ESPN announced on Tuesday that the network plans to produce an all-women’s NBA telecast on International Wednesday.
The network revealed its major plans in a press release they issued. Included are details about the coverage, which will feature an all-women’s panel on their studio show for pre-and post-game coverage. Malika Andrews will lead coverage that will feature Los Angeles Sparks power forward Chiney Ogwumike, former Georgetown Hoyas star and NBA voice Monica McNutt, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon, and insider Adrian Wojnarowski.
Additionally, play-by-play voice Beth Mowins will join the esteemed Doris Burke as well as reporter Cassidy Hubbarth on the call for the game between the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans in a historic ESPN broadcast.
Mike Breen and Mark Jackson will call the game between the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers. However, Hammon and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude will be featured as well according to the release.
Andrews spoke to WHEC in Rochester, New York about the upcoming broadcast, and how it felt regular to her.
Really, though, it feels almost like any other day at the office for Malika Andrews.
“Because I see these women literally every day,” Andrews, host of NBA Today, said in a phone interview on the amount of women contributing to the production. “You can hear and see their collective voices in this unique way. So it’s like, ‘Oh, all of my favorite people get to work on this one project. It’s going to be awesome.’”
Burke, meanwhile, spoke on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast. She offered a quote about how much normalization there is now for women’s sports commentators.
“It started in a very small way but I’ve been calling men’s college basketball since 1999… early on in particular there’s been a lot of pushback. There’s been this gradual acceptance to the point now, and this warms my heart, the fact that men of my son-in-law’s generation and younger, they don’t even blink. I’m a part of their experience. It doesn’t sound harsh to their ear.”
[ESPN Media Zone, WHEC, The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022