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On August 27, 2015, the Charlotte Hornets announced Stephanie Ready would become the first full-time local NBA game analyst and color commentator in NBA History in 2015-16. She will work alongside Eric Collins and Dell Curry for the Charlotte Hornets on Fox Sports Southeast after previously serving as the team’s sideline reporter.
Ready told USA Today, “It’s unfortunate that it’s taken this long, but I’m thrilled,” she said. “I’m excited to be the person that’s the first and not just because I’m the first but because this is a job that I want. This is the reason why I got in the business to be a game analyst, because I love the game so much and I always have.”
Ready was also a part-time sideline reporter for The NBA on TNT during the 2006 and 2007 NBA Playoffs, and the WNBA Playoffs on ESPN2 during 2006. Also in 2006 and 2007, Ready worked as a sideline reporter during the first and second rounds of the Women’s Final Four of college basketball for ESPN2. Ready says prepared for broadcasts by watching games as if she was getting ready to coach in them. She also noted details such as the names of plays to what changes are made with each substitution. She also looks for a back story to grab the attention of the most casual fans.
“This is actually the reason I got into television in the first place,” Ready said. “I always wanted to be a game analyst. I have a passion for the game of basketball and being a coach you teach the game and you learn how to explain the game to people who may not understand it. I thought being a game analyst on television would be perfect, because that’s what you get to do,” Ready told USA Today.
From 2001 to 2003, she was an assistant coach for the now defunct Greenville Groove of the National Basketball Development League (the minor league of the NBA). Along with coaching in the NBA Development League, the Maryland native served as one of the first female assistant coaches in Division I college basketball at Coppin State. The report notes she also attained the role of full-time recruiting assistant, another first.
“I didn’t set out to blaze a trail or be the first,” she said. “It just naturally came because of the work that I was doing. Having said that though, I think that things happen for a reason and that there’s some people that may not be ready to be the first to do something because there’s a lot that comes with that,” Ready told USA today.
Ready’s accomplishment is the latest glass-shattering moment in the long-awaited breakthrough for women getting more involved in nearly every aspect of men’s professional sports. In addition to Ready’s win for women in sports this summer, the US Women’s National Team beat Japan 5–2 in the final of the 2015 World Cup, claiming their third Women’s World Cup title and their first since 1999. Becky Hammon led the San Antonio Spurs to the Las Vegas Summer League title on July 20, 2015, becoming the first female NBA head coach to win a summer league title. Jen Welter became the NFL’s first female coach and Sarah Thomas became the first American football official.
Ready has spent more than a decade working on the Hornets telecasts. Combine that with her basketball coaching knowledge, and she is sure to make a faultless transition into the new role.Â
Ready graduated cum laude from Coppin State with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. While a four-year starter at Coppin, she averaged 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game from 1993-97. Ready also ranked in the top 10 on the career list at Coppin State in steals (2nd), assists (4th), points (8th) and rebounds (10th).