Eric Collins got the ultimate endorsement from two of the greatest players in NBA history earlier this week, and, of course, it came with impressions.
Steph Curry appeared on LeBron James and Steve Nash’s Mind the Game podcast, and during a discussion about Curry teaming up with his brother Seth in the NBA one day, Nash pointed out that they’d need Dell Curry — the Currys’ father and current Charlotte Hornets analyst — calling the games.
“You gotta bring Eric, too, then,” James said. “You gotta bring his counterpart because he is f*cking hilarious.”
That would be Eric Collins, Charlotte’s play-by-play voice for the past decade and one of the most distinctive announcers in all of sports, not just the NBA. Dell Curry has worked alongside Collins as the Hornets’ analyst since 2015, and the two will continue their partnership at Amazon Prime Video after both were hired for the streaming service’s inaugural NBA package this summer.
And according to Steph, his father regularly texts him and his brother highlights from their broadcasts.
“There’s a clip or a highlight of all his famous calls or whatever,” Curry said. “There’s a game where Kemba [Walker] scores, hits a three in the first quarter, and they’re down like eight, but he acted like it was a game-winner. And just the volume he went to. My dad texts us all the time like, ‘Yo, Eric’s got some gems tonight.'”
“He’s great. I like that guy,” James added.
Our guy Eric Collins is a national treasure on the mic 😂
Watch @mindthegamepod on @primevideo, YouTube and everywhere podcasts are available 🍿 pic.twitter.com/POgQgsPIvS
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) November 18, 2025
Collins has spent the last 11 years making Hornets games watchable regardless of the team’s record. His calls go viral regularly because they don’t sound like anyone else in basketball. That approach has built a cult following in Charlotte, and this summer it caught Amazon’s attention.
Prime Video hired Collins as one of four play-by-play voices for its inaugural NBA package alongside Kevin Harlan, Ian Eagle, and Michael Grady. And while there’s a mix of voices who have done both local and national NBA games, Collins discussed Amazon’s approach on the Awful Announcing Podcast in September, explaining why he believes the company wants to bring individuality back to national broadcasts.
“I think with the people they chose to hire, with the way they want to do it. Why continue doing things the same way?” Collins said. “It’s 2025, man. TV doesn’t need to be cookie-cutter. To me, there’s no rule. The only rule is you turn on that camera, you’re ready to go. You turn off that camera, you’ve got to be done. You know, there’s an in and there’s an out. But every single thing you do in between, that’s a blank canvas.”
The 56-year-old Collins has operated on that blank canvas in Charlotte, a regional gig that gave him freedom to develop a style that would never survive at a major network. And the fact that his style is resonating beyond Charlotte — with Curry and James nonetheless — is further proof that Collins was right to ignore every rule about how national announcers are supposed to sound.
Collins made his NFL debut for Fox earlier this season when he called Dolphins-Panthers in Charlotte, treating one of the least anticipated matchups on the Week 5 slate like the Super Bowl. He’s been waiting 23 years for his NFL shot and much longer for a national platform that lets him be himself.
Amazon now gets to find out if Collins’ approach works on a national stage, and having LeBron James and Steph Curry as unofficial spokespeople for your broadcasting style is a pretty good start.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.