Expectations are high as the 76ers approach the start of a new NBA season Tuesday night in Boston against the Celtics.
It’s a season Kate Scott is eagerly looking forward to as she begins her second season as the team’s TV play-by-play voice. She replaced Marc Zumoff, who spent 27 years in that role.
“I’m feeling much more comfortable coming into this season,” she said, “because (Coach Doc Rivers) and the entire team were so welcoming and so open with me last year. They let me come to every shootaround, every practice that I wanted to, and I took full advantage of that.”
Like virtually anyone who calls games for a living, Scott’s broadcasting style was shaped by the voices she heard growing up.
A native of Clovis, California, roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where she played high school basketball, Scott gravitated toward Bay Area teams and spent hours listening to the likes of Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper, and Mike Krukow on Giants games, and Joe Starkey and Ted Robinson on 49ers’ broadcasts, as well as the late Vin Scully, who was the voice of the Dodgers.
Those voices set the standard for how Scott approaches her job today.
“The bar was set very high in my mind for the incredible job that play-by-play announcers should do,” she said. “Those guys taught me that you should not only be informative, and whether they’re listening over the radio or on television, which are very different calls, people should be informed and know the nuts and bolts, know everything that’s going on, should never have to question anything, but (the broadcaster) should also be really entertaining, and fun, and make it enjoyable.”
Scott attended the University of California at Berkeley where she did some reporting but didn’t call games because “I didn’t think women did play-by-play.”
But after she graduated, a producer she worked with at Berkeley asked her to be part of a high school football package he was overseeing. Scott recalls her first play-by-play assignment.
“I went and called my first football game and it was awful,” she recalls. “But I loved it, it was so much fun. It was unlike reporting and anchoring where you’re prepared, and you know what you’re going to say most of the time. It’s all off the cuff. And I thought to myself after that very first game, driving back home, ‘Wow. If I’d think I’d really love to do this.’ That feeling was special.”
Scott migrated to the Pac-12 Network where she learned other women were doing play-by-play. But social media was in its infancy then and Scott was unaware of them, save for Beth Mowins who was calling games for ESPN.
Scott demonstrated her versatility by calling a variety of events on both radio and TV, including women’s basketball at the 2021 Olympics for NBC and the FIFA Women’s U-20 World Cup for Fox.
When Zumoff announced his retirement, Scott applied for the position at the behest of her agent. But she considered herself a longshot candidate.
“I didn’t think there was a chance in heck that they would hire a chick from California,” she said.
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But Scott was named as Zumoff’s replacement and joined broadcast partner Alaa Abdelnaby at courtside. The two did not meet until after Scott was hired; Abdelnaby was ill the day Scott auditioned, but Scott felt immediately welcomed by her new partner.
“The first time we met he said, ‘I’m so happy you’re here,’” she recalled. “He said, ‘I saw the interviews, I saw the audition tapes, you’re the best.’”
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Scott prides herself on her preparation process.
“It’s all-encompassing during the season,” she said. “I’ve always been feverish in my prep. I don’t know if that is because I feel like at every turn I feel like I need to prove that I belong, because I am different.
“I think there’s some of that in there but I also know that, like an athlete, that when I prepare really well, and I feel confident in my preparation, then I feel confident when I’m calling the game.
“Obviously, I’m watching Sixers all day, every day so I don’t have to prep as intensely for them once the season gets going because I’m able to remember what they did the night before or a couple of nights before.”
No broadcaster is universally idolized and Scott has her critics. But she accepts that reality and understands the dynamic between herself and her listeners. She seeks not adoration but respect.
“(Respect) means everything,” she said. “Respect is what I (strive) for at all time when it comes to this job. Respect of the players and coaches that I cover. The respect of my counterparts at (NBC Sports Philadelphia). The respect of my fellow play-by-play announcers and analysts across the league. Even fans.
“I completely understand that announcing is subjective. There’s plenty of people that I don’t like out there that other people do.
“We all have opinions about the voices we hear, night in and night out, so I completely understand that not everybody is going to like me, but I am always efforting for people to respect me, respect the work that I put in, respect my knowledge of the game (and) the enthusiasm that I bring to my calls, even if I’m not their favorite broadcaster.”
