After over 10 years in television, Allie Clifton has emerged as one of the rising stars in sports media for 2026, for her work across Amazon Prime and Spectrum SportsNet, where she covers the Los Angeles Lakers, and she’s crediting her role on Road Trippin’, a podcast she started in 2017 alongside then-Cavaliers players Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, for her rapid ascension in recent years.
“It changed the trajectory of my career,” Clifton, who covered the Cavs for Fox Sports Ohio from 2012 to 2018, told Front Office Sports of the podcast, which ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins joined in 2024 and is recognized as one of the first and longest-running player-led podcasts.
It’s not the first time Clifton has echoed the sentiment. In an appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast in May, she said much of the same.
“People only really recognize me from Road Trippin’. ‘Allie, you’re the host of Road Trippin.’ Wait, are you that Allie Clifton that hosts Road Trippin?’ I didn’t understand the value of it until the years really went on. I’m so forever grateful for that. I thank them often in how it changed the trajectory of my career. Without even knowing it, it gave me this underlying confidence to take that leap from Cleveland to LA.”
Per FOS, Jefferson first approached Clifton about joining during a Cavs practice to help provide a behind-the-scenes look at what life is like for NBA players during the season, a novel concept at the time. Shockingly, she initially declined the proposal.
“I wasn’t ready to step out and be so open and be able to kind of dictate,” Clifton said. “Sideline has a completely different role than hosting, so to lead conversations of very dynamic personalities, I was a bit hesitant.”
She eventually went on to take Jefferson up on the offer, opening her eyes to hosting, which is now her primary role in media. Road Trippin’ also launched Jefferson and Frye’s media careers. Jefferson is a featured member of ESPN’s lead NBA broadcast team, and Frye was a part of TNT’s now-defunct NBA coverage, although he still makes appearances across networks.
Clifton remains close with them both, revealing that she feels as if she has spoken to them “every single day” since starting the podcast nearly a decade ago, that is, until they joined LeBron James and Kevin Love for the 2016 Cavaliers’ NBA championship reunion.
“That trip, eight days, might have been the longest I went without talking to them,” Clifton said. “And by design, because I think that they let us inside from a social perspective of what their trip was like. But I think too, if you just take a step outside and just appreciate it for what it is. In regards to the camaraderie, the continuity. That is a text chain that has been going since 2016. … It truly has become family for them. It is the group chat that left the chat.”
Clifton views what she’s learned from Road Trippin’ “kind of like a cheat code,” as it’s helped round out her skills and balance her responsibilities across roles.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.