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The contracts for two of ESPN’s top NBA talents are coming up this year. Malika Andrews and Brian Windhorst are both looming free agents this NBA offseason, sources told Front Office Sports.
Andrews’ current deal expires in the fall, while Windhorst’s is up this summer, say sources. ESPN wants to keep both its multimedia stars. But it’s an advantageous time for NBA talents to have deals coming up with Amazon’s Prime Video and NBC Sports starting new rights deals with the league next season.
An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.
At only 30 years old, Andrews has risen quickly to host both NBA Today and NBA Countdown. The league itself endorsed the young, talented Andrews as the face of ESPN’s coverage, sources say. Several sports media insiders have independently told FOS that Andrews could eventually follow the Robin Roberts model and flourish on a daytime news and entertainment program within the Disney empire, such as ABC’s Good Morning America.
Nicknamed “Windy,” the 47-year old Windhorst has emerged as the eminence grise of the network’s hoops coverage. ESPN’s senior NBA writer has covered LeBron James for decades. He went viral with his memorable “What’s going on in Utah?” monologue on First Take in 2022. He has his finger on the pulse of every scenario around the sport.
In recent years, Windhorst has been appearing more and more on studio programming such as Get Up and First Take. With Zach Lowe out of the picture, Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast is now ESPN’s top NBA pod. Windhorst’s analytical reporting complements the news-breaking of NBA insider Shams Charania.
“Shams is the what—and Windy is the why,” says one source.
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video and NBC Sports have been busily hiring talent in advance of their hoops coverage starting with the 2025-26 season. Prime has already named rising star Taylor Rooks to host its studio coverage from Los Angeles. NBC hasn’t announced its team yet. But ex-ESPNer Maria Taylor is their lead NFL studio host and has experience anchoring ESPN and ABC’s NBA studio coverage.
Another former ESPN analyst who could draw interest from Prime and NBC is Vince Carter, sources said. The 22-year NBA veteran worked at ESPN for three years before getting swept out in the 2023 downsizing that claimed other hoops personalities such as Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose.
Despite the flurry of hires by Prime and NBC, there are dozens of current NBA TV talents who could be targeted before tipoff of the next season. Not to mention interest around LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Draymond Green if they retire after this season.
To lengthen its own NBA analyst bench, ESPN recently added Quentin Richardson and Udonis Haslem. And, of course, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro made the trade of the year, licensing Charles Barkley’s Inside the NBA from TNT Sports next season in exchange for a package of Big 12 college football and college basketball games.
Under the unique arrangement, TNT will continue to produce Inside the NBA and the cast of Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson will remain TNT employees. But the show will appear on ESPN as the network’s top NBA studio show. Andrews’ NBA Countdown will live on, but will operate as the network’s secondary hoops studio show behind Inside the NBA. Andrews has been with ESPN since 2018. Windhorst joined the network in 2010.
With the Inside the NBA addition, there has been chatter that Andrews could return to the sidelines as a reporter for select high-profile occasions when the legendary TNT crew has the studio covered.
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