Marc Kestecher has been the lead voice of the NBA on ESPN Radio for a decade. But on Wednesday he will have the opportunity to do something he’s never done before in his lengthy play-by-play career: call an NBA playoff game on television.
Kestecher took over the lead announcing duties for the NBA on ESPN Radio all the way back in 2016 when he stepped up after Kevin Calabro’s departure when he joined the Portland Trail Blazers on a full-time basis. Since then, he has partnered primarily with Hubie Brown and P.J. Carlesimo.
But on Wednesday night, Kestecher and Carlesimo will transition from radio to television as they will call the crucial Game 5 between the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers in their first round Eastern Conference series.
Marc Kestecher has been a fixture on ESPN Radio for decades, first joining as a SportsCenter update anchor in 1999. He then added studio hosting and play-by-play to his portfolio and now serves either as the host or lead announcer for many major events. That includes the NBA Finals, NBA Draft, College Football Playoff, World Series, and much more.
Throughout his time with ESPN, Kestecher has called basketball games on television from a variety of places including FIBA contests, Summer League, G-League, and the occasional NBA game. The longtime radio announcer called the fifth and final game of ESPN’s televised Christmas Day quintuple-header earlier this year between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets. However, ESPN confirmed to Awful Announcing that this will be Kestecher’s first playoff assignment on network television.
ESPN is one NBA announcer short for this year’s postseason after the departure of Mark Jones at the end of the regular season. But don’t let that take away from what a cool and deserved moment this will be for Marc Kestecher getting to call a televised playoff game after all his years of service at the network. He’s always been a great listen on the radio and it will be a nice surprise for basketball fans watching on television to enjoy his work in the postseason through that medium for the first time.
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