ESPN’s NBA Finals coverage drew a ton of scrutiny and criticism throughout the seven games of the series. But the network also showed the very best of what it is capable of when covering live sports thanks to Scott Van Pelt and the SportsCenter postgame show from Game 7 of the NBA Finals after the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers to win their first championship in the Sooner State.
It’s hard to get much more polar opposites in television programming than what ESPN showed in pregame coverage in the lead-up to Game 7 and in the postgame show.
The pregame was marked by Stephen A. Smith yelling at Kendrick Perkins and Bob Myers actually trying to tell him that he didn’t get more right the louder he talked. It was a fitting end to the troubled NBA Countdown era of NBA Finals coverage with Inside the NBA thankfully coming to the rescue next year in a licensing deal with ESPN.
But if Stephen A. Smith was all noise and little substance, it was an entirely different story with Scott Van Pelt on the SportsCenter with SVP postgame.
Van Pelt’s show was a masterclass in relatability, likability, and value. Take for instance this interview with Jalen Williams when he opened up about watching YouTube highlights of himself for his confidence. This is one of the great young stars in the NBA who just put up a 40 point game in the NBA Finals before the age of 25 and is being introduced to much of the country. For him to admit that vulnerability and be so chill about it is a piece of great interviewing and storytelling.
Thunder star Jalen Williams admits he watches YouTube highlights of himself to help his confidence.
JW: “You always are questioning if you’re good enough…”
SVP: “You had a 40-piece in the Finals!”
JW: “Yeah, and then I was negative-40 the next game.” 🏀📺🎙️ #NBA pic.twitter.com/IJYBj2R8fD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 23, 2025
Thankfully, ESPN uploaded most of the postgame show from Scott Van Pelt so you can see interviews with Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. There’s SVP doing highlights and analysis with Tim Legler as well, which is awesome. Oh, and $100 million man Stephen A. Smith makes an appearance as well. But Van Pelt brings out the basketball reporter and analyst in Stephen A. who seems like a completely different person in a relaxed setting with SVP instead of the bombastic personality we see on NBA Countdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KtYvx3nrUU
In this setting, we actually get to hear from the stars and coaches of the Oklahoma City Thunder and get to know them a lot better. The Thunder personnel and stars were so relaxed talking to SVP and appeared to be extremely likable and humble. Who would have thought that talking with them instead of talking about them and using them as debate props would provide a whole new view about the team that could be the NBA’s next dynasty.
The interview with Mark Daigneault was particularly illuminating. Unless you’re a serious basketball fan, you probably couldn’t pick him out of a lineup even though he’s now an NBA champion and Coach of the Year. In fact, it was even a bit surreal since it was the first time the pair had ever met live on national television. But SVP’s interview style is so personable and so inviting that it looked like the two had known each other their whole lives.
NBA coverage, particularly from ESPN and its group of talking heads, has been plagued by negativity and drama throughout the season. But SVP has defended what he does in the late night SportsCenter as celebrating the NBA and its stars. And he is absolutely right. It displays the importance of showing up and having very real, very human conversations face to face with the athletes themselves and doing what broadcasters should do in remembering that they are the stars of the show.
It takes incredible broadcasting skill to do what Scott Van Pelt does. SportsCenter has been completely transformed from the glory days of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. It can’t live on just highlights alone in the social media era. But in his time anchoring the late night SportsCenter, Van Pelt has made it his own and shown what is still possible when it comes to excellence in sports broadcasting. He can do highlights, humor, interviews, and get the best out of ESPN’s deep bench of analysts and the athletes who win championships.
It’s hard to imagine Scott Van Pelt not being on site after a championship event on ESPN. And that’s maybe the biggest testament to his presence in sports broadcasting and what SportsCenter with SVP has been able to produce over the years.
We don’t know what quite will happen next year when Inside the NBA gets added to the network’s broadcast lineup. But hopefully there’s room for both the TNT crew and Van Pelt at next year’s NBA Finals so that viewers would have both to choose from. Because in their own unique ways, they represent some of the very best sports programming that there is today.