Mark Jones Re-Signs With ESPN, Agreeing to Multi-Year Contract Extension
“This is where I want to be. I’m absolutely thrilled to continue this unimaginable journey through sports at ESPN with the most talented people in the industry.”
Mark Jones has been with ESPN since 1990, and his 32-year career with the network is going to continue. The broadcaster has agreed to a multi-year contract extension with ESPN, which was announced on Friday.
Jones is one of ESPN’s top play-by-play voices on the NBA and college football. He’s served in a variety of roles during his long career at the network, including anchoring NBA studio programming and SportsCenter, hosting NBA All-Star and NBA Draft coverage, and calling play-by-play on men’s and women’s college basketball, in addition to the WNBA.
“Mark Jones’s love for — and commitment to — the NBA and our presentation of the league is exceptional,” said Tim Corrigan, ESPN vice president of production, in a statement. “His ability to cover the game, measure the moment, and share valuable, memorable notes about the teams, the players, and the game defines his style.”
Jones will be on the call this Sunday (March 13) for ABC’s broadcast of the New York Knicks at the Brooklyn Nets, with analyst Doris Burke (who also just signed an extension with the network) and reporter Malika Andrews.
Previously, Jones has also called track and field, gymnastics, and speed skating for ESPN and ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
Jones is also currently the TV play-by-play voice on Sacramento Kings game telecasts for NBC Sports California, now finishing up his second season with the team.
“This is where I want to be,” Jones said in ESPN’s official announcement. “I’m absolutely thrilled to continue this unimaginable journey through sports at ESPN with the most talented people in the industry.
“I think about walking into the NBA Today and SportsCenter studios in 1990 with a chance to document the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, and almost 32 years later I’m covering another all-time legend in LeBron James. I’m elated by the opportunities I’ve had. I’ve even interviewed our first Black President Barack Obama.”
Prior to joining ESPN/ABC, Jones worked at TSN in Toronto, where he anchored studio coverage and highlight programs, in addition to a weekly show featuring the Toronto Blue Jays. His brother, Paul, still works in Canada as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Raptors.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
These days, WPLJ in New York City is a Christian station owned by the Educational Media Foundation. When Mike Breen was a kid in Yonkers though, it was one of the most influential rock stations in America and the man who is now known as the voice of the NBA wanted to be on the air there.
On the latest edition of Dan Le Batard’s South Beach Sessionspodcast, Breen revealed that he always loved sports. His first introduction to broadcasting though came from a neighbor named Tony Minecola. He was a few years older than Breen and studying to be a radio broadcaster in college.
“He built a radio station in his basement and played disc jockey,” Breen told Le Batard. “’He had commercials, records, you know, everything. Like it was a real radio station, only it only went from one room to the next. That was what he was into, and that’s what he was going to college for. And we used to hang out in the basement all the time. And one day he says, ‘Hey, why don’t you come in? You want to you want to be the DJ for a little bit?’ And I’m like, okay, let me try it.’ And I fell in love with it.”
Mike Breen didn’t just fall in love with the idea of radio. He saw it as a viable career and knew exactly where he wanted it to take him.
“I enjoyed being on the air and talking. So my initial thought was, ‘I’m going to be a disc jockey.’ WPLJ was like the big rock station in New York back at that time, and I thought, ‘I’m going to be a DJ on WPLJ.’ That was my first goal.
Through the 70s and early 80s, WPLJ was an album rock station. Some of its most iconic on air personalities included Carol Miller, Pat St. John, Fr. Bill Ayers, and Mark Goodman, who was eventually one of MTV’s original VJs.
Breen said he loved the rock music of the time, especially Jethro Tull and Bruce Springsteen, but he realized that a broadcasting career could keep him close to sports too.
Obviously, he chose well. That is not to say that he couldn’t have been a great DJ if given the chance, but he went on to be the voice of the New York Knicks and has called more NBA Finals games than anyone else in history.
WPLJ was out of the rock business by 1983 when it became a pop station.
CBS Sports is set to premiere new episodes of its franchise Beyond Limits, which celebrates athletes who go beyond the implicit boundaries of sports and society. Three half-hour episodes will be hosted by CBS Sports reporter AJ Ross, and will also air on CBS’ linear channel and stream live on Paramount+.
The first episode of the season is titled “Who I Am,” and it will feature Byron Perkins, who is the first openly gay football player at a historically black college or university (HBCU). Perkins is a redshirt senior at Hampton University. The show will also discuss the relationship he has with his mother and how she has impacted him both as a person and an athlete.
Two more episodes will premiere throughout the season – one on making sports adaptable and accessible; and the other featuring athletes who have moved into executive roles. The latter show includes interviews with NBA Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations, Joe Dumars; New Orleans Pelicans Vice President of Basketball Operations and Team Development, Swin Cash; and NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Troy Vincent.
The series, which first premiered in September 2021, is produced by the CBS Sports Race and Culture Unit, with senior producer Sarah M. Kazadi. Its first episode premieres on Sunday, June 11 at 1:30 p.m. EST/10:30 a.m. PST, and should provide fans with unique storytelling and spotlight into the journeys of various key figures in sports and media alike.
Neil Everett has become one of the faces of SportsCenter. After 23 years at ESPN, he announced that he is leaving the network.
Colleagues at the World Wide Leader took to Twitter to share their thoughts. It was universal praise from the people that knew and worked with Everett. Chief among them was his SportsCenter partner of fourteen years, Stan Verrett.
I started at espn in 2000, a few months after Neil Everett. We joined up for sportscenter from LA in 2009. For 14 years, he was the best teammate I could imagine. Selfless, caring, generous, and a pro’s pro. He’s moving on now, but we are brothers for life. That’ll never change.
Everett has spent the last two years as part of the television studio crew covering the Portland Trail Blazers. He told Front Office Sportsthat he will be seeking to expand his role with the team.
If Root Sports Northwest requires references, there are plenty ESPN colleagues past and present that were immediately ready to vouch for Neil Everett.
Neil Everett doesn’t believe in Twitter. Leave positive comments here and I will share with him. Or, I will just give you his number. Great teammate, great friend, many laughing fits with him. Loves animals, WA and Hawaii. And Oregon.
Neil Everett. Nicest guy. Old school SportsCenter cool. Crazy funny. Great writer. Loves sprint car racing. 23 years of all that? Blessed to have called him a teammate. Even more to call him a friend. pic.twitter.com/vH6GntFJyX
Mahalo to Neil Everett, the best I ever co-anchored with. And an even better person. *3 months into my gig at ESPN, invited me to his home for Thanksgiving *For a few years, we both refused to say “Thunder” on TV #Sonics *bonded over music, WA & much more.#SimplyTheBestpic.twitter.com/QG1ae9AE7v
Everett was not laid off. He turned down a new contract that would have forced him to take a pay cut.
The Walt Disney Company is in the middle of layoffs effecting every division. CEO Bob Iger has tasked his leaders with reducing costs by $5.5 billion and cutting 7000 jobs.
