The 2024 NBA Finals start tonight, and ESPN has a new crew calling the series

After what feels like an eternity, the 2024 NBA Finals finally begin Thursday with Game 1 between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics at TD Garden.

It’s been a week since the Mavericks last took the court, having defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games in the Western Conference finals. The Celtics have been off since Memorial Day following their sweep of the Indiana Pacers.

Probably the biggest story line on the court is Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving’s return to Boston five years after he left to join the Brooklyn Nets. Celtics fans really seem to hate Irving, and they certainly haven’t forgotten him stomping on the team’s logo in 2021 or flipping the middle finger at the crowd in 2022. One fan went so far as to chuck a water bottle at his head.

Speaking to reporters this week, Irving said his past actions weren’t “a great reflection” of the athlete he is today, and he’s prepared for what will be a loud and contentious TD Garden.

“It’s going to be a hectic environment, but I’m looking forward to it and I see it as a healthy relationship that I have with the fans,” Irving told reporters. “I almost think about ‘Gladiator,’ just winning the crowd over. It is good to hear the TD Garden silent when you’re playing well. They still respect great basketball.”

There’s also Irving’s teammate, Luka Dončić, the five-time All-Star who his heading into his first NBA Finals leading the postseason in points (489), rebounds (164), and assists (150). He’s the first player to lead in all three categories heading into the NBA Finals in league history, according to ESPN.

“Luka seems to solve every riddle thrown in his direction,” ESPN announcer Doris Burke said during a conference call this week.

The Celtics enter the finals with 17 championships, tied for the most in league history with the Los Angeles Lakers. Their last title came in 2008, so Jayson Tatum and company could end a 16-year drought while also pushing Beantown one championship ahead of their historic rivals. It would also mean rings for Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who have been flirting with championships for the past six seasons but have been unable to get over the hump.

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Handling play-by-play for ESPN is Mike Breen, who will be calling his 19th straight NBA Finals, more than any other announcer. Joining him in the booth will be analysts Doris Burke and former Sixers shooter JJ Redick, who is calling the NBA Finals for the first time.

It could also be his last. Redick, who joined ESPN in 2021, is reportedly at the top of the list to fill the Los Angeles Lakers’ vacant head coaching job, where he’d join his podcast partner, LeBron James. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported the Lakers are “zeroing in” on Redick, who didn’t exactly deny anything on Wednesday.

“My focus right now is on calling the NBA Finals,” Redick told Gojo and Golic father-son duo Mike Golic and Mike Golic Jr. “In terms of Shams, that will be addressed once the season is over. I’ll just say that.”

It might be addressed sooner rather than later. On Thursday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Lakers are targeting Connecticut’s Dan Hurley as their next head coach, noting he’s been “at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process.”

Burke, who will be calling the NBA Finals for the first time on TV, will also become the first woman to serve as a TV game analyst during a men’s professional championship event. She does have experience calling the NBA Finals, which she’s done for the past four years on ESPN Radio. Burke also served as the NBA Finals sideline reporter for nine years.

Joining the trio will be King of Prussia native Lisa Salters, who will handle sideline reporting duties during the NBA Finals for the third straight year.

Breen called 15 NBA Finals alongside Mark Jackson and Stan Van Gundy, both of whom were victims of companywide cutbacks by parent company Disney. ESPN hired former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers to call the finals alongside Breen and Burke, but he left the network in January to become the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Breen jokingly thanked Rivers for his “many weeks of service.”

The Mavericks and Celtics’ best-of-seven NBA Finals series begins Thursday at TD Bank in downtown Boston.

It’s the final series before the NBA announces new TV rights deals that will keep the finals on ABC and ESPN, according to sources. While TNT would still air games during the 2024-25 season, the network is expected to be replaced by NBC and Amazon beginning with the 2025-26 season.

Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in five games to earn the first NBA Finals’ win in franchise history.

This season, both teams sputtered. Jokić and the Nuggets were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Timberwolves, while the Heat didn’t make it past the play-in after Jimmy Butler sprained his knee against the Sixers.

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It’s been a while.

The last Sixers team that advanced all the way to the NBA Finals was the Allen Iverson-led squad way back in 2001. The Sixers won Game 1 of that series, but were ultimately defeated by Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in five games.

In recent years, the Sixers haven’t been able to get out of the second round, even after landing Joel Embiid with No. 3 pick in the 2014 NBA draft. This year, they snuck into the playoffs thanks to their play-in game win against the Heat and were ultimately eliminated in the first round by the New York Knicks and former Villanova star Jalen Brunson.

All told, the Sixers have been to the NBA Finals six times, winning three NBA championships in 1983, 1967, and 1955 (though that last one came when they were still the Syracuse Nationals before relocating the Philadelphia).