Longtime NBA journalist Jackie MacMullan will retire from ESPN on Aug. 31, ending a decade-long tenure with the company.
MacMullan, who has been an NBA reporter for 40 years, joined ESPN in 2010 after a long career with The Boston Globe. She has appeared on every ESPN platform, as a senior writer for ESPN.com as well as on SportsCenter, The Jump and Outside the Lines. She has also made nearly 900 appearances on Around the Horn. She’ll cap her ESPN career with an Around the Horn appearance on Aug. 31.
“I feel fortunate to have collaborated with so many incredibly talented people during my 10-plus years at ESPN,” MacMullan said in a statement released by ESPN. “Sometimes you just know when you’re ready to dial it back, and this is the right time for me. I’m grateful for the memories, but especially for the friends I’ve made along the way. Thank you to my ESPN colleagues for all of your support.”
MacMullan received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing in 2019. She was the first woman to receive both honors. She was the Mary Garber Pioneer Award winner from the Association for Women in Sports Media in 2019.
She started with the Boston Globe in 1982 as a columnist and editor.
“Jackie is one of the greatest journalists ESPN has ever seen,” ESPN senior deputy editor Cristina Daglas said in a statement. “And she did it all while providing mentorship to both editors and writers, ensuring whether she meant to or not, that pieces of her will remain here long after she exits.”