Doris Burke and ESPN Colleagues Face Heat Over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Unfair Habit Before NBA Finals

“I have zero respect for SGA. Zero, none.” That’s not a rival. Not some salty fan. That’s Mark Titus — and that was just the beginning of a wild rant on his Mostly Sports podcast this week. While most of the basketball world has been busy falling in love with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Finals performance, Titus is saying what a few people have only dared to whisper: that SGA’s game isn’t just unique — it feels unfair. And he’s not just calling out the MVP favorite. He’s going after the ESPN crew, too, for how they’ve been selling Shai’s style to millions.

Titus didn’t hold back, calling SGA the “worst MVP of my lifetime” and his game a “disgusting watch.” But his real venom was reserved for what he sees as SGA’s one and only move. “He pushes off on literally every f—— basket he scores,” Titus fumed. “And then the refs just for some reason don’t call it.” This “unfair habit” has been a flashpoint all series, and it came to a head in the most crucial moment of Game 4.

With under 2:30 left in the fourth quarter and the Thunder down by one, SGA went into isolation against Aaron Nesmith. He drove left, used his right arm to create space on a step-back, sent Nesmith stumbling, and calmly hit the go-ahead jumper. It was a cold-blooded shot, but the replay clearly showed the off-arm extension. It’s a move he’s gone to time and time again, a masterful, borderline-illegal tactic that has fans and analysts tearing their hair out.

This is where the broadcast crew gets dragged into the fight. As Titus sees it, the commentators are accomplices. “They do their best to carry water for them and they’re like, ‘Wooh, he’s creating separation right there,'” he said. “Then they slow-mo it and we just see… he put his shoulder down, he pushed off… And they, for some reason, don’t call it.” The criticism is that by using soft language like “creating separation,” the booth, and specifically Doris Burke, is giving a pass to what many view as a blatant offensive foul.

Titus elaborated on his point: “He either gets fouled and goes to the free throw line or he hits the mid-range jumper that then Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson say, ‘Well, look at how good he is at getting to his spot and creating separation.’”

The irony’s hard to miss. Earlier in the playoffs, Thunder fans slammed Burke for even mentioning the “free-throw merchant” label that’s followed SGA for years — the rip-throughs, the leg kicks, the baiting. Now? Those same fans are watching her get accused of sugarcoating what looks like an offensive foul. It’s a no-win situation that highlights the intense pressure of the Finals broadcast, a pressure that now extends far beyond on-court analysis.

Is this Doris Burke’s last stint with ESPN?

While the on-court action has been intense, the off-court drama surrounding the future of ESPN’s broadcast booth has been just as compelling. According to a recent report from The Athletic, Doris Burke’s spot on the lead broadcast team is “not guaranteed for next season.” Burke, who made history this year as the first woman to be a TV analyst for the NBA Finals, could be calling her last championship series for the network.

So, why the uncertainty? The answer lies in the massive, landscape-altering media rights deal the NBA is finalizing. For the first time in over two decades, ESPN/ABC is about to have some serious competition. The league is reportedly locking in a new 11-year, $76 billion deal that brings NBC and Amazon Prime Video into the fold as major broadcast partners. This isn’t just a new channel on the dial; it’s a paradigm shift.

Suddenly, ESPN is no longer the undisputed king of the NBA world. They are about to be in a street fight for viewers, and the pressure to have the perfect, most-liked broadcast team is immense. NBC is reportedly making a major play to bring in Charles Barkley, with NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus saying, “If Charles were available, we’d certainly love to have that conversation with him.” Amazon, with its near-limitless resources, can build any kind of broadcast team it wants from scratch.

This new reality puts a huge amount of pressure on ESPN’s current crew. The fan criticism of the Breen-Burke-Jefferson booth, whether fair or not, is no longer just social media noise. In a competitive market, viewer sentiment matters. ESPN executives are now forced to evaluate everything, including whether a two-person booth might be more effective or if a different combination of analysts would create better chemistry.

For Doris Burke, a trailblazer who has reached the pinnacle of her profession, her future on the biggest stage might now depend less on her undeniable knowledge of the game and more on the cold, hard business of a new media war.