If you watch a lot of ESPN, you are used to seeing Michael Wilbon on screen in front of a desert backdrop. That is pretty standard when the PTI and NBA Countdown star is broadcasting from his home in Arizona.

That backdrop has been seen a lot this year as Wilbon has been off the road. He is recovering from surgery to repair an ulcer on his right foot. They are part of his struggle with Type II diabetes. He had the surgery in April.

Since then, he has been getting around on a scooter, which he joked with the New York Post’s Ryan Glasspiegel is exactly what LeBron James is doing right now.

“When you’re 64 years old, you’re not gonna come back from that overnight — I don’t know if you would at 44 either.”

Michael Wilbon says that he expects to return to the road this week. From what he told Glasspiegel, it sounds like we are more likely to see him in the studio than at an arena.

“I can still work,” he said. “Am I going to games right now? No, but I probably wouldn’t be going to many games in March anyways before the playoffs.”

Atlanta Braves fans will be greeted with a very different television broadcast when Major League Baseball’s regular season begins later this month. Bally Sports South has undergone a full talent overhaul.

When the network announced its talent for the 2023 season, two names were missing. Neither Paul Byrd nor Brian Jordan will return. Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Byrd’s decision was a personal matter, while the team made efforts to bring Jordan back.

Brian Jordan was part of the team of analysts covering the Braves on TV last year. Byrd was a studio host. He was at the front of a season preview show, which premiered last week.

The Braves have been hit with plenty of other changes this offseason. Chip Caray will be replaced by Brandon Gaudin on play-by-play after Caray decided to leave Atlanta for St. Louis. Also, Tom Glavine returns as a game analyst after taking time away from the team in 2022.

As the restructuring at Disney continues under CEO Bob Iger, tough decisions regarding people’s careers with the company are being made.

The jobs of 7,000 Disney employees will be eliminated as the company tries to save $5.5 billion in costs.

Stephen A. Smith, on a recent episode of his podcast K[no]w Mercy, said ESPN is not going to escape unscathed.

“ESPN is under the Disney umbrella,” Smith said. “They’re going to have cuts coming.”

ESPN has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs in recent years. According to Front Office Sports, 700 jobs have been cut, including those of anchors, reporters and analysts, since 2015.

Stephen A., who has an annual salary of $13 million, said no one’s job is safe.

“Hell, for all I know, I might be one of them,” Smith said. “Now, I doubt that. But it’s possible. No one knows.”