Washington Wizards create NBA history by assembling the league's 2nd-ever, only active all-black broadcasting crew
The Washington Wizards are one of the most surprising teams in the 2022-23 season. After a 10-7 start, the team could advance to the playoffs for only the second time in the last six years.
The Wizards have also had a pleasant surprise off the court. They have the only all-black local broadcasting team. This team of talented people includes Drew Gooden, the forward who spent three years in the District.
While having an all-black broadcasting team is a big success, it's even more impressive because the Wizards are the only NBA team to have such a unique group of people.
Washington Wizards' broadcasting team has made history
Drew Gooden and Chris Miller work as game announcers for the Washington Wizards. The third member of the talented broadcasting team is Meghan McPeak, who serves as an on-court reporter.
All three have been basketball fans for a long time and have experience in broadcasting. Therefore, pairing them was the perfect idea, which led to something historic.
The amazing trio is not the first all-black broadcasting team in the history of the league. This honor belongs to Dell Curry, Eric Collins and Stephanie Ready, who teamed up in 2015 to cover the Charlotte Hornets.
Curry and Ready were color commentators for the team, while Collins was a play-by-play announcer. They worked together for four years, however, in 2019, Ready was replaced by Ashley ShahAhmadi.
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Currently, the Wizards trio is the only all-black group of podcasters in the league.
While many other NBA teams have women as on-court reporters and former players as color commentators, having black play-by-play announcers is very rare. In fact, there are only four other black play-by-play announcers in the league.
Not only is Chris Martin a play-by-play announcer for the Washington Wizards, but he also announces plays for the city's hockey and baseball teams. With his impressive resume and knowledge, Martin is very diverse and talented when it comes to sports.
It will be interesting to see if other NBA teams follow suit.
Drew Gooden and the Wizards
Drew Gooden played for 10 different teams during his 14-year NBA career. He is mostly known for playing for the 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers, who advanced all the way to the NBA Finals. Gooden was a starter on that team.
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The 6-foot-10 forward ended his career with the Washington Wizards. He joined the team during the 2013-14 season, and averaged 8.3 points and 5.2 rebounds. Gooden was a solid role player, but his minutes eventually decreased.
Interestingly, Wizards acquired him in February 2010, just before the trade deadline. However, Gooden did not play a single game for the Wizards during his first stint with the team and was traded to the LA Clippers just four days later.