If youve tuned in to Thursday night’s NBA basketball action on TNT during this season, chances are youve found a fresh new voice roaming the sidelines during games: Rosalyn Gold-Onwude.
Gold-Onwude, 30, a rising star from Queens, New York, spent three seasons as the Golden State Warriors sideline reporter for NBC Sports Bay Area. She also covered last years Gold Medal-winning U.S.A. Basketball team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is now firmly entrenched as a key cog in the Turner Sports programming family .
Since moving to the A-T-L, shes done a little bit of everything as a member of the Turner team. To quote gospel singer Shirley Caesar: you name it! Among the most well known are the one-on-one interviews with Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball and co-hosting Kevin Garnetts Area 21 segment with WNBA royalty Cynthia Cooper, Sue Bird, and Lindsay Whalen as guests.
Area 21 Joins the Crew | Insie the NBA | NBA on TNT
Inside the NBA checks in with KG in Area 21, and this week it’s ladies night as he is joined by Sue Bird, Lindsay Whalen, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, and Ros Gold-Onwude.
Oh yeah, and by the way, dont come up short on homegirls natural habitat: the classic post-game interview! Her Q&As with New Orleans Pelicans big man DeMarcus Cousins and the Clippers Blake Griffin instantly stand out.
Shes blended in naturally with the cast of the NBA on TNT alongside Marv Albert, Chris Webber, the czar Mike Fratello and others.
I am very happy where I am in life, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude told The Shadow League. I am in a good place and I feel very excited for the future. I have dug into, tapped into a new level of motivation and creativity and excitement and it is a really nice place to be right now.
Leaving the Bay for Atlanta wasnt exactly easy. Before becoming a sideline reporter and in-studio analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, the former Stanford University womens basketball standout appeared in three Final Fours and two national championship games.
She helped the Cardinal win four conference titles and in 2010, was named Pac-12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year. After college, she worked for the Warriors G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Rosalyn Gold-Onwude on Twitter
My career, influences & heritage. WATCH the full video feature here: https://t.co/SoVZyA7sTq Thx @NBCBLK! #NBCBLK28 https://t.co/A5vtp5o8gH
Walking away from that was certainly the hard part, she said. I have been working for the Golden State Warriors for the last three years and obviously so blessed to see some of the best basketball in the world. Some of the best players in the world; Hall of Famers and legends, all the wining and I am so blessed and lucky to catch that team. But along the way, those players, those coaches, the broadcasts, our family at NBC Sports become family. These are people that especially, when you are on a team broadcast and you travel with the team and you go away with the team, fly and eat with them and this and that; you really get to know each other in an intimate way.
With the NBA season a month in and with no drought in storylines, like the surging Boston Celtics and their newest acquisition in Kyrie Irving, and the slow start to Irvings former team the Cleveland Cavaliers, Gold-Onwude likes the Warriors chances of repeating as NBA champs.
I think the Warriors are going to be even better than they were last year, she said. Thats an extra year of familiarity. Coach Kerr was doing a lot of teaching last year. Now, its not teaching. The way Andre Iguodala once put it to me, he was like: you get to that next layer of the onion and suddenly the offense really evolves and you start to understand the second wrinkle and the third wrinkle. I think the Warriors chances are incredibly good.
In seasons past, Gold-Onwude spent her summers broadcasting New York Liberty games as a color analyst and sideline reporter on MSG Network alongside veteran broadcaster Mike Crispino.
In June, she accompanied Drake as his date to the first annual NBA Awards that he also hosted. The two met during the NBAs All Star Weekend in Toronto last year and their friendship has been in-sync ever since.
It was so nice to have the chance to dress up and walk the red carpet, she told me on Scoop B Radio. Drake is just an awesome guy. He made it a really special and beautiful time for me and made sure while he was up hosting that I was sitting with his friends. I thought he did a great job hosting. He totally held it down. That is not easy.
NBA on TNT on Twitter
@emmanuelmudiay joined @ROSGO21 after the @nuggets’ 102-94 win over the OKC Thunder! https://t.co/eM15vWKaDx
Any chance both she and Drake could co-host next years NBA Awards show?
He is really funny and very talented and he can handle the jokes,” she said. “Ill handle the interviewing. That will be the breakdown.
Drake and Ros getting their hosting on like AJ and Free from 106 & Park?
While we wait for the potential of a Ros and Drake pairing in hosting award shows, make sure to enjoy her coverage of the NBA season by catching her in her multitude of roles in the Turner family of broadcasting.
