National Basketball Association Playoffs, ESPN Radio (USA)
Eastern Conference Finals
Miami Heat v Indiana Pacers - Kevin Calabro and Hubie Brown
Western Conference Finals
Memphis Grizzlies v San Antonio Spurs - Dave Pasch and Chris Mullin
NBA Finals
Miami Heat v San Antonio Spurs - Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown, with Marc Stein as sideline reporter
Marc Kestecher has presented the bulk of the NBA Playoffs on ESPN Radio broadcasts, with Kevin Winter and John Brickley (who have covered for Kesty as the host of ESPN Radio's MLB coverage during the playoffs) sitting in for him on the occasions when he has been commentating on games from the first two rounds of playoffs.
Unlike their coverage of the Major League Baseball postseason, where they provide live coverage on every game of the playoffs, ESPN Radio only broadcast commentary on the whole of the Conference Finals and NBA Finals. During the First Round and Conference Semi-Finals, ESPN Radio broadcast selected games - each week they have one on Sunday afternoon (one of the televised Sunday Showcase matches on ABC) and one on Saturday either before or after their MLB Game of the Week, plus a good number of midweek matches including most Game 7 series deciders. During these rounds they have used Calabro, Pasch, Kestecher and I think Dave Flemming (radio voice of the San Francisco Giants MLB team) as commentators with Brown, Mullin, Dr. Jack Ramsay, Will Perdue and Jim Spanarkel as co-commentators.
ESPN Radio's coverage of the NBA Playoffs has been tinged with a lot of sadness as after calling Game 7 of the Chicago Bulls v Brooklyn Nets First Round series, Dr. Jack Ramsay - one of the NBA's legendary coaches and the lead co-commentator for ESPN Radio over the past decade - announced he needed to undergo immediate medical treatment and would have to miss the rest of the playoffs. Ramsay is a cancer survivor who turned 88 this year.
It had been planned that Ramsay would be involved in ESPN Radio's coverage for the duration of the playoffs, were it not for his illness he would be commentating on the NBA Finals with Tirico and Brown and I believe he would also have called the Eastern Conference Finals with Calabro, as Brown was originally scheduled to co-commentate on the Western Conference Finals for ESPN television.
Earlier in the year, Ramsay had announced he was planning to retire from broadcasting at the end of the season after the death of his long-time ESPN Radio partner and close friend Jim Durham at the start of it, so it is sad that he will have to bow out in these circumstances. Personally speaking, I have only started listening to ESPN Radio's NBA coverage this season and I found Ramsay a real joy to listen to - incredibly wise but still very enthusiastic about the modern NBA, the absolute antithesis of the stereotypical stuck-in-the-past older pundit. It was heartening to hear an older person being such a revered analyst on perhaps the ultimate young man's sport, the respect and affection he commanded from the players and coaches he interviewed always shone through. He'll definitely be missed and hearing him call the Finals would certainly have enhanced my enjoyment of it. But the most important thing is that he's in good health and I wish him well in his recovery.