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ESPN bumping Auburn vs. Florida showdown to ESPN2 to accommodate Luka Doncic LA debut backfires
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
ESPN found itself in a massive pickle on Saturday.
As is widely known by now, Luka Doncic was the centerpiece of a massive trade that shipped the 5-time NBA All-Star from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers, pairing him with LeBron James.
Doncic was set to make his Lakers debut as they hosted the Indiana Pacers at Crypto.com Arena at 4 p.m. ET, which set off a chain reaction of scheduling changes: Duke vs. Clemson was set to air on ESPN at 6:00 p.m. ET, but ESPN pushed that game to 6:30 p.m. ET so it could show Lakers-Pacers with minimal overlap.
The “sacrificial lamb”, so to speak, was Auburn–Florida, a game between the No. 1 and No. 6 teams in the country, which was moved to ESPN2 so ESPN could show Luka and LeBron vs. the Pacers.
There was one problem: neither played.
Not a great look for ESPN! That’s not to mention that Duke-Clemson is not only set to feature Cooper Flagg, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, but will serve as Dick Vitale’s first game behind the mic for the network in 2 years.
Sure, ESPN didn’t know that neither Doncic nor James would miss Saturday’s game. But at the end of the day, it blew up its Saturday schedule for what turned out to be no reason, and college basketball fans were left holding the bag of it.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
