ESPN Audio Launches First Podcast Mini-Series

ESPN Audio will offer its first long-form podcasts, “Dunkumentaries,” a five-part series celebrating basketball’s most powerful shot by examining its history, memorable moments, impact and future.

Topics will include the impact on the sneaker business of Dee Brown’s performance at the 1991 NBA Dunk Contest, the first dunk by a woman in college basketball and how the only known tape of it was found 25 years after it happened, and whether creativity in dunks has run its course and there are no “new” dunks to do.  The project is a collaboration between ESPN Audio and ESPN Films, and is sponsored by Seat Geek.

Traug Keller

All five episodes will be published Tuesday, April 5; they range in length from 12 to 20 minutes.  They will be available on the ESPN app, iTunes, and other podcast platforms/apps, as well as on the web, including ESPN.com and espnW.com.

Contributing to the series are former NBA players Dee Brown and Leo Rautins, Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers, as well as basketball coaches, historians and journalists.  Voices from ESPN include SportsCenter’s Cari Champion, espnW’s Kate Fagan, David Jacoby of ESPN Radio’s weeknight Jalen & Jacoby, and reporter Ramona Shelburne.

“We offer more than 30 original podcasts, it is a rapidly growing business, and for a long time we’ve been looking to add long-form, narrative productions to our lineup,” said Traug Keller, who oversees ESPN Audio as ESPN senior vice president, production business divisions.  “Fans love to consume audio on their terms – when they want, where they want, and these creative and enterprising offerings provide compelling content.”

Added Ryan Nantell, ESPN Films’ producer of the project, “The slam dunk continues to awe fans on an almost daily basis.  We’ve all got our favorite dunks and dunk contest memories.  We wanted to take a closer look at the impact of those memories and the personalities connected to them.”