1) Rick Barry

Setting everything else aside for the moment, Barry belongs on this list for just one comment made live on television. During a 1981 NBA Finals broadcast, CBS brought up a picture of the 1956 U.S. Olympic team which included Barry’s co-broadcaster, Bill Russell. Play-by-play man Gary Bender playfully asked Barry if he recognized anyone in the photo, to which Barry replied “looks like the one fool over there with the big watermelon grin.” Stunned silence followed but Barry seemed indifferent, continuing to attempt jocular banter with an obviously incensed Russell. Barry later apologized and claimed ignorance regarding the racial tone of his joke, but his contract was rightfully not renewed by CBS that summer. He did come back to broadcasting with TBS in the ’84-’85 season, incredibly getting paired again with Russell. This second stint was mostly without incident, though the prickly and quibbling Barry never became more than a mediocre broadcaster. He also couldn’t help himself from having one more “drunk uncle at Thanksgiving” moment, marring the otherwise unforgettable 1988 Slam Dunk Contest by calling a Michael Jordan dunk “The Chinese Superman” because Jordan approached the basket “sideways.”

2) Bill Russell

Russell’s broadcasting career is sadly most remembered for his reaction to Rick Barry’s racist remark, largely because the Celtics legend was no Marv Albert in the booth either. Russell himself would even admit that his thoughtful and measured approach to analysis was not conducive to the television play-by-play vocation. His time on TV started almost immediately after retiring as a player, joining the ABC team in 1971. Russell then made some unsuccessful ventures into coaching but returned to broadcasting again in the late ’70s with CBS. There’s no questioning Russell’s basketball acumen and he sometimes rose to the occasion during broadcasts with his on-the-fly insights. But the ever efficient Russell would mostly otherwise stay quiet, causing dead air, and made no attempt to adjust his speaking tone or timbre, leading to viewer complaints of not understanding what was being said. Russell stepped away from basketball broadcasting in the mid ’80s and never returned, transitioning into more of an unofficial role as an elder statesman and global ambassador of the sport.

3) Mark Jackson

As a player, Jackson was almost universally respected as a premier floor general. As a coach and broadcaster? Uh, less so. He led the Warriors to back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time in 22 years, but was tellingly still fired and replaced by Steve Kerr, who immediately won a title with the same roster. Even if you’re going to take the most charitable stance that Jackson could have won that title if given another year, there’s no excuse for his later revealed behavior patterns of homophobia and inappropriate religious proselytizing, alienating Warriors players and staff. It’s unclear if he brought those habits with him to ESPN but we do have hours upon hours of damning evidence of his atrocious broadcasting. Almost a decade’s worth, in fact, which is unforgivable that he held his job that long. As part of the ESPN/ABC lead team with the exemplary Mike Breen and the questionable-but-at-least-interesting Jeff Van Gundy, Jackson stood out like a sore thumb for his trite analysis, mispronunciation of names, bouts of radio silence, and pained attempts at catch phrases. At least when Jackson was mercifully fired in 2023 as part of a mass of ESPN layoffs, fans could finally say of the beleaguered broadcaster “mama, there goes that man” into unemployment.

4) Oscar Robertson

A cushy broadcasting job is the least the basketball universe could give Robertson as karma. The all-world point guard faced near constant racism during his playing days, and well as shunning and blackballing due to his social justice stances and his righteous lawsuit against the NBA. Unfortunately, those same factors likely limited Robertson to just one year to prove himself on television. As is the case with many first year broadcasters, he struggled to adjust to the expectations of the job. Hired as a color commentator by CBS immediately after his 1974 retirement as a player, Robertson teamed up with Brent Musberger on the burgeoning Game of the Week broadcasts. His performance was about on par with what you would expect in retrospect from the prickly, thoughtful, intensely competitive point guard. Robertson had a minimalist approach when it came to banter, often just agreeing with Musberger’s assertions or staying awkwardly silent, and a maximalist approach to his in-game criticism of players, coaches, and referees. Befitting his trail blazing status, Robertson’s biggest contribution to broadcasting came in his championing and support of Jane Chastain, who became the first female sideline reporter when she teamed up with Robertson and Musberger during the ’74-’75 season.

5) Isiah Thomas

We’ve detailed Thomas’ robust missteps as a coach, as a general manager, and as a league owner, but his pattern of post-playing basketball failures all started with broadcasting. NBC hired Thomas in 1998 to team up with Bob Costas, following a house clearing in the wake of Marv Albert’s sex scandal. Belying his reputation as a clutch performer on the court, Thomas acted like a deer in headlights during broadcasts. He talked too softly, stumbled over words, egregiously repeated himself, and gave bizarrely inappropriate insights during key moments of games. Things went from bad to worse mid-season, when NBC brought in recently fired Pistons coach Doug Collins to create a three-man booth. The polished and boisterous presence of Collins pushed Thomas further into the background of broadcasts, to the point where viewers often forgot he was even present. NBC graciously moved Thomas into a studio analyst role the next season, where he continued to flounder until 2000, when the Pacers hired him as head coach.

6) Elgin Baylor

When CBS took over NBA broadcasting rights from ABC in ’73-’74, the backlash was immediate and Baylor was at the center of it. Less than two years removed from his unsatisfying retirement, Baylor was part of the inaugural CBS broadcasting crew with Pat Summerall and Hot Rod Hundley. Baylor’s intelligence and insight into the game of basketball was never in doubt, but his demeanor wasn’t meant for TV and his attitude towards former teammates and rivals came off as bitterness over his own career disappointments. There was an especially heightened contrast between the monotone, mundane Baylor and the effervescent, outlandish Hundley, both of which were unpopular amongst viewers and the media. CBS was so desperate to change the narrative on their coverage that they fired Baylor in the middle of the playoffs, replacing him with Rick Barry as soon as the Warriors were eliminated. Though he was far from an exemplary broadcaster, it was arguable that Baylor was just the sacrificial lamb to alleviate pressure, as Hundley was subsequently quietly dropped during the offseason. According to Baylor himself, racism also played a factor, specifically an incident in which he called out the Bulls’ Dennis Awtrey getting away with a violent jab at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, commenting that a Black player would have faced harsh punishment.

7) Reggie Miller

Just a couple months after his 2005 retirement, Miller was announced as the newest member of TNT’s broadcasting staff. It was unclear at the time what Miller’s role would be and it continues to be unclear why his television career is still ongoing. Joining the crew with his more polished and television-ready sister Cheryl, Miller soon became a staple of color commentary on broadcasts, eventually taking over the lead role with play-by-play man Kevin Harlan. One thing Reggie haters, especially in New York, at least had going for them was that the struggling Knicks hardly ever made it onto TNT broadcasts to be lambasted by the biased former Pacers rival. But just as Miller was seemingly coming into his own as a color commentator, at least at a respectable level, the Knicks became title contenders. When the Pacers and Knicks faced off on TNT in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals, Miller leaned into the criticisms and backlash, reverting to his old role as a Madison Square Garden antagonist.

8) Magic Johnson

He was arguably the most telegenic star in NBA history, but Johnson’s post-playing ventures into television have been uniformly disastrous. From his failed late night talk show to his awkward rapping for Converse to his contentious studio analyst gig with ESPN, Johnson has never seemed comfortable on camera and off the court. Following his shocking 1991 retirement, NBC quickly hired him to provide color commentary, often in a three-man booth with their lead team, Marv Albert and Mike Fratello. If you’re too young to remember this era, don’t worry, you don’t even have to search for clips on YouTube to figure out what Johnson’s performance was like. Just look at his Twitter account and you’ll get the idea. He would essentially just think out loud, stating whatever came to mind and those thoughts were always painfully obvious. When he wasn’t throwing out platitudes, Johnson was getting a little too overhyped about the game, often interrupting Fratello to inject incongruous exclamations. He was like the polar opposite of previous broadcasting failures like Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell, replacing their overly thoughtful, understated performances with an over-the-top, haphazard display. Johnson lasted just two seasons with NBC before moving on to another unsuccessful venture, taking over as head coach of the Lakers.