Ryan Ruocco needed convincing to take top WNBA job at ESPN

As women’s basketball has become a viewership rocket ship these past few years, one voice has been synonymous with the sport’s growth: ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco.

Ruocco has served as ESPN’s lead WNBA play-by-play voice since 2013 alongside analyst Rebecca Lobo, but it apparently took him some convincing before accepting the new gig almost a 12 years ago.

In speaking to Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, Ruocco said, “They actually had to convince me somewhat that this was going to be an awesome assignment.” But it didn’t take long for Ruocco to realize that calling WNBA games would be one of the best decisions of his career.

“What’s funny about it is I didn’t know what a gem of a project it was. I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with the WNBA the way that I did—but it happened instantly,” Ruocco told Front Office Sports. “It took maybe a game or two before I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this league is awesome. Rebecca is awesome.’ I just loved the collegiate feel of everyone involved with the league. And it took off from there.”

It seems like fans are finally catching up to what Ruocco discovered over a decade ago. Women’s basketball viewership has skyrocketed in recent years, fueled by Caitlin Clark-mania, with both the college and pro levels of the game breaking decades-old records.

And in a setup that is unique to women’s basketball, Ruocco calls the top games at both the college and pro levels. After Adam Amin departed ESPN for Fox Sports in 2021, Ruocco took over as ESPN’s lead voice for women’s college basketball. With the women’s college season ending just over a month before WNBA season tips off, the duo of Ruocco and Lobo serve as the top voices of women’s basketball, full-stop.

Since 2021, Ruocco has called both the WNBA Finals and the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Final Four each year. Suffice it to say, when you hear Ruocco’s voice on a women’s basketball game, you know it’s an important one.