{"id":576484,"date":"2026-04-10T19:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576484\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:20:09","slug":"longtime-espn-nba-voice-splitting-with-network-before-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576484\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime ESPN NBA voice splitting with network before playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Jones\u2019 time at ESPN is over.<\/p>\n

Jones, who\u2019s been calling games for ESPN for 36 years, will leave the network before the playoffs, The Athletic reported<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n

His last broadcast<\/a> will be Sunday\u2019s Celtics-Magic game at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"TwoMark Jones has been with ESPN since 1990, mostly doing play-by-play for the network\u2019s NBA coverage. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported<\/a> that Jones left by choice, though it\u2019s unclear why.<\/p>\n

Jackson added that ESPN said Jones could\u2019ve stayed, and he is not expected to retire, per The Athletic.<\/p>\n

ESPN also released a statement Friday about Jones\u2019 departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark has made an enduring impact at ESPN since 1990, serving as a signature voice primarily within our NBA and college football coverage and across nearly all of our platforms,\u201d ESPN said in the statement. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful for Mark\u2019s countless contributions and we wish him continued success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones had been with ESPN since 1990, mostly calling NBA and college football games.<\/p>\n

At one point in his career, he was ESPN\u2019s No. 2 NBA voice behind the iconic Mike Breen. That allowed him to fill in and call two NBA Finals games when Breen came down with COVID in 2022.<\/p>\n

Since then, though, he\u2019s been leapfrogged by the likes of Dave Pasch and Ryan Ruocco on ESPN\u2019s depth chart.<\/p>\n

Jones \u2014 a former NYU basketball player \u2014 started his broadcasting journey following his playing career ending in 1986.<\/p>\n

\"ESPNMark Jones will not retire following his departure from ESPN, which will come after his final game on Sunday. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He first began as an anchor for The Sports Network in his home country of Canada, hosting the Toronto Blue Jays magazine show until 1990.<\/p>\n

His time at ESPN began after that stint as the host of \u201cNBA Today,\u201d a weekly show. He eventually moved his way up to play-by-play duties, where recently he\u2019s been paired with analysts like Jay Bilas, Doris Burke and Jon Barry on ESPN\u2019s coverage. He even briefly called games for the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n

Jones also made appearances on ESPN\u2019s college football coverage, working with analyst Louis Riddick. He often called Pac-12 late games prior to the conference\u2019s realignment<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also called men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball, WNBA and NHL games over the course of his career.<\/p>\n

Now, Jones will look for the next stop of his lengthy career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Jones\u2019 time at ESPN is over. Jones, who\u2019s been calling games for ESPN for 36 years, will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,352,355,13331,99,1625,3015,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-576484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-playoffs","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sports-entertainment","14":"tag-sports-media","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}