Doris Burke has notoriously not been loved by certain fanbases for her commentary during NBA games.
Burke used to be the color commentator for games with ESPN’s Mark Jones but has moved up to be one of the two main color commentators alongside Mike Breen over the past year.
It’s not necessarily out of the norm to hear complaints about her on social media, but during Game 4 of Timberwolves/Thunder, there seemed to be some extra mad tweeters on social media.
Why is social media fed up with Doris Burke and ESPN commentary?
ESPN had set the bar high in their golden years of commentary in the 2010s.
Mike Breen was still the main play-by-play broadcaster then but had Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson as his partners doing color.
Since then, we have seen some changes over the past five years, with former players like JJ Redick getting bumped up to doing NBA Finals coverage in 2024.
Redick later took the head coach job with the Lakers, so there was now a vacancy for that spot on the main ESPN broadcasting crew.
Burke is a veteran in broadcasting, and does give great analysis, but can say things here and there that people get annoyed with.
Burke made one comment tonight that stirred the pot on social media.
With the topic of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s foul-drawing tactics being a big talking point the last few weeks, Burke said after one foul he drew “This is why he’s called the free throw merchant.”
Now, many people do agree with her, but there’s always going to be a bunch on the other side like Thunder fans that don’t want to sit and hear those types of comments.
Burke definitely keeps up with what fans think about the game on social media and hears all the criticism she gets, joking about some of the comments made about her, during broadcasts.
The fact that few people disliked the main broadcast team from about a decade ago isn’t great for when the current one gets nitpicked with what they’re being compared to.
