Ryan Ruocco of ESPN and the YES Network and Lindsey Adler and Olivia Witherite of The Athletic

Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Episode 121 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features three guests. First up is ESPN and YES Network broadcaster Ryan Ruocco, who serves as a play-by-play announcer for ESPN’s NBA and WNBA coverage and was most recently named to serve as ESPN’s lead play-by-play commentator for Women’s college basketball. He is followed by Lindsey Adler, who covers the Yankees for The Athletic and Olivia Witherite, who is the social media lead for The Athletic.

In this podcast Ruocco, who has worked for ESPN since 2008, discusses how the women’s college basketball assignment come about; whether he will be traveling for it this year; if feedback from producers and executives is different for women’s basketball vs the NBA; the anticipation of calling the Nets this year; why he thinks Brooklyn are legit NBA Finals contenders; his relationship with C.C. Sabathia, and more.

Adler and Witherite discuss the impact of Kim Ng becoming the first female general manager in MLB; Adler’s column on

on what Ng’s hiring meant for women in baseball and why it matters beyond her; Witherite’s piece on what Ng’s hiring meant to her and Korean-American representation in sports; how much Adler feels her gender on a daily basis covering baseball; Witherite on often being the only Asian person in the room during her sports career; the reaction to their pieces; representation heading forward in sports; Witherite on the skills needed to become a social media lead at an organization; Adler on the challenge for Ng with the Marlins talent base, and more.

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