Zach Lowe

Zach Lowe Laid Off By ESPN in Yet Another Confusing ESPN Move | The Bill Simmons Podcast 

When tasked with choosing just one sports media piece, I had decided to write about USA Today’s article “Quel dommage! France won't make gymnastics team final, is shut out of individual finals” because it captured a specific moment in the 2024 Olympics where I reflected on what made sports so captivating and hard to look away from. While this article deserves a shout-out, in light of recent NBA events, I wanted to switch my pick to a segment from The Bill Simmons Podcast with guest Bryan Curtis from one of my favorite podcasts, The Press Box. In this segment, posted in video format on YouTube, Simmons and Curtis discuss the future of sports media and the recent firing of Zach Lowe from ESPN. 

Both podcasters are seasoned veterans in writing and media, with Bill Simmons being a former employee of ESPN, so they shared their perspectives on the trajectory of sports media coverage at the “worldwide leader in sports”. What makes this conversation so captivating is the fact that they are acknowledging, in real-time, the potential significance of firing Zach Lowe, which appears to reveal ESPN’s approach to sports coverage moving forward. Zach Lowe will inevitably find another job as a sports reporter, but his analytical and level-headed approach to NBA coverage seems to be a relic of past ESPN reporting that the company is actively moving away from. With Lowe and Woj leaving ESPN this NBA preseason, the coverage seems to be doubling down on sound-bites and hot takes revealing a centralized focus on one aspect of sports coverage rather than diverse perspectives and approaches. 

While I want to refrain from being overly critical or cynical about the direction of ESPN, I wanted to mention this podcast, because it was very thought-provoking on the evolution of ESPN as well as the sports reporter. Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have consumed multiple podcasts on the topic of ESPN, including Pablo Torre Finds Out “The Sporting Class”, so I wanted to reflect on my thoughts on the company’s evolution during an ever-changing sports media landscape.