Doris Burke - Small Steps and Giant Leaps

“People who end up as ‘first’ don’t actually set out to be first. They set out to do something they love.”
– Condoleezza Rice
“That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”
– Neil Armstrong

It’s such a weird job market out there at the moment. Companies are simultaneously hiring and laying folks off, each reprioritizing how they’re going to weather the current economic storm. I’ve got friends with jobs who are already well-employed in high-demand areas of work that get a phone call for a new opportunity every day or two. I’ve also got friends who have been without work for months, on even years now, and nary an opportunity in sight. Or in site, as the one web developer still looking might say.

The moment has hit everyone, and a quick news search of the word “layoffs” literally brings new results for companies in nearly every sector, and entertainment, often one of the last hit in such crises, is even seeing cuts. It was both a surprise and not one to see ESPN/ABC take a massive cut into their roster of oft-talking heads, with names on the cut list that caught nearly everyone by surprise amongst the casualties.

What is often just as telling in such moments at any company are a couple of other lists. The list of names NOT being cut, and which of those are primed and ready to fill the vacuum left by the first list. One of the least surprising and most deserving moves amongst those promotions is also a newsworthy first for ESPN and the NBA.

With the cuts of Stan Van Gundy and Mark Jackson from the first-string NBA broadcast team, ESPN has decided to hire Doc Rivers for however long he’s out of coaching this time, and promote one of their most respected analysts, Doris Burke. With that, Burke will tack on to a lengthy list of many career firsts and be a part of the television call of this season’s NBA Finals. Not only will that make Burke the first woman to call an NBA Finals, but to call any of the major sports Championship games from the “booth”. If for no other reason, that achievement alone for Burke is both simply remarkable and ridiculously overdue.

But beyond the landmark and benchmark of it all, there are also several important subplots of the moment that bear watching as the season unfolds…

There’s a decently sized group of men out there who share the sentiments of firebrands like Jason Whitlock, thinking it ludicrous that a female announcer/analyst could EVER share the qualifications of a man when announcing a man’s league. Whitlock desperately tries to protect his backside by exclaiming often how much he “really likes” Burke, but that this is simply a play at popularity and Q-Score. He scoffs that two men who coached and played could never be replaced by a woman, no matter how good she is, because she’s not been on that court at that speed with blah blah blah…

I guess I’ve given away my opinion on that topic. Burke’s credentials are unimpeachable, a list of firsts as long as Whitlock’s list of dubious opinions. Her knowledge of the game and it’s players are as sound as any other human being out there at the moment, and the fact that she is likable seems a very odd thing to use against her when going up the curmudgeonly Van Gundy or the monotone Jackson, both of whom have also had their share of dubious moments in league history, no matter how deep their knowledge.

I guess maybe I’ve given away my opinion on that topic as well. Van Gundy and Jackson were often more popular for their moments of preposterous opinion or boisterous complaint than anything, and Whitlock is… well, he’s in a class with very few others. Burke, on the other hand, has repeatedly comported herself with only class and professionalism, and not only when calling games. When given invitation to say she deserves a seat at the table, she has repeatedly deferred, instead choosing to say how lucky and honored she has been to serve with the rest of that cast and crew in any capacity, following something she loves.

Something she loves, hearkening back to the Condi Rice quote up top. Simply a class act with a mountain of knowledge who finally gets a chance to sit atop the mountain and tell us all about what she sees… because she was the best person for the job. The very small and well-deserved step Doris Burke took to this job maybe shouldn’t have been such a giant leap this far into the 21st century. But I for one am looking forward to what more she’s got to say.