Doris Burke

Doris Burke ( Sable) is an American sports announcer and analyst for NBA on ESPN, NBA on ABC, College Basketball on ESPN, and College Basketball on ABC games.

She formerly worked as an analyst for WNBA games on MSG, and has worked on New York Knicks games.

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

Burke played college basketball for the Providence Friars, finishing her career as the school's leader 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 she was the college's Co-Female Athlete of the Year.

She was also named an All-American in 1987.

Burke began her broadcasting career in 1990 as an analyst for women's games for her alma mater on radio.

Burke has been working for ESPN in various positions since 1991.

She has been a part of ESPN's coverage of the WNBA.

For many years she was the primary radio and television voice of the New York Liberty.

That same year, she 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.

She was later inducted into the Providence College Hall of Fame in 1999, the fifth woman so honored.

At Providence, Sable earned a bachelor's degree in health service administration/social work and later a master's degree in education.

In 2000, Burke became the first woman to be a commentator for a New York Knicks 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 college basketball conference package.

In 2003, Burke was named to ESPN's men's college basketball coverage working with Dick Vitale and began working the sidelines for ESPN and ABC for their coverage of the NBA beginning with the 2003–04 NBA season.

From 2009 to 2019, she served as a sideline reporter for the NBA Finals on ABC, and worked as an analyst in select regular season and playoff games until 2017.

In 2010, she was featured as the new sideline reporter for 2K Sports's NBA 2K11 video game.

She has appeared in each edition since, including the latest in the series, NBA 2K23.

She left Providence as its all-time leader in assists with 602, and as of 2012 was still second in that career category.

In October 2013, Burke signed a multi-year contract extension to serve as an NBA commentator for ESPN.

On November 13, Burke debuted on ESPN's NBA pre-game show NBA Countdown, alongside analysts Jalen Rose 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.

Honored for her pioneering work, she was selected to enter the Basketball Hall of Fame as the 2018 Curt Gowdy Media Award winner.

In 2023, ESPN named Burke to their No. 1 NBA commentary team.

Burke will become the first woman to serve as a game analyst on television for a championship final in one of the four major professional U.S. men's sports leagues.

Doris Sable was born in West Islip, New York.

When she was seven years old, she moved to Manasquan, New Jersey, where she was raised.

The youngest of eight children, she started playing basketball in the second grade.

Her basketball idols growing up were Kyle Macy, Kelly Tripucka and Tom Heinsohn.

She played as a point guard at Manasquan High School and was recruited by several eastern colleges.

Doris Burke attended Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island.

She competed as a member of the Providence Friars women's basketball team as the point guard for four years.

She finished her career averaging 17.6 points and 7.2 assists per game.

During her freshman year, Burke led the Big East Conference in assists.

Burke replaced Doug Collins, who left ESPN for a job with the Chicago Bulls, but continued sideline reporting for the conference finals and the NBA Finals until 2019.

In 2020, she began calling the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals on ESPN Radio, making her the first woman to call the conference finals and NBA Finals on radio.

In 2022, she worked with play-by-play commentator Beth Mowins in calling an NBA game, as part of ESPN's plan to have an all-women broadcasting and production crew for the first time on a national scale.

Mowins and Burke returned together the following season during International Women's Day 2023.

In August 2023, ESPN/ABC announced that Burke, along with Mike Breen and former NBA coach Doc Rivers, would form their lead broadcasting team, replacing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, who were laid off by the network earlier that year.