ESPN’s do-it-all NBA analyst, Zach Lowe, was laid off by the company this week, according to reports. The reason why is reportedly less about anything that Lowe did or didn’t do and more about cost-cutting measures.

That ESPN lost Doc Rivers (who ditched his gig as a de facto replacement for Van Gundy to take the Bucks’ coaching job) and JJ Redick (Rivers’s replacement, who ditched the network to join LeBron James’s staff with the Lakers) within sixth months of each other falls somewhere between comedy and karma.

Zach Lowe has a strong argument for being the best sportswriter in America right now. Of course, sportswriter only partially describes Lowe’s role at ESPN over the last several years: he’s been a staple on television as a panelist on NBA Today,