ESPN NBA sideline reporters are stationed on the basketball court to cover live reports. Sideline reporters are the members tasked with observing the game closely.
They observe and report what is happening on the court and interview the players and coaches during the game. ESPN is a reputed American sports network dedicated to reporting on basketball games and other sports.
NBA on ESPN is the brand that represents the coverage of National Basketball Association games on the ESPN family of networks. They first started airing NBA in 1982 as a televised show and later started covering the games on air starting from the NBA season 2002-03.
ESPN is a major American Sports broadcasting company under ESPN Inc., jointly owned by Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.
The broadcasting teams that cover the games in real-time are divided into different studios and platforms based on the city and states where the game takes place.
While numerous journalists have worked as the broadcasting team on the court, the following members of the ESPN NBA team are among the notable ones, as recorded in ESPN Pressroom.
Here are ten ESPN NBA sideline reporters from all time listed from highest to lowest number of followers on Instagram.
1. Rachel Nichols
Rachel Nichols is a former ESPN sideline reporter known for her work in the NBA broadcasts. Nichols entered the world of broadcasting after joining ESPN in 2004.
Counted among the most popular sportscasters, she has more than 1.1 million followers on her Instagram, ranking her at the top of the list.
Starting her career in 1996, Nichols was a sportswriter for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, covering for the Miami Dolphins. Later, she moved to The Washington Post to write for NHL's Washington Capitals.
Nichols is a sports journalist with experience in writing about a wide variety of sports in her early years including tennis, the Olympics, the NBA, and MLB.
Rachel started her journey as a sports reporter when ESPN offered her a job in 2004. Venturing into the world of broadcasting, she made regular appearances on SportsCenter and two of the prominent NFL Countdown shows.
Meanwhile, she was a recurring sideline reporter for the NBA broadcasts and Monday Night Football during her tenure at ESPN. Working as a correspondent for the E:60 sports series, she became popular because of her interactions with prominent sports figures.
In 2013, Nichols left ESPN and joined CNN to take the helm as an anchor for Unguarded with Rachel Nichols. In addition, she also worked on the sidelines with NBA on TNT and while making regular appearances in "Inside The NBA" show.
2. Malika Andrews
Malika Andrews is the second most popular sideline reporter with 478k Instagram followers. Andrews is also dubbed as one of the youngest sideline reporters in a broadcast.
Andrews began writing about sports starting with The Beacon while studying at the University of Portland. During the NBA Summer League 2017, she met Adrian Wojnarowski who was familiar with her work at The Beacon.
Before Malika joined ESPN as an NBA writer in 2018, she was a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, covering for the NBA teams Chicago Bulls And Milwaukee Bucks. Later, she debuted as an ESPN sideline reporter when she entered the 2020 NBA Bubble.
In July 2021, Andrew was the representative overseeing the NBA finals coverage when Rachel Nichols faced a setback during the event. She was also named among the Forbes 30 Under 30 in the sports industry for 2021.
Following her successful stint at the NBA bubble, Malika was nominated for the Sports Emmy in the Emerging On-Air Talent category in 2021. The following year she won the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Personality/Emerging On-Air Talent in May 2022.
Two months later, on July 2022, Malika made history by being the first woman to host the NBA Draft. She is also the host of the NBA Today show since October 2021.
7. Ramona Shelburne
Ramona Shelburne is a sports journalist working with ESPN to cover NBA. Ramona is also a sideline reporter covering NBA games for ESPN radio.
The prominent ESPN radio sportscaster has 40.8k followers on her Instagram making her the seventh among the ESPN sideline reporters for NBA.
The sportswriter is recognized with numerous Pro Basketball Writers Association awards for her pieces and columns about the game. Working as an NBA Insider and senior writer for ESPN, she contributed to the NBA coverage on NBA Today, ESPN.Com, ESPN Radio, and SportsCenter.
Although Shelburne is a member of ESPN's premiere investigative unit across different platforms, her work can also be observed in Sports Illustrated, Stanford Magazine, and Sports Illustrated for Women.
Before starting her career at ESPN in 2009 as a columnist for ESPNLosAngeles.com, she spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News in the same post.
Additionally, Ramona was a talented softball player with numerous achievements from a young age. She did her bachelor's degree in American Studies and Master's degree in Communication from Stanford University under a softball scholarship.
The three-time Academic All-American athlete in softball also appeared in the NCAA tournament in 1988 and the Women's College World Series in 2001. Playing on the Stanford team, she was closer to ESPN baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza.
3. Cassidy Hubbarth
Cassidy Hubbarth has been a sports anchor at ESPN since August 2010. Cassidy hosts the ESPN2 show NBA Tonight along with the Sports Center.
Counted among the most prominent journalists of ESPN, the stunning Cassidy has 204k followers on Instagram ranking her third.
Hubbarth graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Starting her career as a traffic reporter with Navteq in 2007, she worked as a producer for WMAQ NBC5 Network in Chicago while hosting Intersport.
Following that, she started hosting as a reporter for the Big Ten Network and Fox Sports South. Later, she also won the Southeast Emmy for the Interactivity of her work on SEC Gridiron Live.
Based on her profile at the ESPN Pressroom, Cassidy is a full-time reporter for ESPN game telecasts for the regular season and the NBA playoffs. In addition, she hosts the ESPN digital show Hoop Streams and NBA All-Star Celebrity Game Telecast.
While she is a host of NBA Today and NBA Countdown, she is also a guest host to several pillar shows of ESPN such as Get Up, Sportscenter, and First Take. Likewise, she served as a studio host for the WNBA on ESPN.
Additionally, she was among the media team on the 2020 NBA Bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort. Later, she started hosting multiple shows on digital platforms such as "Buckets" on Twitter, "SportsCenter" on Snapchat, and the all-female NBA podcast "The Hoop Collective."
4. Doris Burke
Doris Burke has been a sports analyst for NBA on ESPN for 22 years since 1991. Doris is also a former college basketball point guard from Providence College.
In terms of Instagram popularity, she ranks fourth among the list of sideline reporters from ESPN, with 122k followers.
Starting her broadcasting career in 1990, she became an analyst for her alma mater on the radio. Later, she continued her work in television for Big East Conference Women's games in the same year.
Burke is renowned for being the first female commentator to call a New York Knicks game on radio and television. In addition, she is also the first woman to be a commentator for a Big East men's game and the primary commentator on a men's college basketball conference package.
While Burke worked with ESPN for three decades, she also served as a sideline reporter for NBA Finals On ABC for ten years until 2019.
Similarly, she has been featured as the sideline reporter for the popular NBA game series by 2K Sports starting with NBA 2K11 in 2010.
In 2017, when Burke became a regular NBA game analyst for ESPN, she obtained the title of the first woman to get a full regular-season role at the national level. She took the position of Doug Collins who went to the Chicago Bulls.
Doris also has her name in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for winning the Curt Gowdy Media Award in 2018. Currently, she leads the conference and NBA Finals on ESPN radio along with play-by-play announcer Mark Kestecher.
5. Monica Mcnutt
Monica Mcnutt is a sports reporter who covers NBA, WNBA, and NCAA for ESPN. Monica joined ESPN as an ACC Network Studio analyst for basketball in 2019.
The NBA reporter has 65.7k followers on her Instagram, ranking fifth among the ESPN sideline reporters.
Born and raised in Prince George's County in Maryland, McNutt is a former college basketball player from Georgetown University, where she graduated as a standout Women's basketball player in 2011.
After completing her Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland in 2013, she started working as a reporter for WJLA ABC7, The American Sports Network, BeIN Sports, and NBC Sports Washington.
McNutt started her career in ESPN as a sports analyst for ACC Network, but her roles expanded in 2021 when she started covering SportsCenter, Around The Horn, First Take, and NBA Today.
She is also a host and analyst for the WNBA and Women's College Basketball studio coverage of ESPN. Later, she served as a reporter during the 2022 NBA Finals on ESPN and ESPN Radio.
The sports analyst also covered the 2022 NBA Draft on ABC and contributed her time to HoopStreams and ESPN's digital NBA pregame show as per her profile on Pressroom.
6. Katie George
Katie George is a former volleyball athlete working under the ACC Network since its launch in 2019. Katie joined ESPN as a full-time employee in 2021.
The sportscaster Katie has 55.5k followers on her Instagram, ranking her sixth among the ESPN sideline reporters.
George started her career as a sportscaster in 2015 after graduating from the University of Louisville with a degree in communications and a minor in sports administration.
Additionally, Katie was crowned Miss Kentucky USA 2015 and later received the People's Choice Award after reaching the top 11 at the Miss USA pageant in the same year.
As an athlete, the sports reporter has received numerous achievements as a setter for Louisville. Among the various titles, she was named the ACC Player, Setter, and Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2015.
While Katie helped Louisville to conference championships in three different leagues, she was also a three-time first-team all-conference selection at the AAC and ACC.
In her early years, she worked as a sports anchor and reporter at a local station in Louisville called WDRB. Later, she joined Fox Sports Wisconsin as a sideline reporter to cover the Milwaukee Bucks for the NBA season 2018-19.
Following her stint with Fox Sports, she was offered to join the newly formed ACC Network under ESPN as a sideline reporter in 2019.
8. Jorge Sedano
Jorge Sedano is a sports broadcaster and talk show host for ESPNLA 710. Jorge covers the LA Lakers and appears as a guest on other shows to discuss on NBA.
Jorge ranks eighth among the ESPN sideline reporters based on the number of Instagram followers, which counts to 9731.
Working as a sideline reporter covering the NBA for ESPN and ABC, he is also a regular contributor to the shows NBA Today, Around The Horn, and SportsCenter.
Joining ESPN in 2013, Sedano worked as the host of Sedano & Stink on ESPN Radio with Mark Schlereth which became The Sedano Show in 2015. Later, he teamed up with Israel Gutierrez and ran the show as Jorge And Izzy until his shift to ESPNLA 710 in September 2016.
In his early years, he worked as a radio host for WAFN-AM in Miami for two years, starting in 1999. Later, he spent four years with WINZ-AM and The Ticket Miami show for five years until 2012.
Before coming to ESPN, he was a program director and afternoon host for Sports Radio WQAM in Miami for a year. Meanwhile, he was studio host for Fox’s Sun Sports telecasts of the Miami Heat considering his former experience in covering pre and post-game shows for Fox Sports Radio in LA for three years.
Currently, he hosts Sedano & Kap on ESPNLA on weekday evenings and works as a sideline reporter covering the NBA.
10. Lisa Salters
Lisa Salters is a sideline reporter covering NBA Games for ESPN and ABC Network since 2005. Lisa has thirty years of experience in the field of journalism.
Although Lisa ranks tenth among the ESPN sideline reporters with 5542 followers on Instagram, she has 40.8k on Twitter. She rarely interacts on her social media platforms, but her work at ESPN places her among the most reputed reporters.
Salters is the sideline reporter for two of the biggest Sports coverage on ESPN namely the NBA Games and the Monday Night Football show. Additionally, she has co-hosted the company’s award-winning film, and documentary series called E:60 with Jeremy Schaap since 2007.
Being a part of the NBA coverage on ESPN, she hosted high-profile NBA Saturday Primetime games along with NBA Sunday Showcase games. In the meantime, she has handled the network's basketball, and football shows back-to-back on many occasions.
Before joining ESPN, she was a correspondent for ABC News in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2000, covering for World News Tonight and other shows. During her tenure at ABC, she covered the Oklahoma City bombing trials, the crash of TWA Flight 800, and the trials of O. J. Simpson.
Salters is a 1988 graduate of Penn State University with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.
In addition, she is a former point guard player for the Lady Lions basketball team where she held the title of the shortest player in school history with a height of 5 feet 2 inches.
9. Israel Gutierrez
Israel Gutierrez has been a sideline reporter for NBA on ESPN since 2008. Israel is mainly seen on ESPN shows Around the Horn and Highly Questionable.
Guitierrez has 9292 followers on his Instagram, making him the ninth in this list of sideline reporters from ESPN that covers the NBA.
Before joining the ESPN staff, he worked with The Palm Beach Post as a beat writer for the Miami Marlins. Later, he joined the Miami Herald as a beat writer for the Miami Heat as a student at the University Of Florida.
After completing his studies, Gutierrez started to cover the 2006 championship as a sports columnist for the Miami Herald. Meanwhile, he had appearances on ESPN First Take as a part of the 1st And 10 show as a sports commentator.
Debuting at Around The Horn in 2004, the South Florida native was a recurring panelist on the ESPN show. Later, he started appearing in The Sports Reporters as a regular from 2008 until the show ended in 2016.
Additionally, Gutierrez appeared as a regular guest host on the show Highly Questionable by Dan LeBatard. The ESPN reporter also co-hosted the radio show Izzy and Spain with fellow reporter Sarah Spain.
