Summer Series Reunion: Terry Gannon and Robin Roberts, who called games together for 16 seasons, will reunite as part of the Summer Series’ 50th anniversary campaign. (Tamir Moore/Canva)
| ☛ Sunday, June 28, 2026
🟆 Highlights:
- As part of the 50th anniversary season of NBA: Summer Series, several former commentators and/or broadcast teams will reunite to honor this golden anniversary year.
- To get things started, Terry Gannon and Robin Roberts, who served as part of the No. 2 commentary team for 16 seasons alongside the late Dereic Dorman (1990-2005), will call a special July 4 Trail Blazers-Heat alongside play-by-play commentator Michele Tayofa and reporters Hannah Storm and Linda Cohn.
- Additional special broadcasts will be announced as the summer progresses.
ESPN announced Sunday that Terry Gannon and Robin Roberts — who broadcast games together from 1990-2005 with the late great Dereic Dorman (who passed away in 2019) — will partner up again for a special one-night broadcast of the Portland Trail Blazers vs. Miami Heat game on Saturday, July 4 at 5:00 PM ET on ESPN and the ESPN App. This reunion occurred roughly 21 years after Gannon and Roberts last worked an NBA Summer Series broadcast side by side — Game 6 of the 2005 Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Pistons and Pacers on August 18, 2005.
Gannon and Roberts will both serve as analysts alongside play-by-play commentator Michele Tayofa and reporters Hannah Storm and Linda Cohn (who recently retired from SportsCenter after a 34-year run). This is the first of many broadcasts honoring the 50th anniversary of the transformative NBA Summer Series franchise.
On January 5, 1990, Gannon, Roberts, and former Summer Series play-by-play man Dereic Dorman called their first game together — a Knicks-Pistons preseason game from the Palace of Auburn Hills. Now 36 years later, Gannon and Roberts have a chance to call a game together during the 50th season of the NBA Summer Series.
“I am so excited to bring back Robin and Terry for this special 4th of July Trail Blazers-Heat game,” said Tamir Moore, play-by-play commentator for the NBA Summer Series. “This is an exciting way to ring in America’s 250th birthday and continue our season-long celebration of the 50th NBA Summer Series season.”
“Coming back to ESPN to call an NBA Summer Series game feels like a special honor and privilege,” said Robin Roberts, the former Summer Series sideline reporter and now co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America. “Terry and I started in 1990, and called games together for the next decade and a half alongside our beloved and late colleague Dereic [Dorman]. And now, 20+ years later, Terry and I get to call an NBA Summer Series game during the 50th season. Can’t get any better than that.”
“From winning a National Championship with NC State back in ’83, to calling NBA/WNBA games for ESPN, and now commenting on NBA games for NBC Sports, most of my adult life has been shaped around basketball,” said Terry Gannon, a former ESPN commentator who now works for NBC Sports. “To reunite with Robin again for this Trail Blazers-Heat game is like a dream come true. She is somebody whom I have in high regard. Celebrating 50 years of the NBA Summer Series while working in one of the best sports broadcasting roles is very special to me. I can’t wait for July 4!”
Roberts, who is one of the most respected voices in sports broadcasting, previously worked for ESPN from 1990 to 2005, anchoring SportsCenter, calling WNBA play-by-play, and working the sidelines for NBA Summer Series broadcasts. Now, Roberts is one of the co-hosts for ABC’s Good Morning America. Gannon, who played for the legendary 1983 NC State Wolfpack team coached by the late Jim Valvano that won the National Championship, has over 30 years of broadcasting experience with ABC/ESPN (1990-2010) and NBC Sports (2010-present).
Pregame coverage for Trail Blazers-Heat will begin at 4:00 PM ET on ESPN and the ESPN App with “NBA Countdown presented by Google”, hosted by ESPN’s Madelyn Burke, Brian Burton, Cory Alexander, & Ann Meyers Drysdale, live from Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gannon and Roberts will appear on the pregame show to reminisce about their 16-season run in the 1990s and 2000s covering NBA Summer Series games. After the game, at 7:30 PM ET, a second edition of “NBA Countdown presented by Google” airs on ESPN and ABC, plus the ESPN App, with a full recap of Trail Blazers-Heat and includes postgame thoughts from Tayofa, Gannon, and Roberts.
|| ⓘ Sources: 2026 NBA Summer Series Official Game Schedule, 2026 NBA Summer Series National Television Schedule, & 2026 NBA Summer Series on ESPN Schedule ||
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