of who the Celtics picked.

And you can tell they vet the players families prior to the interview. Acuff Jr’s interview was like 15 seconds long lmao

“Yaxel, this is the best night of your life. Talk us through on national television how you wanted to commit suicide in high school”. Fuck espn so hard. 

The family interview in the fake living room seemed a little odd to me. I love hearing those stories but using the prop room seemed weird

“become”

I don’t like how in the NBA and WNBA drafts, the tv crew often gets the pick ahead of time so they can set up the camera shot.

So if one player is getting a 2 minute close up shot before the pick is announced, it’s probably going to be them. Really ruins the anticipation of it all.

I don’t know why anyone watches any sports draft at all. There’s no actual sports going on. Just old men in bad suits making decisions about young kids in good suits. I’ll turn on the TV when a ball is being moved.

ESPN needs to rethink their approach for next year. Although I do enjoy when Fran chimes in.

I would recommend alternative live streams.

Adam Silver that’s why.

Like Brandon Jennings said last night it’s like the BET awards

Ad money

The best analysts aren’t working for ESPN and no one is putting in the hype work anymore. As much as people hated Bill Simmons, he was really great at being a divisive Celtics homer while providing the right amount of emotional content for each pick. Take 2/Grantland made the offseason an extra season interesting enough to follow outside Reddit, but without that extra support it’s just a bunch of rudimentary walk ups with no context.

There are no more Anthony Bennett, “what?!?!?!?” reactions and the draft suffers for it. No more announcers over enthused about Danny Granger. No more comparisons of Buddy Hield being big like Klay. What they need is Barkley, Shaq, Simmons, and Lowe to just rip into each pick unfiltered while breaking down free agency and trades.

What if you just didn’t watch it and got the results the next day?

Found myself immediately asking “what happened to the player comparisons?”

They always oversimplify everything that makes things fun.

I watched Josh Lloyd, who hosts Locked on Fantasy Basketball. Much more informative and entertaining.

Tim Legler was on the Bill Simmons pod this week and said he’s been cramming the past week+ on draft prospects so he is able to cover the draft. Love Legs, but this really shows how little ESPN cares about draft coverage. Also Givony is a draft guru and ESPN axed him just last year.

Why would basketball fans want highlights and player comparisons when they can have a constant stream of parents sitting on a couch saying the same things over and over again?

The draft was never highly watchable. Av TV producer could make it more watchable by doing the actual draft stuff earlier and the show is just doing actual picks, interview, and analysis. But then Reddit would complain about it taking away from the soul of the draft

i didnt even watch i never have and still dont buy the lottery ball bs   the nba draft is rigged

This was the best they’ve done in years

Why on earth would anyone watch live?

Not sure, didn’t watch it.

Reddit OBSESSES over the idea to sensationalize everything

It’s always been really bad. Now it’s just unbearable

By far the worst draft experience of my life

I love the nfl draft, I was AT the combine covering the event

I couldn’t keep attention through this program, it was absolutely the least informative or entertaining version of a draft possible

ESPN and Disney are just the utter dregs of entertainment they have completely lost the plot

I tuned in and tuned out its not even good filler

I could barely hear the ESPN analysts over the announcer at the actual venue too. Like it was fucking ridiculous, I eventually just muted it until the Celtics were up

It’s the commercials. 

Almost like everything else NBA

I switched to it a few times but it was lifeless, especially the interviews. Maybe spent 5 minutes total watching. I regret even that.

The highlight of the draft was him getting booed at the start of it. You know that must have killed him. He doesn’t have the FU attitude that Goodell posesses.

Im in bed before 9 every night because im up at 5 to get to the gym and walk my pup. Spurs were pick 20 so I was hoping to catch that before bed, but gave up when they were on pick 12 by like 8:30. That shit was actually ridiculous.

It was so boring last night.

That’s why I watched a podcast watch along and had ESPN muted on another screen.

100% agree. The players and their parents always say the same stuff and we end up having to wait an extra 3-5 minutes between each pick because of all the yapping. Do a quick interview as they walk off the stage, move on to the next person.