Report: ESPN parts ways with NBA writer Zach Lowe

ESPN has laid off NBA senior writer Zach Lowe, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. This news comes shortly after Adrian Wojnarowski announced his retirement. This also comes after the dismissals of ESPN NFL personalities Sam Ponder and Robert Griffin III.

Marchand said the moves are part of ESPN’s fiscal year planning that concludes at the end of September. A big reason for the network parting ways with Lowe was his salary as he was making over seven figures annually. Lowe was with ESPN for 12 years, first starting at the long-form site Grantland. Over the years, Lowe has appeared on different TV programs on ESPN and hosted a podcast called Lowe Post.

On Tuesday, Lowe appeared on NBA Today and shared his thoughts and the defending World Champion Boston Celtics for the 2024-25 season. “Everybody should be terrified of the Celtics,” Lowe said, per Boston.com. “The rest of the league should be terrified watching all of those comments because the Celtics have everybody coming back. They’re fully loaded. Before all this happened, before all the Olympic stuff, before the DNPs that [Jayson] Tatum is clearly still irked about, they were already the team best positioned to repeat since the Warriors with [Kevin Durant] and Steph [Curry] were the last team to repeat.

Zach Lowe shares thoughts on Celtics before ESPN exit

“The Celtics are looking that goal in the eye,” Lowe added. “They’re talking about it. They’re saying it out loud, and the rest of the league should look at this team with two stars in their absolute prime, perfect complementary players all over the roster, and listen to these comments and say, ‘Uh oh.’ There’s not going to be any complacency. There’s not going to be any satisfaction. This team wants history, and they’re ready to chase it.”

Lowe began covering the NBA full-time in 2010 for Sports Illustrated. He has been a journalist since 2004 when he began covering the crime and courts beat for the Stamford Advocate newspaper in Stamford, Connecticut. Lowe received his B.A. in History from Dartmouth College and M.A. in U.S. history from the College of William & Mary. Before making the move to journalism, Lowe was studying for his PhD.