Danny Green’s audition in the Lakers’ booth last season has turned into a regular gig.
Spectrum SportsNet announced Wednesday that Green will take over as the primary analyst beside play-by-play voice Bill Macdonald for Lakers road games this season, while Stu Lantz, entering his 41st season with the franchise, will confine his duties to home games. Green will also keep his seat in the network’s studio rotation, and the network indicated that more analyst assignments are still to come.
Green called games in Lantz’s place on several occasions during the 2025-26 season, as health issues and two medical procedures kept Lantz off the air for extended periods. Lantz, who turned 80 in July, has been a fixture in the Lakers’ booth since 1987, sharing duties with Chick Hearn, Paul Sunderland and Joel Meyers before settling in beside Macdonald, who is entering his 17th season calling Lakers games.
In Awful Announcing’s 2025-26 local NBA announcer rankings, the Lakers’ booth held firm in the top 10 after jumping to No. 8 in 2023-24 from 22nd in 2020 and climbing to sixth in 2024-25. Voters hailed Macdonald and Lantz as a League Pass favorite, in part because of their even-handed approach, and Lantz drew near-universal acclaim, though reviews of Macdonald were more divided and some local fans wanted a bit more flair from the voice of such a storied franchise.
Green now inherits much of that responsibility. A three-time NBA champion who won titles with the Spurs in 2014, the Raptors in 2019, and the Lakers in 2020, Green retired in 2023 after 14 seasons and wasted little time carving out a second career in media. ESPN extended his contract as a studio analyst in November 2024 as part of an effort to bolster its NBA bench for year-round coverage, and he has since become a steady presence across the network’s NBA programming. He also co-hosts the No Fouls Given podcast alongside Paul Pierce and Big Wos.
In addition to Green, Sasha Vujacic joins the studio rotation, while Roqui Theus will split sideline duties with Mike Trudell. Chris McGee and James Worthy will continue to anchor the network’s studio programming, with Green, Derek Fisher and Robert Horry remaining in the mix and Mike Bresnahan and Allie Clifton contributing to the network’s studio shows and podcast.
It’s unclear how many road games Green will ultimately call, since the network left the door open for other analysts. But with Lantz now anchored to Crypto.com Arena, Green will be the voice Lakers fans hear most often away from home, and his first full season in the role could go a long way toward determining whether he emerges as the heir to a broadcaster synonymous with the franchise for four decades.
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.