ESPN has parted ways with NBA senior writer Zach Lowe as part of the network’s continuing layoffs, sources briefed on the decision told The Athletic on Thursday.
Lowe follows the earlier dismissals of NFL personalities, Robert Griffin III and Sam Ponder. The moves are part of the network’s fiscal year planning that ends at the conclusion of September. ESPN declined to comment, while Lowe couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
This is pretty surprising. Lowe is my personal favorite basketball podcaster and I know he's popular here so I wonder what you're all thinking. Wonder what this means for the Lowe Post?
by MegatronDon_
45 Comments
Bill Simmons just creamed his pants. He’ll be on the ringer’s payroll within the hour
That’s insane, they don’t have to pay woj though
Pat McAfee taxes on the rise.
Great, now I can cancel ESPN+
But they’ll pay that dumbfuck Stephen A Smith the equivalent of an nba max contract, no one that’s not a casual nba or nfl takes ESPN and their talking heads seriously anymore.
The Lowe Post is my favorite podcast, bar none. Zach Lowe is well-respected by his peers and by the NBA itself. ESPN laying off such a talented and hard working person is egregious. This is just the continued downfall of ESPN and their myopic approach to business.
Shame. He’ll find more work quickly though, he’s a great writer.
Always wondered in these situations if they try to get him to negotiate a lower salary before laying him off, if what he earned was really the main factor.
wtf are they doing Zach is the goat
Laying off one of the best reporters they have in general, not just NBA, so they can now pay Shams millions of dollars to tweet out news at 1:30 am eight seconds before everyone else.
Someone will scoop him up in .5 seconds
They gotta pay the loud talking heads boomers love.
Get it done Bill
Wonder if he had any idea this was coming, he mentioned yesterday on his pod with JJ how he went on JJ’s pod last year without it getting cleared by ESPN, and how he got in trouble for that.
I am sure windy is making more than him, why not sack him lol
What in the world is going on????
ESPN sucks
This makes no sense, he’s their best writer and podcaster. All his content is top notch and drives engagement. They will never have anyone as good who can provide the type of commentary, analysis and personality he does, especially if their intent is cost cutting. They should look at their business model if they think the only way to survive is mass layoffs because it means people don’t want to pay for what they’re offering. Losing one of your best assets is only going to make that problem worse.
Hopefully this let’s Lowe have better guests on his pod and refind what made his podcast and writing so terrific in the past. Espn consistently chooses shock and mouthpieces for producers over talent and it sucks to see tbh.
End of the weird foreign AI lady voice that introduced Grantland podcasts that stuck around for the Lowe Post.
This somehow shocks me more than Woj retiring.
Wonder if Athletic or Ringer picks him up.
If your perspective says Zach Lowe isn’t worth the money then it says a lot about your priorities moving forward
All you need to know about the execs who run media outlets: They layoff competent reporters who cover their sport well and give fat contracts to screech owls. Pitiful.
WHAT
It’s been rumored. Glad to see him escape pandering to Ramona
Yes! More Big Perk and Richard Jefferson!
PLEASE THE ATHLETIC. SIGN HIM UP. ZACH LOWE IS THE GOLD STANDARD.
The Lowe Post is probably the best overall NBA podcast out there and Zach is a fantastic reporter. Here’s to hoping that his podcast and columns will be free and available at wherever he lands next. Pretty shocking move considering how much value he brings to their NBA coverage
Bright side: at least Lowe don’t have to keep bringing in shitty ESPN analysts to be guests on the Lowe Post. He’ll find a more interesting guest list now that he’s free from ESPN.
Holy shit, that’s insane
Why him out of all the other people they could’ve laid off
I used to love Zach Lowe’s stuff. Then they put all of it behind a payway.
Given a yearly salary uplift, you simply get to a stage without promotion to a higher position that you’re too expensive. Van Gundy, Lowe, etc – all the same
Literally the only person I cared to listen on in all of ESPN and based on all accounts, very respected in NBA circle.. Bill Simmons probably already called him with a job offer.
Bill already hired him
They blew their load on SAS. Everyone knows you can’t build a contender with just one mega star and scrap pieces. This ain’t the 90s anymore
I have to imagine he’ll be a free agent for like 7 minutes
This is not unexpected. ESPN’s website is not really put together well for easy navigation to read in depth articles other than headline grabbers. And from some metrics his articles have pretty low attention on them.
At his current salary (one of the highest in the nba team for espn) he has to be able to churn out other content that espn wants. He doesn’t do enough tv hits and really isn’t popular enough on them anyways. The podcast is good but espn still doesn’t value podcasts.
Part of me thinks this is also a cost cutting move to add someone big on the nba side with woj leaving
ESPN is just going to be 3 people shouting for 10 seconds each in between 10 minute ad breaks
This is such a dumb move by ESPN. Lowe is the best in the business by a mile. So goddamn excited to have him without the mouse’s reins on a Ringer podcast
Lowe will get hired by the Ringer in about 30 seconds. But this is an absurd move by ESPN him and Legler are the best two things for basketball at this network.
The Tank for Shams has started
Hopefully Simmons didn’t hurt himself rushing to call Zach.
ESPN continuing to lose their actual quality writers and reporters.
Next week: join Zach for his thoughts on Agatha Along, Diddy, and the Knicks makeshift frontcourt.
He did two hours last week on Bill Simmons’ podcast; I’d be shocked if nothing’s announced in the next couple of days from the Ringer, though they’ve had their own cost cutting recently.
This is fucking crazy. Zach is arguably the best reporter in all of sports. That’s a high bar but he’s that fucking good. I know he’ll be fine back on his feet quickly but I still can’t believe it. It’s like ESPN wants to die.