National Basketball Association

Adam Schefter signs extension with ESPN, receives NBA role

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

ESPN inked Adam Schefter, one of their most trusted reporters, to a five-year extension — and gave him an NBA sideline job so he can dominate both markets.

Adam Schefter was never going to leave ESPN, but you’re going to be seeing him a lot more now. Schefter’s deal with ESPN was up in 2017, and his agent wanted to use all the leverage they could to get him to stay. In addition to his regular role, Schefter will be starting a podcast in January, and will do some NBA sideline reporting when his workload is light – so in other words, never.

When SI’s Richard Deitsch asked Schefter about the increased burden, this is what he had to say:

I love what I do but you are always curious to try different things. I know people think of me as this robot who doesn’t do anything outside of NFL news, injury reports, contact extensions, and hirings and firings. I love all that stuff but everyone likes to do things a little different or outside the box.

Way to acknowledge your Schefter-bot persona!

And as far as his podcast, he’ll have a wide range of guests that will talk about all things NFL, including — wait for it — Donald Trump! That would be the perfect time for him to address this clip:

.@HighSock_Sunday #asktrump pic.twitter.com/qVakUzXZAb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015

Being an NBA reporter is probably very personal to him, since he’s a hardcore fan. However, he insists that it’s only a one-off thing, and that he doesn’t want to infringe on people like Doris Burke and Marc Stein. That means you’re probably not going to see him break NBA news at 4:30 in the morning, although we might see him try and land a sideline interview with Gregg Popovich. So that should be fun.

Adam Schefter is one of the very best in the business, and he deserves this raise more than anyone else. If anyone can take on this added workload, it’s him, since we all know that he doesn’t need sleep. Seeing him work an NBA sideline may take some getting used to, but it’s probably where we’ll see his real personality shine through.

Congrats, Adam, hope you’ve celebrated accordingly with the wife!