Breaking - Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose out at ESPN

[FluLikeSymptoms]

Is Disney losing money?

[Castle Black]

Damn they got McShay too? ESPN cleaning house

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[CS707]

So Perk survived the cuts?

ESPN's NBA coverage is so constantly bad it's kind of amazing. TNT obviously is a miraculous level of personalities put together so it's an impossible standard to live up to. The only NBA coverage people ESPN has who I actually want to listen to these days are Windhorst and Woj.

Gotta imagine Perk is on a minimum level contract. These moves are about money first, not quality.

[ken6199]

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Wow.

So they're going to go younger, cheaper it looks like, keeping the less expensive commentators.

Marcellus Wiley talked about cuts on one of his recent youtube videos.

Basically, Stephen A and Greenburg make a lot more money than everyone else there, but they aren't going to get fired since they're the stars of the network.

And it isn't effective to cut a bunch of cheaper people. ESPN can't function if they cut their producers, camera people etc.

So the mid-level people are going to get cleaned out. On-air talents are replaceable if they aren't the ones driving ratings.

You can also say those mid level guys have a job and get paid decently because of the super stars at the top.

It's corp america these days. Look at Microsoft - the soaring super star this year. They made billions of profit while laying off people left and right just to please the wall street enough and for those stakeholders at the top to reap the benefit of MSFT stock surge. Likewise, leadership team aren't affected, and young folks are needed as work horses and whipping boys. Lot of mid level guys got laid off because they are replaceable and not the most cost efficient which is sad because of the new mortgages and young kids.

[Rafael122]

Hate that anyone's getting fired but Kellerman was reportedly making $5 million a year, which is pretty crazy. Some of these salaries are outrageous, I'm not really sure who decided Greenberg was going to be one of the faces of the network, but here we are. You can take the $7 million he makes per year and probably hire 10 people and still have money left over.

It's a combination of cord cutting, bloated salaries, and ESPN just putting in a bid and buying all the sports.

Sage Steele makes 3M a year lol

Yeah and honestly, the only reason why they're still on is because the buyout terms must be outrageous. That's the only explanation.

I do miss the ESPN of old, it has nothing to do with the politics because that doesn't faze me at all, but you knew at 11 PM you were getting Stuart Scott Van Pelt or at 6 you were getting Brian Kenny and Chris McKendry. It felt like comfort food.

[Big Lob]

Is Disney losing money?

Go look at the movies they've been releasing as of late, alot of flops. Don't think Indy is gonna do any good either.

[jokeboy86]

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Perkins is going to get a promotion lol.

ESPN thinks Perkins can be their Barkley and if you look on their YouTube home page you can see he's one of the faces spotlighted along with SVP and SAS. Say what you want about his idiotic Jokc take but it got attention and if you're in media you want somebody who gets attention good or bad and hate from casual sports fans as well(see Bayless). In modern media if you're vanilla, safe, neutral or boring then there's really no place for you anymore. If you're not pissing people off you're not making money.

[druggas]

Is Disney losing money?

Go look at the movies they've been releasing as of late, alot of flops. Don't think Indy is gonna do any good either.

They've been going down hill for a while now. Sometimes companies forget just what got them to the top to begin with.

[Mamba81p]

They let JVG go but keep mark Jackson and Kendrick Perkins? WTH? Now I really hope they don't get NBA rights

[Jkam31]

They probably got tired of him complaining about the rules every broadcast.

And what rule did he complain about that he shouldn’t have

[Michael Bradley]

Kendrick Perkins not only staying but also getting promoted confirms that none of this was merit based. It was all financial. Perk makes horrendous takes (and not in an entertaining way like SAS/Skip) while breathing heavily into the mic when others are talking. It’s the opposite of good content, but I guess financially he wasn’t making the big bucks yet.

[Duke4life831]

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Perkins is going to get a promotion lol.

I believed I called this back when Perk was bringing up the whole race stuff with the MVP. Lots of people were saying that he should be fired, I remember saying I wouldnt be shocked if he ended up getting promoted.

All of those clips from Perk were going viral. Then ESPN shows were doing segments based off of what Perk said. Add in Perk is probably much cheaper than most of the well known on air talent. ESPN was probably loving him during all of that.

[Dirk]

Can ESPN fire Jason Kidd?

[Yank3525]

Perk is easy to keep around because he is probably on a cheap contract. Plus, I don't think ESPN will cover as many games under the new TV package, which makes guys like JVG expandable.

[Duke4life831]

Kendrick Perkins not only staying but also getting promoted confirms that none of this was merit based. It was all financial. Perk makes horrendous takes (and not in an entertaining way like SAS/Skip) while breathing heavily into the mic when others are talking. It’s the opposite of good content, but I guess financially he wasn’t making the big bucks yet.

I disagree. It all depends on what we're basing merit off of here. Is ESPN basing his performance on accurate deep takes? Or are they basing it off of views and clicks. The 2nd half of the NBA season, no one was producing more views and clicks for ESPN when it came to basketball than Perk was. Add in that there is no way Perk was making anything close to ESPN's biggest on air names. Im sure ESPN viewed Perk as one of their best bang for their buck on air talents.

Also to be clear, I think Perk is god awful. Just strictly speaking from a business view point on what ESPN is most likely looking at.

[CraftylikeaFox]

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Perkins is going to get a promotion lol.

ESPN thinks Perkins can be their Barkley and if you look on their YouTube home page you can see he's one of the faces spotlighted along with SVP and SAS. Say what you want about his idiotic Jokc take but it got attention and if you're in media you want somebody who gets attention good or bad and hate from casual sports fans as well(see Bayless). In modern media if you're vanilla, safe, neutral or boring then there's really no place for you anymore. If you're not pissing people off you're not making money.

Yep. All media is the same now. Try and be outlandish, be divisive, get people to hate you and hate each other by any means necessary. The days of integrity focused media and journalism are long gone.

[Ckay]

They let JVG go but keep mark Jackson and Kendrick Perkins? WTH? Now I really hope they don't get NBA rights

They not gonna fire Mark Jackson because that's SAS brother. lol

[Jazz9]

Are they trying to cut costs or throw all that money at McAfee/Sharpe?

[Castle Black]

Are they trying to cut costs or throw all that money at McAfee/Sharpe?

Both. ESPN is bleeding money right now, has been for a while now, so they’re cutting the deadweight while also make “cap space” for Sharpe and McAfee, who will both command big money. A true turning of the page for a new era at ESPN.

[D.Brasco]

Kendrick Perkins not only staying but also getting promoted confirms that none of this was merit based. It was all financial. Perk makes horrendous takes (and not in an entertaining way like SAS/Skip) while breathing heavily into the mic when others are talking. It’s the opposite of good content, but I guess financially he wasn’t making the big bucks yet.

You can feel his hypertension on air.