Doris Burke is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame broadcaster and NBA analyst on ESPN and ABC. In 2024, Burke made history by becoming the first woman to serve as a television analyst for any major American men’s sports championship event when she called the NBA Finals on ABC. In 2020, Burke became the first woman to serve as a game analyst for the NBA Finals on any platform when she served as an analyst on ESPN Radio. Prior to the 2017-18 NBA season, ESPN named Doris Burke to the position of national NBA game analyst, making her the first woman to serve full time in that capacity.
During her ESPN tenure, Burke has served in prominent roles across several of the company’s premier basketball properties, including the NBA, WNBA, and men’s and women’s college basketball. She spent nine seasons as the sideline reporter for the NBA Finals on ABC before transitioning to game analyst, and has become one of the most decorated and influential voices in basketball broadcasting.
Burke previously served as a WNBA analyst for the New York Liberty on MSG Network and also was a women’s college basketball analyst for CBS Sports (1998-2001) and Westwood One Radio (2000-02). The first woman to call Knicks radio/television broadcast (2000) and a BIG EAST men’s basketball game on television, Burke was a frequent columnist for Basketball Times Magazine and Eastern Basketball Magazine since 2001 as well as a contributing writer on the website for the Center for Sports Parenting.
From 1990-2000, Burke was an analyst on regional coverage of BIG EAST and Atlantic-10 women’s basketball on the New England Sports Network (NESN), Prime or SportsChannel. She also worked for the Atlantic-10 Men’s Basketball Network (1999-2001), the MAAC Women’s Basketball Network (1997-99) and ECAC men’s and women’s weekly telecasts (1995-97). She served as a play-by-play commentator for Providence College women’s basketball on WICE/WNPW Radio (1990-97) and Providence College men’s basketball with WPRO Radio (1992-95). She spent three years as a women’s basketball analyst with the Penn State Television Network (1993-95). A former basketball standout at Providence College who held seven records upon graduation, Burke finished her career as the school and conference all-time assists leader (602), Providence’s single-season leader in assists (224), and single-season (152) and career (440) leader in free throws. She served as an assistant coach for her Alma mater for two years (1988-90).
In 2000, she was inducted into the Providence College Hall of Fame, and she received an honorary doctorate from the school in 2005. In 2002, the Institute for International Sport named Burke one of 15 Sports Ethics Fellows and in 2004 inducted her into the Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame. In 2006, she was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 2007, she was honored with the Woman of Excellence Trailblazer Award from the Rhode Island Women’s Center. In 2025, Burke was inducted into the Rhode Island Radio and Television Hall of Fame, further recognizing a groundbreaking broadcasting career that spans more than three decades. Raised in Manasquan, N.J., Burke graduated from Providence College with a degree in health service administration/social work and also earned her master’s in education at Providence.