ESPN ‘needle-movers’ like Stephen A. Smith, Scott Van Pelt build talent pipeline

After Game 5 of a decisive NBA Finals win by the Boston Celtics, SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt sat with his favorite ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler to break down how Boston got its ‘chip.

Legler took a back seat at the network in recent years, and rumors swirled online about his future. Amid contract talks and a pivotal summer hiring cycle at the network, Van Pelt went to bat.

“NBA Twitter and NBA fans get that this dude is the best there is,” Van Pelt said. “I hope that the bosses [get it]. I don’t want to lose you, but if we lose you a little bit because you’re out there doing games, that will be cool with me.”

.@notthefakeSVP giving @LegsESPN his well deserved flowers tonight pic.twitter.com/cTO79MOTBx

— claire de lune (@ClaireMPLS) June 18, 2024

Here was Van Pelt taking advantage of a less-observed power as one of ESPN’s increasingly few “needle-movers.” In this era, the network has consolidated salary and workload in fewer top hosts. Van Pelt is one of them. That means opportunities like hosting Monday Night Countdown, yes, but also the ability to give talent like Legler work — and cut through when he vouches for them.

At the same time as broadcasters like Van Pelt, Stephen A. Smith, Mike Greenberg, Pat McAfee and the Monday Night Football booth of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman make news with record paydays, the network is paring back the old pathways to the top. Two of the old pipelines — ESPN Radio and ESPN2 — are hardly a way to get noticed these days. ESPN barely pretends to care about radio anymore, and ESPN2 is full of podcasts and reruns. The top voices of ESPN’s previous generation most interested in talent development jumped ship to do exactly that, away from the Worldwide Leader.

That puts Van Pelt, for instance, in the unique position of offering a lifeline to young analysts. Hosting one of the few shows that matters at ESPN these days, Van Pelt’s personal taste and proclivities can grant a budding talent a real platform. Over the past decade hosting SportsCenter, he has done exactly that for not just Legler, but also Bill Barnwell and Ryan Clark.

The same is true for Smith and First Take. Particularly since cutting bait with Max Kellerman in 2021, FT has become a fertile ground for ESPN talent to hone their broadcasting skills. There are the external debaters like Chris Russo or Shannon Sharpe, but also ESPNers such as Kimberly Martin, Mina Kimes, Brian Windhorst and Andraya Carter whose profiles grew considerably after joining the show’s talent stable.

Ask Greenberg why Get Up improved after a rocky start, and he likely will praise the rotating cast of analysts the show built out. From Dan Graziano to Domonique Foxworth during NFL season to Zach Lowe or Jessica Mendoza to round out the calendar, lesser-known ESPN analysts get a recurring gig one or two mornings each week.

Like with everything about his role, McAfee exists outside the usual ESPN ecosystem. He has his own stable of up-and-coming contributors, but they are not ESPN talent. Instead, personalities like J.J. Watt, Darius Butler and even TNT’s Paul Bissonnette get regular airtime on the midday show.

The conversation around ESPN’s “needle-movers” is often zero-sum. As if these star hosts themselves demanded ESPN pay them exorbitant salaries at the expense of other programming. Aside from asking a Smith or Greenberg to give money back to Walt Disney, this way of giving back to fellow talent as a gatekeeper allows these stars to use their high profile to offset that pattern. They are filling a void that ESPN now neglects.

Think of the old model. ESPN would pluck young talent from local markets or rival networks, put them in small roles on lesser shows, and see who developed. On the radio side, they found breakout stars in Doug Gottlieb and Ryen Russillo. Smaller programs like Cold Pizza and His & Hers led to larger roles for Skip Bayless and Jemele Hill.

For a time, stars like Bill Simmons and Dan Le Batard had a vested interest in developing a pipeline. At Grantland and on Highly Questionable and The Dan Le Batard Show, the two grew branches off a tree that still bears fruit for ESPN. The network has Simmons and Le Batard to thank for turning Barnwell, Lowe, Kimes and Pablo Torre into recognizable voices — to name just a few.

This dynamic is building on itself. As ESPN gives these “needle-movers” more jobs and cuts back elsewhere, it gives the likes of Smith or Greenberg not only the workload to justify their salaries, but the power that equates with those salaries. As talent producers, they are not going anywhere.

Even with their hit streak, these top hosts can’t possibly recreate that model. There is only so much they can do, and so much talent to pull from. More worrying is the fact that ESPN used to also serve as a pipeline for the whole industry. That is no longer the case.

For the time being, the “needle-movers” clearly see the opportunity that comes with their platform and are passing it down to others coming up.