Who are the NBA TV Announcers?

Get to know the NBA TV announcers and find out what they bring to the table when it comes to calling games!

Ernie Johnson

Ernie Johnson is an American sportscaster for Turner Sports. He is best known for his work on NBA TV and TNT’s flagship program NBA on TNT. Johnson has been the lead play-by-play voice for NBA TV since the network launched in 1999. He is a three-time Sports Emmy Award winner and a nine-time Emmy nominee.

Play-by-play

Ernie Johnson Jr. is an American sportscaster for Turner Sports and CBS Sports. He is the lead voice for NBA on TNT’s studio show Inside the NBA. He has also worked as a play-by-play announcer for various Turner networks including TBS, TNT, and truTV.

His work on TNT

Ernie Johnson Jr. is an American sportscaster for Turner Sports and CBS Sports. During the NBA season, he is the lead commentator for NBA on TNT’s Thursday night games, one of the two play-by-play announcers for TNT’s NBA All-Star Game coverage, and one of the two play-by-play announcers for TNT’s NBA Playoffs coverage. As of 2019, Johnson also calls selected games for the Utah Jazz on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. He has also worked as a reporter for Turner’s Major League Baseball and college basketball coverage.

Charles Barkley

Charles Barkley is an American retired professional basketball player and current analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. Barkley was drafted into the NBA in 1984 and was selected to eleven NBA All-Star teams, eleven All-NBA teams, and five All-Defensive teams. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1993 NBA Finals and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Analysts

Charles Barkley – He is a former American professional basketball player who is currently an analyst on NBA on TNT. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets. Nicknamed “Chuck”, “Sir Charles”, and “the Round Mound of Rebound”, Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association’s most dominating power forwards. An All-American center at Auburn, he was drafted as a junior by the 76ers with the fifth pick of the 1984 NBA draft.

His work on TNT

Barkley has also worked as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT) since 2000. He works with host Ernie Johnson, Jr. and analysts Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. Barkley has won five Emmy Awards for his work on TNT. In 2012, he was named the best studio analyst in sports by the American Sportscasters Association.

Kenny Smith

Kenny Smith is a former NBA player who is now a basketball analyst for TNT. He is also a contributor on Inside the NBA. Smith was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1987 NBA draft. He played for the Hawks, the Sacramento Kings, the Houston Rockets, the Detroit Pistons, and the Orlando Magic.

Analysts

Kenny Smith is a former NBA player who is currently an analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA. He was drafted 6th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 1987 NBA Draft out of the University of North Carolina. He played for four different teams during his 12-year NBA career and was a member of the Houston Rockets team that won back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.

His work on TNT

Kenny Smith is an American television basketball analyst. He is currently a studio analyst for NBA on TNT. He also serves as co-host of the daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show Skip and Shannon: Undisputed on FS1.

Smith was selected 6th overall in the 1987 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings. In his 10-year NBA playing career, Smith was a two-time NBA champion, winning back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995.

In 1998, Smith joined Turner Network Television (TNT) as an analyst for their coverage of the NBA. He has been with TNT ever since, serving as one of the main analysts on the popular Inside the NBA studio show, alongside Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaquille O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal is a retired professional basketball player who is now an analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. He is also a part-owner of the Sacramento Kings. O’Neal was born on March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, and he played for six teams during his 19-year career in the NBA.

Analysts

The NBA on TNT is an American television network that airs NBA games during the regular season. The network is owned by Turner Sports, a division of Time Warner, and operates as a part of the cable television service TNT.

TNT’s coverage of the NBA began in 1988, when the channel aired 33 games during the final two weeks of the regular season. TNT resumed its coverage of the NBA in 1990 with 52 games during the regular season. Its exclusive coverage of NBA Regular season games was increased to 53 games in 1991.

In 1992, Turner Sports acquired the rights to air NBA Playoff and Finals games from CBS. TNT aired its first ever NBA Playoff game on April 28, 1992; Clyde Drexler led his Portland Trail Blazers against Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls in an Eastern Conference First Round game. TNT also aired two Conference Finals series that year: The Western Conference Finals between the Seattle SuperSonics and Utah Jazz, and the Eastern Conference Finals between the Bulls and New York Knicks.

TNT continued its exclusive coverage ofNBA Regular season games in 1993(54games), 1994 (58games), 1995(63games)and 1996(68games).It also aired limited edition telecasts during All-Star Weekend,NBA DraftandPlayoff Games . In 1995,TNT became one of only three US broadcast networks to air selected NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship games (the others being TBS and CBS). It aired some DI Men’s Basketball Regional Finals that were not televised by any other US Network .TNT broadcasted all four rounds of 1996 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship beginning with First Round action on March 14 through to Championship Game on April 1 .On August 8 ,1996 , Turner Sports announced that it had acquired t he television rights to show all four rounds of 1997 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship as well asselected Regional finals & matchups starting from March 13 through to Final Four weekend on April 5 -6 1997at Madison Square Garden New York City TNT’s acquisition included nonexclusive rights which allowed other networks such as CBS to continue televising their own package selected regionals & matchups

His work on TNT and NBA TV

Shaquille O’Neal has become one of the most popular basketball analysts on television since his retirement from the NBA in 2011. He currently works as an analyst on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” studio show, alongside Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. He also has his own show on NBA TV called “Shaq Life.”