ESPN uses broadcast team made up entirely of women for Celtics-Heat matchup

Celtics

Beth Mowins, Doris Burke, and Cassidy Hubbarth made up the commentary team.

The Celtics’ home opener against the Miami Heat was a marquee matchup league-wide and a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. A significant battle on the court, Friday’s broadcast was also significant for the sports media landscape.

ESPN’s broadcast crew on Friday was made up entirely of women. Beth Mowins on play-by-play, Doris Burke on color commentary, and Cassidy Hubbarth as the sideline reporter.

Friday wasn’t the first time ESPN deployed an all-female broadcast crew, either.

On Feb. 9, 2022, ESPN aired the “first NBA game broadcast on a national scale led by all women on camera and in pivotal behind-the-scenes roles.”

Though Friday isn’t the first time women have led each aspect of the on-air broadcast team, it has plenty of significance in other ways. In the past, the all-female broadcast assembly has been used to celebrate Women’s History Month, or National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Friday was a primetime, nationally televised broadcast. But it was also just another day. There wasn’t a special reason for a broadcast to be made up of all women, because there doesn’t need to be a special reason for it. Hopefully, that’s a sign of normalization of the all-female crew.

Listen to Mowins, Burke, and Hubbarth call some of the most exciting and significant plays of Friday’s matchup:

Jaylen Brown with the dagger.

With less than 30 seconds to go and a 5-point lead, Boston played keep away from Miami until late in the shot clock when Jaylen Brown found a wide open look for three. He buried the field goal and sealed a Celtics victory in their home opener.