Turner Sports is reportedly on the verge of picking up one of the biggest broadcast free agents of the summer, adding Stan Van Gundy to its TNT and NBATV crew for the 2019-20 season.
Van Gundy was with ESPN last season after four years as head coach and president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons. He worked in studio with Michelle Beadle and as an analyst for occasional games, including once with his brother Jeff, who remains a part of ESPN’s no. 1 team for NBA coverage.
Presumably, Van Gundy will be assuming a larger role with Turner Sports than he previously had with ESPN. Turner will need new analysts for game coverage after scrapping its weekly Players Only night, and Van Gundy figures to slot right in to one of those positions. Plus, as Adam Marchand of the New York Post notes, “If the new deal goes through, the Van Gundys will be the first family of NBA game analysts.”
Currently, TNT’s number one team includes Marv Albert alongside Chris Webber and Reggie Miller as the analysts. Webber and Miller are slightly duplicative of one another as former players, so substituting Van Gundy for one of the pair, theoretically, would bring a new dimension to broadcasts.
In other prominent hirings this summer, Turner Sports brought on Steve Nash, who already does soccer analysis for the network, for NBA coverage. However, he is not expected to call games.
