During a lengthy piece on the evolution of ESPN's coverage of the NBA, Adi Joseph reports the layoffs in April were "different" for the NBA than the other sports the network covers.

Laying off Marc Stein, Chad Ford, Henry Abbott and several other NBA reporters were a direct result of ESPN's bigger plan to bring in Adrian Wojnarowski and several members from his team at The Vertical.

While ESPN is reducing its coverage of other sports, the NBA remains a priority for the network.

ESPN is paying $1.4 billion per season for broadcast rights for the NBA, which is 2.8 times more than the previous deal.