ESPN Senior Vice President of Sports Production Tim Corrigan, ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins, ESPN Play-by-Play Announcer Ryan Ruocco, ESPN NBA Analyst Tim Legler and ESPN Senior NBA Writer Kirk Goldsberry answered questions on Thursday regarding the inaugural NBA Western Conference Finals: InsightCast Presented by YouTube TV. The alt-cast will air exclusively on ESPN platforms for Games 1-4 of the 2025 NBA Western Conference Finals starting Tuesday, May 20, at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

CORRIGAN: This is going to be called the Western Conference Finals “InsightCast,” “InsightCast” being seeing beyond the surface. As you all know there’s so much data that comes out of these NBA buildings on a nightly basis. It can turn into stats, analysis and all sorts of things.

Phil Orlins and team have done an amazing job not just on the NBA but across sports, whether it’s with the “Toy Story” execution or what we did with “Dunk the Halls” on Christmas Day.

This has been a work in progress for a while. The idea of Insight and getting deeper into the game as an alternate telecast was something that was appealing to us. First and foremost, we had to get the right talent to call it.

And having somebody as versatile as Ryan Ruocco, who two months ago was calling the NBA Draft and in addition to all his NBA duties will be calling Caitlin’s opener on Saturday on ABC as well.

So, his ability to kind of be a host and guide you through what it is but also call play-by-play of the game and lead analyst, whether it’s breakdowns with Legs or more analytics with Kirk — and again having basketball voices around us.

Tim Legler, his resume speaks for itself for what he’s done with our company as a basketball savant of sorts, whether it’s with Scott Van Pelt doing the SportsCenter stuff, whether he’s doing games, whatever it is, we’re going to ask Legs to be Legs and maybe control things a little more to say, hey, I want to see a little bit more of this or that and take us deeper into the game.

And Kirk’s an NBA Insider for a couple of decades, working with the Spurs, as well as working with us and the things he sees and writes and reports on.

We feel like we have the right cast that will really grow over the course of these four games of doing it. So, we’re really excited about that.

The technology part of it, whether it’s working with SMT and distance tracking or showing stats live and all sorts of things like that, which you’ll see on this presentation will be different from what we’re doing on the main linear channel, that will be your standard coverage.

But some of these things will cross-pollinate between both as we build out our compounds for the Western Conference Finals and integrate with our Bristol studios, where this “InsightCast” will come from.

A couple of the differences that will jump out right away, it will be enhanced game camera that will allow SMT, who, again, will be taking data, tracking it, putting up shot distances on all sorts of things, tracking live stats and players, that can have player tags on it, just a much more aggressive approach to providing information on the screen during the actual live cut.

And then bringing in people like Beyond Sports — all these things I mention Phil will go into greater detail both in explaining and visually providing direction here, too.

But Beyond Sports is going to provide virtual replace literally from any angle you can imagine based on what the action was, what it looked like. And we’ll go into this environment with the Avatars. The Avatars will match the uniforms they’re wearing, the court they’re playing on. It’s just kind of an insight into the future of what this might all look like.

In addition to that, we will have an immersive environment, which all three talent — Ryan, Tim and Kirk — can go into or just Kirk can go into and kind of walk and talk you through what’s happening on a sequence of plays or a given play.

Again, that’s going to be all new to a live broadcast and the ability to turn these things around like the virtual replays could be the first replay in a sequence of what we’re doing on this broadcast. These are ways it’s going to look and feel different than the main broadcast.

Vivid Arc is a company, again, we’re tying them and their Avatars and what everything looks like from what the players are wearing, which will match with what they’re wearing in the game and the courts they’re playing on and everything.

The shot chart has been around forever, just like the rush chart in football and everything else. And we just made it — our focus was trying to make it a more, give it a little more sizzle, a little bit more of an entertainment factor to it and still provide the context that it can be valuable to seeing what the story is in a series, whether it’s Anthony Edwards, where he’s shooting from, where he’s effective, where he’s not effective, all these kind of things.

But I think when you guys see the presentation, you’ll be impressed just because it’s a little more robust than anything we’ve ever done. And we’re really excited to release that as well.

Then we’re going to do a dunk score element that will be available to this telecast as well, which would measure distance at take-off, ball speed at impact, height where the ball is when you’re dunking as well as the vertical height of the player jumping.

Again, we’ve seen Ant with some really memorable moments over the years, right? This is just going to be another way to go back and measure that. Again, it might be Ant or Rudy Gobert. Who knows? What’s the play and how do we want to turn this around into content for this?

So just kind of big and broad. That’s what we’re looking at and we’re really enthused about it. I think, again, Phil Orlins and what he’s done with baseball on some alternate telecasts and working into things like “Dunk the Halls” and partners like Beyond Sports, we’re excited about what we can do and provide greater insight, not just into the game but into the production of the game and what tools may become common in the future.

With that, I’ll toss it over to Phil and start diving into things. Thank you.

ORLINS: Needless to say, thrilled to have a chance to be a part of this. Tim and I have worked together since 1988, probably. To actually work on a project like this is awesome, as Tim alluded to there.

There’s a lot of reasons why I think telecasts like this are important and special. I think it’s really an unrestrained opportunity to talk about the game at a high level, as Tim said. Absolutely the right talent to do that. I’m the lunatic running our baseball coverage who actually in my spare time was reading Kirk Goldsberry’s books on NBA analytics. I was probably a little unusual in that. But obviously I have an interest in that type of stuff.

It gives us an unrestrained opportunity to talk about the game at a high level, target the passionate basketball fans. I think Tim said it there as well, I love doing these things because we don’t really find out what we can do that’s going to impact the future of the way we cover things unless we have a chance to really try them in real-life circumstances and show them to a real actual audience out there. I think it just helps us really move the ball forward in a great way to be able to do this type of stuff.

I think you can go to the visual example slide. Some have probably heard me say this before. Everything we’ve done on the animated telecasts with advanced data and visualizing advanced data, whether we’re doing it with Statcast MLB to create virtual animated replays or doing the fully animated cartoon-based games, I always saw the potential of that data as something that would influence the way we cover sports in the future.

As it continues to get better and better every day, we are entering a world where you can really see things from any position, anytime, any angle, at any speed and all that. I think that advancement is really necessary.

To go through the specific videos that are going to highlight the telecast, this is the shot chart that Tim referenced there.

I think it’s more than just sizzle because you not only get like where all the shots are going from, the distances, stats and all that, but you actually see with the representation of the player movement through the Hawk-Eye (indiscernible) tracking data you get a feel for what they’re doing to accomplish that, score that.

I think it really is a meaningful step forward from sort of two-dimensional dots and Xs and things like that that you would see on the court.

So that’s the shot chart, the Vivid Arc’s Data Blue (indiscernible) is going to be creating for us. She’ll be working throughout the games and feeding us stuff on the fly during the games. And expect to use that fairly liberally.

I’ll let this roll. This is a minute-long segment here. This is an example from the Cavs-Pacers game the other night online where we were online with our Beyond Sports friends in Amsterdam working through this. This is just one nice play. And just the sense of, for here you’re watching it from Donovan Mitchell’s third person, over-the-shoulder point of view. You’ll see first-person point of views here that are more bouncy. Now you’re in Donovan Mitchell’s head here, I believe, his eyes, so to speak, watching the play. But this is a visualization of what Tim was describing as being able to see anything from any angle.

These will probably be available to us within about 15 or 20 seconds behind the live action. It’s a quick process. They come to us quickly. We can use them in a first set of replays or do things with them later on.

This is one play being shown obviously from one play from a variety of different first person, third person, on-the-court angles, sky cam type of angles that can be created (indiscernible) after Allen dunks it for the umpteenth time.

While we’re in my Vimeo page here. And again this is not really — this is an example, the reference to be able to, for analytical purposes take these plays, play them back from any angle, multiple angles, any point of view, and immerse Tim or Kirk or both in the environment, allow them to firsthand be around the virtual players. So that’s just a quick little vow of what that looks like.

In order to do that, just to clarify that, Kirk will wear, Tim or Kirk, both, will wear a Meta Quest Pro VR headset. When they are out there, they will see the players around them in that virtual headset as if they are on the court. And when they move and reach out to the player and stuff like that, it will feel like their arm is going out close to them. That’s the virtual world there. And then obviously we can create a point of view where we see them in that environment.

Lastly, I’ll move to the dunk details or dunk enhancement graphic animation. There’s kind of a cool little — I’m not sure that is the number one example of a Skywalker here, but it’s exactly what we’ve got. Vertical leap, max ball height, take-off distance if they throw it down — 2.3 feet it’s not going to break any records, throw it down hard. So, some enhancements on the dunk type stuff.

Going back to the actual slide if you have it — Tim referenced it as well, the live — you have all the samples there, not the actual. Anyway, the live game coverage will be enhanced as well by some SMT augmented reality graphics.

The other thing I would note, as we’re sort of in this free-form opportunity to analyze the game and so forth, you may see us do a few different things, watch a little action from the opposite side above the rim, watch a little action on the Skycam, things that allow us to see defensive lanes and stuff like that, and be, like I said, unrestrained in our ability to talk about the game from that perspective.

Q. First off, for Ryan, Tim and Kirk, when you approach this type of broadcast, how do you try to do it differently from your point of view?

RUOCCO: I think some of that — we’re going to have a rehearsal day before the first game we do — so I think some of that is going to be a feel for just going through it.

I’m sure it’s going to look different in Game 4 or 5 or wherever we finish than Game 1 or 2. But the way, after talking with Tim Corrigan about it ahead of time and kind of the calls we’ve had leading up to it, the way I’m conceptualizing it from sort of my role is a hybrid of host and play-by-play.

I think there’s going to be certain moments where, in order for us to be getting the most out of what we’re trying to do, it’s probably going to be important for me to punctuate a play like I would in a game.

I think there’s other moments where we’re going to have a lot more freedom to dive into some of the tools and the insights of Kirk and Legs than we may on our traditional game broadcast.

So, sort of a hybrid approach. I’ll probably prepare for it the way I prepare for any game I’m doing and then just give additional thought to how, like specifically talking with Kirk and Legs, what are different tools they’re hoping to use, what are some macro themes they’re hoping to examine throughout the game that we can go back to with those tools.

That was some of the stuff we talked about yesterday. And really trying to just access their expertise and put them in position to use the unique tools we have for this. Kirk and Legs, I don’t know what you think.

GOLDSBERRY: The ability to tell stories with data and effects has never been this strong. And like everything, I think technology in the 21st century has challenged the conventional wisdom around sports broadcasting.

I don’t want it to come across as gimmicky; that’s been my north star, is tell or show something about Anthony Edwards that we couldn’t show 10 years ago. I’m looking for the bells and whistles to help the audience have a better understanding of the athletes and the teams that they love to watch.

Q. When you guys do this type of alt-cast, are you trying to increase ratings just given alternative, leagues all want this, alternative way to watch the game? What is the goal that you’re trying to achieve?

ORLINS: I’ll go quickly on that. There’s a small portion of our viewership that we have the opportunity to maybe hold them a little bit longer. But I think you talk about an opportunity to really engage a core group and increase a little bit of time spent viewing with that group.

Again, when you’re talking about telecasts like this, the baseball version, which really exceeded most alt-cast percentages with 11 percent for the five games we did — so obviously the majority of that is probably cannibalization and it’s probably a percent or two of growth.

In the world we’re in, everybody will take every percent, obviously, we can get. I think the bigger picture is getting, advancing what we do with our coverage and how that impacts the future of how we cover different sports, I think — if I have to use the term north star, I think that’s closer to the north star.

CORRIGAN: The only thing I would add to that is we have the full game coverage going on ABC or ESPN at the same time. And we’re not going to roll that into the documentation of that event.

But we are going to share, and we’ll be able to view everything they’re doing. And if there are things we find, like the Vivid Arc shot chart stuff will (indiscernible) both. We know that going in. It’s just a grander presentation, as Phil mentioned. The fact that the limbs movement and the Avatars — Chet Holmgren and Lu Dort will look different because they do look different. If that’s it — or Joker and Michael Porter, they physically look different and how they move is different. That’s really interesting to us as well.

Just trying to envision more what the future will look like is really important. And the risk/reward is you don’t want to have crazy risk/reward when you’re documenting a championship event. You want to focus on the proper documentation but find some enhancements along the way, whereas here we can be much broader in our risk of what we’re trying to do to get to an end.

Q. A lot of alt-casts try to track younger viewers. I’m curious the viewers you’re seeking with this alt-cast. Is it younger folks who are used to technology and video games, group heads? Who is the target here?

ORLINS: I get a little wonky on the ESPN research-type stuff, where we break things down into six types of viewers. So, to me, this is two groups that it really connects with.

It’s die-hards, which we recognize as our biggest cohort of viewers, who really love sports and want to watch as much as they can watch and want to learn and consume everything they consume. That’s a little different than the traditionalists who also watch a lot and want to keep things the way they were.

We talk about new-schoolers, the younger type of viewers. So, to me the two main places we go are the young new-school type viewer and the really, really passionate heavy consumers who love every aspect of the sport.

LEGLER: I think for me and all the hoop heads I know it wouldn’t have mattered their age; I think this is the kind of stuff that absolutely makes the broadcast like so much more fun and informative.

I don’t think you necessarily have to be the young gamer that’s looking at the Avatar stuff or whatever because it relates more to what they’re doing when they’re playing their game at home. I think it’s anybody that loves the game that wants to get a little bit smarter and have a little bit of a better idea of what players are seeing when they’re on the court and why they make some of the decisions that they make, how tight the windows can be to make some of those decisions, how something that a defender does will dictate then what the offensive player’s going to do next.

It’s all stuff that is probably a next level for even guys that aren’t gaming every night but just want to watch the game a different way and get their information disseminated differently.

Q. Tim and Phil and maybe Ryan, with so many moving pieces how do you crew a show like this and how are expectations different for producers, replay operators, graphics operators? Are there different expectations of people behind the scene? Ryan, how do you expect to interact with those people in your headset or on set in a different way than maybe if it were a traditional straight-up game?

CORRIGAN: I think we can be a little more ambitious with split screens and things like that to tell stories because as things unfold in front of us during the game, using the Vivid Arcs as an example for Kirk and Legs, they may want something immediately as a story is playing out in the first quarter. And we can get it on the screen a whole lot quicker, maybe in a smaller box or maybe put the game a little smaller and take advantage of the storytelling devices here in ways that when you’re documenting the game itself, we’re not going to do that because we have a responsibility to show the game, being the priority and all of that.

I think as you’re building out and imagining this and producing this and directing this, you’re kind of going against the grain of what you’re taught to do when you document a live event. So, I think you’re on point in thinking about this and imagining this in a way that it’s going to be far more ambitious because, again, the game’s available, and that’s where the majority of our audience is going to be.

The informative side of this, like Legs was just talking about, there’s kind of a cool factor with some of the elements we have here.

I would imagine we’ll be far more ambitious and probably active on the screen than we’re going to be on the traditional linear just because, again, as these guys into conversation and get into story, we can follow much closer. But then the instincts of all three of these guys, if things are happening in the game that we want to pull back, that’s part of it too. That’s part of the conversation that I know will be going on with Ryan and Legs and Kirk and the producers as well in the moment is, let’s recognize moments, and if a great moment happens, we have the unique tools to tell it with.

It’s going to look and feel, not only over the air but behind the scenes, much different than a traditional broadcast.

ORLINS: I would add to that, your specifics about crewing of it, besides obviously Ryan, Kirk and Legs, Laurie Privitera, who is one of our lead NBA producers, will produce it. Billy Proctor, who is one of our lead NBA directors, will direct it.

Obviously, it’s a great opportunity for them to be involved with our Conference Finals as we narrow down the number of crews that are actually covering different series.

They’re two of our best working in a — I would just say it will be handled in Bristol, the talent in Bristol. It will be on about a 1- or 2-second delay, very minimal delay just a second or two, to process some of the data behind the main ESPN or ABC coverage.

But it really works well, the centralized aspect of it, the resources coming into Bristol anyway and especially the data-related resources coming off cloud, like the Beyond Sports stuff and things like that are really a very optimized situation to be able to work in a centralized location for that.

RUOCCO: To answer the last portion of that, I think the way it might feel different from a managing tool standpoint, there will be more. And that’s why one of the first — you heard Tim mention it earlier — one of the first things he mentioned to me when he were talking about this was the WNBA Draft, because anybody who has been in a truck during a draft or who has hosted or been on a panel during a draft knows what makes it fun is the chaos of figuring out all the different pieces and putting it together.

There will be more randomness because it’s a game; it doesn’t have the strict formula that a draft has. But from a typical game there’s obviously a certain cadence you’re used to with your producers. You kind of get a feel for, oh, we’re going to go to a replay here or we’re not, or oh, we’re going to do this read coming out of break or not, or at the free-throw line.

I think it’s just going to be communication with Laurie, who I’ve done drafts with before and she’s done a fantastic job on them, just kind of steering me towards, hey, I’m thinking you can get Legs to this now, or telling Kirk and Legs, hey, I’m looking for an opportunity to get you up to the board or do a first-person VR or whatever it might be.

I think it’s just going to be kind of fitting in some more tools is how I imagine it. But I think the communication is going to be very similar in that we’re going to be talking with our producer and probably Billy some too. I think it will just be more of that because of the tools that we have.

Q. Tim and Ryan, this question related to the concept, since we’re going to have a run-through today, this was talked about, what things are you wanting to iron out during this run-through — like right away, okay, I want to see how this works or I want to see how that works — that can help you in terms of building a foundation of what to do before you get to that Tuesday, that first cast?

LEGLER: I think for me, I think one of the big things is — this is why it’s so important for us to get on site and kind of all be in the same room and look at this technology — I think for me it’s going to be when is it going to be an appropriate time where you see something in the game that’s going to lend itself to putting on the VR headset and now immersing yourself on the court with the players and giving you that bird’s-eye view of what a player was looking at when a specific play took place.

There are a million examples I could think of where I think that could be pretty cool, like a defensive play that a guy makes, what was he reading prior to the play that he made?

A lot of times a guy that’s handling the ball, coming off a ball screen or something like that, there are certain things that are going to happen that he’s looking at that’s going to dictate where that guy goes with the basketball. I think for me, it’s going to be trying to figure out how to identify when those are the appropriate times to inject that.

We’re going to have all kinds of cool data and graphics and stuff popping up on the screen related to how guys are playing that’s stat-driven. But that’s the one thing that’s kind of like, well, I’m going to take you now on the court and take a look at what exactly that player was looking at when this play happened.

But identifying those in real time and then being able to put that in the broadcast, I think that’s what I’m anxious to get to Bristol and see what that looks like.

RUOCCO: To that point, I think one of the things that’s always been a hallmark of Legs’ work and Kirk’s work is they’re super specific. For me as a viewer, that is just paramount.

Like you just never want people who are obviously filling up space and not saying anything. I think they are both so good at being specific and supported in whatever points they’re making when they’re on the air in their various platforms.

I feel like what’s exciting about this game and what I’m looking forward to for the rehearsal, to your question, is seeing how we can access that even more from both of them because I feel like we’re going to have even more tools to drive into that for two guys who already come to their jobs so prepared and so focused on specific things.

Then there’s like, I think, our rehearsal too — this is a silly thing, too, but since you asked the question — I’m curious how it’s going to sound. Normally when we do a game, we wear a headset. We’re initially trying just with lobs and earpieces, that creates a different sound, which if someone was to say like, ‘Hey, go do play-by-play,’ that’s going to be our audio setup. It’s a little unnerving.

But in this setting, I think it’s going to feel kind of like probably the necessary differentiation from what we do on a traditional broadcast. But I’m excited to just hear what that sounds like.

And then also the timing of things. With these replays and the different tools we’re going to use, presumably, some of them are going to take a little bit more time than how we typically integrate certain elements.

What does that timing feel like? How does it spill into other plays? And how do we feel about navigating that?

So I think the rehearsal will be a good spot to work through a bunch of that before we actually get on the air.

Q. Tim, obviously with me being in Phoenix, I know the Suns aren’t in the playoffs, but I have to ask. Brian Gregory was in his initial press conference, he said that he thought the roster was pretty talented, and that a lot of it is, okay, that’s the right combinations. The essence of the narrative has been they haven’t had the right head coach for the group. And that’s been the reason why they aren’t in the position to be in the postseason this year and got swept in the first round last year. My question to you, Tim, should they run it back with Devin, Kevin and Brad? Or should they not run it back with them and why and why not?

LEGLER: If you’re asking my opinion on that, I think to me, I think this has kind of run its course. I don’t think the results have been anything what they expected.

They went out and hired two coaches with a lot of NBA experience, both of whom had won championships in this league. And they gave them each one year to try to sort through that.

I don’t know that it necessarily chose the wrong coach. I think maybe the mix isn’t necessarily the best amongst those guys. I think when you had the level of underachievement that they’ve had over the last couple of years, I think you start to look at, okay, let’s approach this differently, and that would be my approach if I’m Brian Gregory.

I know there’s a lot of talent. It’s easier said than done to get back what it’s worth, because that’s not always the easiest thing to get fair market value for talent like that. The talent can be so scintillating, you can always think, hey, we’re going to turn this around. I’m just not convinced after watching the last couple of seasons that it is just the right mix.

Q. Tim, you’ve been at ESPN now for 25 years. You’ve been there before ESPN had NBA rights. You were doing NBA Tonight, I think maybe NBA Matchup — you can correct me. But this is obviously, even though it’s a secondary broadcast, it’s the biggest assignment you’ve had as far as analyzing a game. Do you view this as kind of a milestone in your career as you move further into being a game analyst?

LEGLER: The stage is the biggest in this league. So, I’m definitely looking forward to that opportunity for that reason because everything is magnified, every play is magnified. I guess in terms of the level of games, certainly. This is probably the peak so far.

This was my first year doing a full slate in the rotation of calling games. So, I was very, very excited to do that. And hopefully there’s a lot more of that to come in the future, and I’m really excited about that.

But just in terms of, I guess, you’re asking me the magnitude of the actual game, yeah, this would probably be it because it’s the NBA Finals. So much is at stake.

For me it just gets the adrenaline pumping more which, I think, my senses get a little more heightened in trying to find that cool thing in a particular sequence of the game, like, man, this is a great teaching point; I want to take people inside what guys are thinking right here and why things happened.

Yeah, I’m really excited about it and excited about the people I’m working with. I think they did a great job putting together a team. Hopefully, we can make this something that’s really, really cool for everybody this year.

Q. Kind of same question to Ryan Ruocco. Obviously, you’ve done 13 WNBA Finals, I think. You can correct me if I’m off. But this is the furthest you’ve gone into the NBA Playoffs. Is it a milestone for you, as well?

RUOCCO: Yeah, definitely. I think anytime you get to be involved in any of our premier properties at ESPN and our championship properties, that’s something that you perk up about and you take really seriously and you get excited for. And when Thomas Kintner, one of the other executives we have on our team, first reached out to me about would I be interested and available, that’s the first thing I thought was oh, this is going to be cool, I’ll get to do something involving a Conference Finals and I’ve never done that before. Pumped to do it with Legs, pumped to do it with Kirk.

One thing I’m excited about, as well, is a lot of times when you think about alt-casts, they are personality driven, and I’m excited — not to say Kirk and I can’t bring it with our personalities, but I’m excited to do something that’s still going to have the basketball as the main thing. I’m excited to go do the Western Conference Finals in this case and have the basketball be the tent pole and the linchpin or the point of our alt-cast, so super pumped for it.

ESPN media contacts: ben.cafardo@espn.com and ronce.rajan@espn.com.

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