The recent turnover at ESPN will not be affecting basketball host and reporter Malika Andrews.
ESPN officially announced on Tuesday that they have reached an agreement on a contract extension with Andrews. The release noted that Andrews’ extension is a “multi-year” one.
Andrews, 30, has been at ESPN since 2018. She debuted as a writer for the network before eventually becoming a sideline reporter. Andrews has since notably been in the spotlight as the host of the ESPN show “NBA Today,” which began in 2021 and replaced “The Jump” as the network’s dedicated basketball studio program.
For Andrews, who won a Sports Emmy in 2022 and made history by becoming the first woman to anchor coverage of the NBA Draft later that year as well, she was facing an uncertain future at ESPN in recent months. One report even claimed that Andrews, whose contract was expiring at the time, might be one of multiple notable basketball names to depart from The Worldwide Leader.
But instead, ESPN has decided to keep Andrews around for at least the next couple of years as one of the continued faces of their NBA coverage. Andrews has been criticized in the past for some ugly on-air miscues, but she has also received praise for her impressive professionalism on other occasions.
The extension for Andrews, who is married to an ESPN colleague as well, gives the network a bit of stability amid another uncertain time for them. For one, another well-known ESPN host was just revealed earlier this week to be leaving the network herself.
