Severe weather might force production for the NBA Finals Game 2 to happen out of ESPN’s Bristol headquarters or Los Angeles.
According to a report by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, a tornado warning in Oklahoma City might force ABC/ESPN to produce Game 2 of the Indiana Pacers-Oklahoma City Thunder series from a control room in either Bristol or Los Angeles rather than the production trucks located outside of Paycom Center.
ESPN/ABC may have to produce Game 2 of the NBA Finals remotely because of a tornado warning in OKC. Mike Breen & company will still be commenting from court side but the production trucks outside the arena may not be available.
ESPN would control the pictures and productions…
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 8, 2025
Should the network be forced into a remote production scenario, Mike Breen, Doris Burke, and Richard Jefferson would still call the game courtside in Oklahoma City, but a remote team would call the shots behind-the-scenes. That means the on-site announcing team would have a different producer in their ear. Tim Corrigan serves as the lead producer for ESPN’s NBA Finals broadcasts.
It’s interesting that ESPN doesn’t seem to know whether they’d produce the game out of Bristol or Los Angeles in this instance, at least per Marchand’s report. One would expect a backup plan to be rather set in stone in case the on-site trucks are unable to produce the game for one reason or another.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.