SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame graduate Tim Corrigan is working his 18th and last NBA Finals as lead producer for ABC’s television coverage.
It also happens to be the Indiana Pacers’ first trip to the championship round in 25 years.
The timing couldn’t be better for Corrigan and his family as the longtime ESPN employee moves into an oversight role as senior vice president of sports production.
It’s kind of fun to be back in Indiana doing this,” Corrigan said Thursday, June 12 in a phone interview. “The Notre Dame connection is everywhere.”
Before Game 3 on Wednesday night in downtown Indianapolis, Corrigan had a chance to visit with his older brother, Kevin, Notre Dame’s two-time national champion lacrosse coach, and Kevin’s wife, Lis, after they made the drive from South Bend.
Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman and his wife Joanna were there as well, saying hello to Pacers coach Rick Carlisle in his office before the Pacers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
NBA executives Byron Spruell and Tim Frank, both Notre Dame graduates, were on site as usual, adding to the “old home week” flavor of this assignment.
That job of producing is a lot like coaching in a sense,” said Tim Corrigan, a lacrosse midfielder for the Irish from 1984-86. “You work with a team, you prepare, everyone has responsibilities, you go out, you execute, you come back, you fix, you prepare again. That’s just kind of the path that you do over and over and over.”
Corrigan, 62, likens this next phase of his career to switching from Kevin’s all-encompassing duties to the oversight role held by their youngest brother Boo Corrigan, athletic director at North Carolina State.
