You’ll hear a new voice during Charlotte Hornets broadcasts. Charlotteans know her well
Charlotte Hornets fans will hear a new voice during in-game broadcasts in 2024-25 — but it’s a voice Charlotteans know well.
Bally Sports announced on Tuesday that Shannon Spake will join the Hornets’ broadcast team as a host and sideline reporter ahead of the upcoming NBA season. Spake, who has most recently served as a FOX Sports host and reporter covering NASCAR, will join the crew of play-by-play announcer Eric Collins and analyst (and Hornets legend) Dell Curry.
The news comes a day after Ashley ShahAhmadi, the team’s sideline reporter for the past six years, announced it was her final day on the job after six years in Charlotte.
Spake, a Charlotte-area resident, brings a lot of broadcasting experience to the table. Life in Charlotte for the South Florida native began in 2003, when she was hired as a reporter and producer for WCCB-TV, the FOX affiliate in Charlotte. The next year, she reported on the then-named Charlotte Bobcats for the team’s regional sports network.
In 2005, she moved on to Speed Channel, a since-defunct program that was dedicated to motorsports and owned by FOX. She’d stay in auto racing for a long time from there. In 2007, she moved to ESPN, where she wore a few different hats. Among them: pit reporter for the network’s NASCAR coverage and sideline reporter for college football and college basketball. She then moved over to FOX Sports in 2016, where she was a NASCAR studio host and an NFL reporter.
In July, Spake and FOX parted ways, and Spake is now hosting a NASCAR playoffs show distributed to TNT Sports and truTV called “NASCAR Inside the Playoffs.” The first show aired last week. She also started a podcast called NASCAR Daily, which published its first episode on Monday.
The Hornets’ broadcasting crew is a group that the league knows well, even if the team hasn’t been in the playoff conversation the past few years. Much of that is thanks to the joy Collins brings to even the more mundane parts of a Hornets contest. You’ll recall the moment Leaky Black made clutch free throws late in a regular-season game against the Minnesota Timberwolves this past year — and the viral call that accompanied it: “He’s never made a free throw as a pro,” Collins boomed. Black’s shot then swished through, and Collins screamed: “BUT HE HAS NOW! I LOVE LEAKY!”
The Hornets open their 2024-25 season at home against the New York Knicks at 5 p.m. Oct. 6.
