Sports

Isiah passed over for ESPN’s ‘NBA Countdown:’ report

Isiah Thomas, who was a finalist for an analyst role with ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” lost out to Jalen Rose, according to The Big Lead.

The Hall of Famer and former Knicks coach/president confirmed in a podcast two weeks ago that he had interest the job and had auditioned for it. The Post first reported the news of the audition.

“I’ve auditioned for the job, if they pick me that would be great. I would love to be a part of the show and give my thoughts and opinions on championship basketball and NBA basketball and life in general in the NBA,” Thomas told FoxSports.com during the podcast.

“NBA Countdown” will feature Mike Wilbon, Magic Johnson, Bill Simmons and Rose. Rose has been with ESPN as an NBA analyst and also will be on ESPN College Basketball Gameday this fall. According to The Big Lead report, Simmons was worried that having Johnson and Thomas might seem like beating a dead horse, as the two had a rivalry during their playing days with the Lakers and Pistons.

Stan Van Gundy, who parted ways with the Orlando Magic after the season, had reportedly landed a spot of the show but the former Magic coach claims that ESPN pulled the offer. Van Gundy has had multiple public spats with commissioner David Stern over his years in Orlando, which could have played a role in the situation going south.

Van Gundy was on Miami radio station last week and was quoted as saying, “No one at ESPN will tell us what happened. Certainly the NBA office isn’t going to tell us what happened. One of the quotes from ESPN in there- we had discussions, but couldn’t agree on a role…that’s a bunch of BS from ESPN.”