Turner Sports is revamping its NBA coverage and is on the verge of hiring Stan Van Gundy away from ESPN to be a prominent game analyst, The Post has learned.
Van Gundy’s addition could have long-term implications for Turner’s top games. For its marquee event, the conference finals, Turner typically goes with a three-man booth.
In the recent past, it has been Chris Webber and Reggie Miller joining Marv Albert. It is easy to imagine that Turner may want a coach and a player combo in the future.
If the new deal goes through, the Van Gundys will be the first family of NBA game analysts, as former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy has been on ABC/ESPN’s No. 1 team for more than a decade.
Stan mostly appeared on ESPN’s studio shows and was regularly on Dan Le Batard’s radio program.
With Jeff Zucker atop Warner Media Sports in place of David Levy, changes have been expected.
The network has already added Steve Nash, who does Champions League soccer for Turner, to its NBA coverage, mostly doing features. It has also eliminated The Players Only broadcast as a weekly showcase, but may try to use the concept in other forms.
Turner let go of sideline reporter Ros Gold-Onwude.
Meanwhile, the legendary Albert, 78, has no plans to go anywhere and has two years remaining on his contract.
Romo’s coachspeak: CBS and Tony Romo have had no substantive talks yet on a new contract for the network’s lead game analyst, according to sources.
“I Bill Belichick contract talk,” said Romo, declining to go into detail about his thinking on the final year of his contract.
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus expressed confidence in Romo returning.
“We expect him to be at CBS for a long time,” McManus said.
CBS remains the favorite to keep Romo, but it will be asked to meet or surpass John Madden’s record NFL TV game analyst number of $8 million per season. Romo is currently in the low $3 million range.
CBS bets: CBS may add gambling lines to its bottom line ticker during NFL games, a source with knowledge of their thinking said. CBS hasn’t fully come up with their plan, but whatever it does, it is expected to be a light touch.
It doesn’t sound like CBS will encourage its announcers to do the Al Michaels wink-wink thing at the end of games if a point spread gets impacted. CBS’ feeling — a correct one, by the way — is that if you have a bet on the game, you don’t need to be reminded about the line, even if it works for Michaels.
By adding the spreads on the ticker, it does offer some context on what Vegas thinks about matchups of the day.
Fill-in Frank: Tony Kornheiser, 71, isn’t going anywhere and “PTI” is an institution that does not need changing, but if he ever walks away, it seems like ESPN thinks Frank Isola has that same New York wise guy chemistry with Michael Wilbon as Kornheiser. Isola is on the show a lot, especially in the summer, and it doesn’t miss a beat.
Yankees transaction: ESPN Yankees reporter Coley Harvey announced on Twitter he is leaving the WWL.
Sources tell The Post he is headed to Fox Sports, where he will do Big Ten Network reporting, while also doing Fox Sports college football and basketball work.
Clicker books: A couple of summer reading books on Papa Clicker’s list this week. He is handing out a couple of 4.1-out-of-5 clicker ratings, which means these are worth your time even if they don’t hit the Clicker classic highs of the 4.6 tomes.
“For The Good of the Game” by Bud Selig and Phil Rodgers chronicles the former MLB commissioner’s time in the game, while a little less known story is “Ten Innings at Wrigley” by Kevin Cook, which details maybe the wildest game ever, a 23-22 Phillies win over the Cubs on May 17, 1979. The story features a couple of former Mets as Tug McGraw and Dave Kingman played in the game.