ESPN Faces Backlash For Interrupting Wimbledon Coverage Tuesday

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 07: Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic serves against Fabio Fognini of Italy during their Men's Singles third round match on day six of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 7, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

ESPN Faces Backlash For Interrupting Wimbledon Coverage Tuesday

Originally posted on The Spun | By Chris Rosvoglou | Last updated Jun 30, 2026 1:01 PM ET

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It's safe to say tennis fans aren't loving ESPN's coverage of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships.

During this Tuesday's coverage at Wimbledon, ESPN pulled away Alexander Zverev's match with Alexander Blockx to discuss LeBron James leaving the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency. No, we're not kidding.

ESPN host Malika Andrews was talking about Wimbledon's first-round results with former US Open champion Andy Roddick before switching gears to the NBA. It was a pretty bizarre decision considering the audience for Wimbledon simply cares about what's going on at the All England Club

As if that's not bad enough, ESPN had NBA insider Shams Charania jump on to share an update on what's next for James and the Lakers.

"Interrupting Wimbledon coverage to talk about LeBron is definitely a choice lol," one fan commented. "Like, y’all couldn’t put this on a split screen to the side even??"

"Why is @espn interrupting @Wimbledon to talk about Lebron?" a second fan wrote on X. "What a joke. Embarrassing coverage of a major tournament for a nothing update."

"Utterly ridiculous to interrupt Wimbledon with LeBron news," another fan declared.

"I’m NOT interested in hearing about LeBron James in the middle of a great match on CENTER COURT at Wimbledon," a tennis fan said. "This is the absolute worst tennis coverage of a Grand Slam I’ve ever seen."

ESPN's @malika_andrews went all the way to #Wimbledon for 2 weeks but NBA business still rolls on as she relays a big news update from @ShamsCharania during tennis coverage... pic.twitter.com/D9TPPcxDBJ
— bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) June 30, 2026

It's already been a rough week for ESPN.

Prior to the start of the main draw at Wimbledon, ESPN confirmed that every match played at Wimbledon will be streamed live on its app for ESPN Unlimited subscribers.

“ESPN exclusively presents The Championships, Wimbledon, in its entirety beginning Monday, June 29, from the All England Lawn Tennis Club with daily coverage from all 18 courts on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes (Spanish) and streaming on the ESPN App for ESPN Unlimited plan subscribers,” the network said in a press release. “ABC will broadcast select live Round of 16 matches on Sunday, July 5, between noon and 5 p.m. ET. All Disney+ subscribers can access Day 1 action of the tournament directly within the app. For the fourth straight year, coverage will be presented by Barclays. ”

Tennis fans weren't exactly thrilled about paying $29.99 to watch every match at Wimbledon. Now that the main action at Centre Court is being interrupted, ESPN might lose even more viewers from the tennis community.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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