ESPN today announced that Doris Burke will become the "first woman at the national level to be assigned a full season rotation of games as an NBA game analyst," according to Richard Deitsch of SI.com. She will "serve as an analyst for ESPN regular-season NBA telecasts as well as the NBA playoffs." Over the last couple of years, Burke has "worked selected NBA games as a color commentator but now gets cemented as a regular." Burke said that she will "keep her role as lead ESPN NBA sideline reporter" for the Conference Finals and Finals. Burke said, "When Doug Collins made the decision to leave the network and join the Chicago Bulls' organization, it opened up an opportunity to be more involved in our coverage as a game analyst." The news "comes at a time where we are seeing other women morphing into the analyst's seat on NBA broadcasts." Stephanie Ready in '15 became the "first full time NBA game analyst" as a member of FS Southeast's Hornets coverage. In a broadcasting first, YES Network last week announced that Sarah Kustok would "serve as the Nets' full-time color commentator, making her the only woman handling the analyst duties solo for an NBA team." Burke said, "Full credit there goes to the NBA and to ESPN. They are willing to put people like me in a position to do this" (SI.com, 9/25).
