I honestly think that ESPN's HR Dept. has no idea how many employees they currently have under the payroll, or they wouldn't be continually hiring people for NBA coverage. The latest hire is former Mavs' Coach, Avery Johnson, who actually worked with the network last season. Here are quotes from the parties involved in the deal....

“Avery has excelled in every professional endeavor and we know his success will carry over to his on-air role,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. “His experience and passion for the game will resonate with our fans.”

“I’m excited to join the ESPN family of networks and, specifically, to join the NBA broadcast team,” said Johnson. “ESPN and ABC has an abundance of terrific talent and I’m glad to launch my career in broadcasting with the premiere sports network.”

I personally think that Avery is a very smart Basketball mind, but he just wasn't ready to be on TV last year. Hopefully he got better over the offseason because the show he'll be on has a trainwreckability that's off the charts. Johnson will be joining Stuart Scott and Bill Walton on ESPN’s NBA Shootaround, and with Walton having the season off last year after with back problems, I'm sure he'll be even more amped up than ever before.

It'll be interesting to say the least. I'm also not sure what the hirings of Magic Johnson, and now Avery Johnson, means for one of my favorites in Tim Legler. Hopefully he's still around this season because he's the best analysts that they have over there. I guess they could have just forgot he works there since they have over 30 NBA employees on the payroll. One of these days I'm going to try and count them all.

(Via ESPN PR)