Mark Jones signs off
Veteran broadcaster Mark Jones received a standing ovation on his final ESPN broadcast during the Magic‑Celtics telecast, capping a long career with memorable calls noted across social posts. ( ) Social coverage highlighted iconic moments from his run, including signature phrases fans associate with his work. (x.com)
Mark Jones called his final ESPN game on April 12, ending a 36-year run with the network during Orlando’s regular-season finale at Boston. (sports.yahoo.com) Before tipoff, Jones joined the “Inside the NBA” set and got a standing ovation from Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. He told the show he was leaving “the only place” he had worked in network television and called the journey “outstanding.” (sports.yahoo.com) On the game broadcast, Doris Burke told Jones that “everybody involved, in the truck, here courtside” was honored to work his last telecast with him. A later fourth-quarter tribute traced his ESPN work from “NBA Today” to decades of National Basketball Association and college football coverage. (si.com) Jones joined ESPN in 1990 and worked across National Basketball Association, Women’s National Basketball Association, college basketball, college football and United Football League assignments. ESPN’s press bio also says he hosted “SportsCenter” during National Basketball Association Finals coverage from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2007 to 2010. (espnpressroom.com) His exit lands just before the National Basketball Association playoffs and during a period when ESPN is carrying fewer playoff games under the league’s new media-rights deal. Sports Media Watch reported that Jones had been part of ESPN’s play-by-play rotation with Mike Breen, Dave Pasch and Ryan Ruocco. (sportsmediawatch.com) Jones said the move was his choice, not a retirement announcement. In an Instagram message quoted by Yahoo Sports, he wrote that it was “time to move on” and that his “best work is yet to come.” (sports.yahoo.com) He is expected to keep one major microphone. Yahoo Sports reported that Jones told The Sacramento Bee he plans to remain the Sacramento Kings’ local television play-by-play voice and said, “My plan is to be here for a long, long time.” (sports.yahoo.com) The farewell matched the voice viewers heard for more than three decades: formal in rhythm, loose in phrasing and tied to calls fans repeated long after the buzzer. On Sunday, Jones signed off from ESPN the same way colleagues described his career on air — with gratitude, emotion and one last game to document. (si.com)
