Never Mind Game 7, Defending Champs Secure

Mike Breen (left)
and Jeff Van Gundy. (Getty Images)

Forget the outcome of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the champs are here.

They've been here the whole season -- calling the action while sharing some humor, insights and opinions right there on ESPN.

Play-by-play man Mike Breen and color commentator Jeff Van Gundy are the best on-air team in the NBA and one of the best at what they do in all of sports television.

Breen is smart and steady and Van Gundy can be appropriately funny or gruff. He knows the game and he knows his partner. And, because Breen knows Van Gundy so well, they bring out the best of each other.

Fans who watch on TV benefit as a result.

Likewise, Doris Burke (despite the silly hubbub early in the Finals about she and other sideline reporters having to deal with sometimes unhelpful or unresponsive San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) ranks as the best in the NBA -- and one of the best sideline reporters on TV.

It's an unforgiving job, with a handful of critics in her ear from the production truck and millions more on the other side of television sets all over the world, but Burke asks the right questions at the right time. Best of all, she comes across as prepared and ready -- something many other such reporters might be but also something difficult to convey in a matter of two or three questions on the court or field.

While the concern she and others expressed about dealing with Popovich probably fell on deaf ears for many viewers, Burke generally does what she does so well that she does not call attention to herself.

Of course, that's not the M.O. of others associated with broadcasting the Finals. Most prominently, Bill Simmons has, at times, made the show (or at least the aftermath of the show on social media) about him, and even about how he can snap at the hand that feed shim.

Make no mistake, Simmons is good. He's the multimedia success story of the past decade by any definition as he has moved form a blogger on the fringe of sports to the moneymaking genius with his online success and the eventual creation of Grantland.

Even though he has room to improve on TV, Simmons sometimes retains an anti-establishment approach that endears him to some and must infuriate his bosses and some coworkers. And, when it becomes more about him than the game (or even if it seems that way) that might not be the best approach.

And while Breen, Van Gundy and Burke highlight the efforts of ESPN/ABC on the Finals -- earning deserved "champion" status, the network might need to address its studio show. There's talent there, including the ever-emerging Jalen Rose as well as Magic Johnson, Simmons and Michael Wilbon.

Still, the lack of a host hampers the studio segments somewhat. Because TNT has a studio anchor (Ernie Johnson) amidst an even stronger studio crew of commentators, that group ranks as the best covering the NBA in that regard.