It was a long weekend for college basketball fans watching games on ESPN, sparked by the groundbreaking trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. The drama began on Saturday when ESPN adjusted their schedule for what they anticipated would be Luka’s inaugural game alongside LeBron James against the Indiana Pacers. However, Dončić was still recovering from his calf injury and did not play. To make matters worse, LeBron also sat out, presenting an unfortunate scenario for ESPN, although Austin Reaves did shine in the Lakers’ victory.
The Saturday Lakers game awkwardly interrupted ESPN’s college basketball lineup, forcing the network to shift the start of Dick Vitale’s triumphant return to the broadcast booth during the Duke-Clemson matchup. ESPN tried again on Monday night, adding the Lakers’ next game against the Utah Jazz where both Luka Dončić and LeBron James finally took the court together. However, this also necessitated another alteration to the college basketball schedule.
During the under-12 media timeout in the second half of the Baylor-Houston game, Kevin Connors and Seth Greenberg interrupted the broadcast to air Luka’s Lakers debut at approximately 10:40 p.m. ET, shifting the Baylor-Houston game to ESPNU.
ESPN cut away from Baylor-Houston with 11 minutes left in the game to go to Luka Doncic’s Lakers debut, shifting college basketball to ESPNU. pic.twitter.com/IkvyL93q7L
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 11, 2025
Naturally, college basketball fans were displeased with what they viewed as a lack of respect from ESPN.
ESPN just kicked an active college basketball game off ESPN to watch LA traffic pic.twitter.com/FMk48qCPbQ
— Cole Adams (@coleadamss) February 11, 2025
ESPN only blocked off an hour and a half for a college basketball game so now we’ve got 10 minutes until Lakers coverage is supposed to start and Houston Baylor isn’t even at the under 16 timeout. Genuinely impressive how bad that network is at scheduling basketball.
— WBR (@W_B_Rick) February 11, 2025
Why does ESPN bother airing college basketball, it clearly doesn’t care about it https://t.co/e5uZ8giyiV
— Brian Pedersen (@realBJP) February 11, 2025
Conversely, NBA fans eager to witness Luka’s debut were frustrated to find a Big XII basketball game airing instead of coverage leading up to the much-anticipated event. Even CNBC media reporter Alex Sherman voiced his disappointment.
Sure, I’d kinda like to see Luka’s debut with the Lakers, but what I REALLY want to watch is this Houston-Baylor college basketball game inexplicably on ESPN right now.
— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) February 11, 2025
@espn is literally the worst-run network. TNT would be hyping the Lakers right now, not running a regional college basketball game.
— GenX_Nation (@GenX_nation) February 11, 2025
This has to be the most viewed college basketball game of the year because everyone is waiting for the Lakers game to start on ESPN lol
— The daily Fanatic (@goldscoobs) February 11, 2025
From what I can tell, the people turning ESPN on at 10:30 to see Luka’s Lakers debut are watching their first college basketball game of the year.
— Joe Wright (@Sctvman) February 11, 2025
ESPN found itself in a difficult position with its scheduling—a real shame it didn’t pan out for Saturday, which led to adjustments on Monday that complicated their college basketball coverage once again. There’s no denying that Luka Dončić’s Lakers debut warranted national attention, and ESPN made the right decision to switch coverage. If a Baylor-Houston regular season matchup had to take a backseat, then so be it.
https://embeds.beehiiv.com/a79076af-c414-47ef-96e6-0322628bcaaf" data-test-id="beehiiv-embed" width="480" height="320" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border-radius: 4px; border: 2px solid #e5e7eb; margin: 0; background-color: transparent;
One potential solution could have been for ESPN to originally air Baylor-Houston exclusively on ESPNU and prepare an NBA pregame show to avoid the awkward transition. This might have helped assuage the backlash from both sides, as the main criticism seemed to stem from college basketball being sidelined without any pregame coverage for the NBA. In attempting to satisfy everyone while cutting away from Baylor-Houston, ESPN ultimately disappointed both sides.
Perhaps the next monumental trade will go off without a hitch for ESPN.
