ESPN Reporter Tim Bontemps in Advanced Talks To Join Hawks’ Front Office

ESPN NBA reporter Tim Bontemps is in advanced talks to join the Atlanta Hawks’ front office, sources told Front Office Sports.

A deal has not been finalized, one source said. Spokespeople for the Hawks and ESPN declined to comment.

Bontemps joined ESPN in 2018 after previously working for the Washington Post and New York Post. He is a writer and has appeared on TV across the network’s studio programming. 

Bontemps would be joining a front office led by Onsi Saleh, who was promoted from general manager to president of basketball operations and signed a long-term contract extension with the franchise in May.

A slew of basketball media members have joined team front offices in recent years. Kevin Pelton recently left ESPN to work for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun—who will become the revamped Houston Comets—and Athletic writer Ben Pickman left to work for the Portland Fire. The Washington Wizards and Mystics hired former ESPN editor Cristina Daglas to a front office role last year.

Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins famously joined the Clippers in 2018. NBA analytics guru John Hollinger previously left ESPN to work for the Grizzlies, and is now back to writing at The Athletic.

Media members’ roles in NBA and WNBA front offices have ranged from being narrative/storytelling guides for organizations, in the case of Jenkins and Daglas, to being involved in the actual basketball strategy like Pelton and Hollinger. Bontemps would be on the basketball side, one source said.

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