Doris Burke ( Sable) is an American sports announcer and analyst for '' NBA on ESPN'', ''

NBA on ABC The ''NBA on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC. After the ABC Sports division was integrated with its cable sister network in September 2006, broadcasts have s ...

'', '' College Basketball on ESPN'', and ''

College Basketball on ABC ''ESPN College Basketball on ABC'' is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I college basketball games produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC. Originally ''College Basketball on ABC'', the ESPN branding has been used since 2006 when ...

'' games. She formerly worked as an analyst for WNBA games on MSG and has worked on

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

games. Burke was the first female commentator to call a New York Knicks game on radio and television. Burke played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Providence Friars The Providence Friars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Providence College, located in Providence, Rhode Island. They compete in the Big East Conference (NCAA Division I) for every sport except for ice hockey, where they compet ...

, finishing her career as the school's leader in assists. Honored for her pioneering work, Burke was selected to enter the

Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

as the 2018 Curt Gowdy Media Award winner. In 2023, ESPN named Burke to their No. 1 NBA commentary team. Burke became the first woman to serve as a game analyst on television for a championship final (the

2024 NBA Finals The 2024 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2023–24 NBA season, 2023–24 season and conclusion to 2024 NBA playoffs, the season's playoffs. The best-of-seven playoffs was played between the ...

) in one of the four major North American professional men's sports leagues.

Early life

Doris Sable was born in West Islip, New York. At the age of seven, she moved to

Manasquan, New Jersey Manasquan (, ) is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,938, an increase of 41 (+.7%) from the 2010 census count of 5,897, which ...

, where she was raised. The youngest of eight children, Doris started playing basketball in the second grade. Her basketball idols growing up were

Kyle Macy Kyle Paul Macy (born April 9, 1957) is an American basketball commentator. He played college basketball at Purdue University and the University of Kentucky, and spent seven years in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers; ...

Kelly Tripucka Peter Kelly Tripucka (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 1991. He was a two-time NBA All Star and averaged over twenty points a game i ...

and

Tom Heinsohn Thomas William Heinsohn (August 26, 1934 – November 9, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcast ...

. Burke played as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

at Manasquan High School and was recruited by several eastern colleges. Burke spent her summers on the Jersey Shore where she gained local lore during her rise to basketball fame, frequenting still popular haunts such as The Parker House, Leggetts, and Osprey.

Career

College

Burke attended

Providence College Providence College is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, local diocese, it offers 47 undergradua ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. She competed as a member of the

Providence Friars women's basketball The Providence Friars women's basketball team represents Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The school's team currently competes in the Big East where it has competed since the 1982–83 season.Big East Conference in assists. She was twice named to both the All-Big East and Big East all-tournament teams, both in 1986 and 1987. As a senior in 1987, Burke was the college's Co-Female Athlete of the Year. She was also named an All-American in 1987. Burke left Providence as its all-time leader in assists with 602, and as of 2012 was still second in that career category. She was later inducted into the Providence College Hall of Fame in 1999, the fifth woman so honored. At Providence, Burke earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in health service administration/social work and later a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

Broadcasting career

Burke began her broadcasting career in 1990 as an analyst for women's games for her alma mater on radio. That same year, Burke began working in the same role on Big East women's games on television, and in 1996 she began working Big East men's games. Burke has been working for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

in various positions since 1991. She has been a part of ESPN's coverage of the WNBA. For many years, Burke was the primary radio and television voice of the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as part of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was f ...

. In 2003, she was named to ESPN's men's college basketball coverage working with Dick Vitale and began working the sidelines for

and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

for their coverage of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

beginning with the

2003–04 NBA season The 2003–04 NBA season was the 58th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Detroit Pistons defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 4–1 in the 2004 NBA Finals. Events This was the last season for the original two-div ...

. In 2000, Burke became the first woman to be a commentator for a

game on radio and on television; she is also the first woman to be a commentator for a Big East men's game, and the first woman to be the primary commentator on a men's

conference package. From 2009 to 2019, Burke served as a sideline reporter for the

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...

on ABC, and worked as an analyst in select regular season and playoff games until 2017. In 2010, Burke was featured as the new sideline reporter for

2K Sports 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same m ...

's ''

NBA 2K11 ''NBA 2K11'' is a 2010 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It was released in October 2010 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and Nintend ...

'' video game. She has appeared in each edition since, including the latest in the series, ''

NBA 2K23 ''NBA 2K23'' is a basketball video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports, based on the National Basketball Association (NBA). It is the 24th installment in the NBA 2K franchise and is the sucessor to ''NBA 2K22''. The game ...

''. In October 2013, Burke signed a multi-year contract extension to serve as an NBA commentator for ESPN. On November 13, she debuted on ESPN's NBA pre-game show '' NBA Countdown'', alongside analysts

Jalen Rose Jalen Anthony Rose (born January 30, 1973) is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' " Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy K ...

and Avery Johnson. In 2017, Burke became a regular NBA game analyst for ESPN, becoming the first woman at the national level to be assigned a full regular-season role. Burke replaced Doug Collins, who left ESPN for a job with the Chicago Bulls, but continued sideline reporting for the

conference finals Conference Finals may refer to: * NBA Conference Finals, National Basketball Association * NHL Conference Finals, National Hockey League * KHL Conference Finals The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Conference Finals are the Eastern Conference and Wes ...

and the

until 2019. In 2020, Burke began calling the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals on

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

, making her the first woman to call the conference finals and NBA Finals on radio. In August 2023, ESPN/ABC announced that Burke, along with former NBA coach Doc Rivers, will join Mike Breen on their lead broadcasting team, replacing

Jeff Van Gundy Jeffrey William Van Gundy (born January 19, 1962) is an American commentator for ESPN and former basketball coach. He served as head coach of the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his ten ...

and

Mark Jackson Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player. A point guard from St. John's University, he played for the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah ...

, who were laid off by the network earlier that year. This makes Burke the first woman to serve as a television analyst for a major men's championship in the U.S., and the first woman TV analyst for the NBA Conference Finals and the NBA Finals.

Personal life

Burke is divorced from Gregg Burke (head golf coach at

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

), with whom she has two children.

Awards and honors

In 1999, Burke was inducted into the Providence College Hall of Fame. In 2003, she received the ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' Rudy Award as the Best New Face in Sports Television. In the spring of 2004, Burke was honored with induction into the Institute for International Sport's Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame, and in the spring of 2005, Providence College awarded her with an honorary doctorate degree. In October 2006, Burke was inducted into the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

Basketball Hall of Fame. The same year, she became a member of the North Providence Hall of Fame. In January 2012, Burke received the Silver Anniversary Award in recognition of her athletic and professional accomplishments from the NCAA. In 2012, Burke called the Big East tournament and was a reporter during the championship game. Honored for her pioneering work, Burke was selected by the

as the 2018 Curt Gowdy Media Award winner. For their first match of March 2019, the women of the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's Association football, soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four FIFA Women's World Cup, Wom ...

each wore a jersey with the name of a woman they were honoring on the back;

Tobin Heath Tobin Powell Heath (born May 29, 1988) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for OL Reign of the NWSL, as well as the United States national team. Heath has been described as "perhaps the USA's most skillful player" ...

chose the name of Burke.

Notes

References

External links

ESPN biographyInterview with Sports Business Daily
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Doris Living people Basketball players from Providence, Rhode Island College basketball announcers in the United States Manasquan High School alumni NBA broadcasters New York Knicks announcers People from Manasquan, New Jersey People from West Islip, New York Providence Friars women's basketball players Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association announcers Women sports commentators ESPN people Year of birth missing (living people)