The Minnesota Timberwolves are about to have one of the deepest and most accomplished bullpens of play-by-play broadcasters of any professional sports franchise.
Longtime T’Wolves announcer Michael Grady has seen his star rise and now does national work for Amazon and NBC covering both the NBA and WNBA. But with Grady calling more games on national television this season, it means the team needed to find voices to cover the remaining games alongside analyst Jim Petersen.
And they’ve done so with a pair of heavy-hitters in Kevin Calabro and Jon “Boog” Sciambi.
Calabro is one of the legendary voices of the NBA as the play-by-play announcer for the Seattle SuperSonics for over two decades. He then spent almost a decade as the lead voice for the Portland Trailblazers and was the lead announcer for the NBA on ESPN Radio for several years. However, Calabro left the team amidst budget cuts from new owner Tom Dundon that have been highly controversial. The veteran announcer called an offer for him to return to the Blazers after his contract expired as “subprime.”
This will be Sciambi’s first assignment calling games locally for an NBA team, but he comes with loads of national and regional experience. He has been a fixture calling MLB and college basketball games for ESPN and also serves as the voice of the Chicago Cubs on Marquee Sports Network.
Radio announcer Alan Horton will also call games on television for a select number of games. And the Timberwolves have also added Meghan McPeak as a sideline reporter after working with the Washington Wizards last season.
It’s unclear which announcers will work how many games for the Timberwolves this season. But regardless of who is behind the mic, you could put Kevin Calabro, Jon Sciambi, and Michael Grady against any other play-by-play group not just in the NBA, but in all of pro sports.
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