Observer exclusive: Longtime Hornets TV personality Stephanie Ready leaving
Stephanie Ready, a part of the Hornets’ television team since the NBA returned to Charlotte in 2004, is leaving for another broadcasting job, the Observer has learned
Ready confirmed to the Observer before Wednesday’s home game against the Detroit Pistons that this is her last week on Hornets telecasts. Her last game as part of the Fox Sports Southeast crew will be the home game against the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday.
Ready said she wasn’t authorized yet to discuss what is next in her broadcasting career. She spoke fondly of the opportunity she received when the then-expansion Bobcats started in 2004.
“I’ve loved it,” Ready said of her time in Charlotte. “I’ve built so many great friendships and grown so much as a broadcaster. This changed my life - put me on a different path.”
Ready started doing sideline reporting when the Bobcats played their inaugural season in 2004-2005 on the short-lived C-SET regional sports network. She originally worked with Matt Devlin and Adrian Branch. She continued doing television when the Bobcats moved their telecasts to what is now Spectrum cable and then to Fox Sports Southeast.
She has done both sideline reporting and analysis over her 14 years in Charlotte. She currently works with play-by-play announcer Eric Collins and fellow analyst Dell Curry.
Ready branched out last season with Turner Sports’ fledgling experiment in virtual reality telecasts of NBA games. Ready split her time last season between Hornets telecasts and those VR games for Turner.
A former college athlete at Coppin State, Ready was a coach at the college and NBA G-League levels before going into broadcasting. She had done color analysis for radio on Furman basketball, some women’s basketball for ESPN and some work at the beginnings of NBA TV when then-Bobcats president Ed Tapscott approached her about the expansion team’s telecast needs.
It’s unclear how Fox Sports Southeast might adjust the Hornets’ television team with Ready leaving at mid-season. FSSE has added Ashley ShahAhmadi, an Atlanta-based reporter-studio host, to some of the telecasts this season, doing pre- and post-game shows.
This story was originally published December 12, 2018 at 7:11 PM with the headline "Observer exclusive: Longtime Hornets TV personality Stephanie Ready leaving."