Michael Grady, Stephanie White to represent Indiana on national NBA stage
The Pacers haven't played on Christmas Day in 20 years. But on Wednesday night, two Indiana kids who established themselves in Indianapolis will be on the ABC/ESPN telecast of Nuggets at Suns.
The Indiana Pacers are not among the 10 NBA teams playing on Christmas Day.
It’s been a while, in fact. You have to go back 20 years, to 2004, for the last time the Pacers were featured on Christmas Day.
It’s been a longtime NBA tradition to have a full slate of games on Christmas, though the NFL scheduled two games this year. And a first — they’ll air on Netflix.
Back in 2004, the Pacers hosted the Pistons and lost 98-93. And their coach then is the same as it is now: Rick Carlisle.
Before the season, the Pacers were scheduled to play nine times on national TV, up from one the previous season. And after running it back with essentially the same roster as last season, which reached the conference finals, there were some conversations about whether this would be the year.
But ultimately, stars won out.
“We’ve played on Christmas and it was enjoyable to have the notoriety of doing it,” the late David Benner, beloved longtime director of public relations for the Pacers, said on my podcast in 2018. “We used to play on Thanksgiving all the time and now we play the next night, and it became a unique feature for the franchise. I understand that you’re putting out of workers, families, but it happens.
“The Christmas Day thing — I always thought we might get a game sooner or later. But apparently it’s going to be later.”
Some players would love to be included, the only NBA game on at a time while featured on national TV.
Others, however, prefer to be with family and enjoy the day off.
The final NBA game on Christmas Day will be the Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns — and Indiana will have two special representatives on the call for ABC/ESPN.
Michael Grady, the former Pacers PA announcer and sports talk host on 107.5 The Fan, is in his third season as the TV play-by-play announcer of the Minnesota Timberwolves. But in the offseason, he signed a one-year deal with ESPN to call games nationally.
Here’s what I wrote about him in 2014:
More of Grady in Indianapolis is a good thing. But if I was ESPN or FOX Sports 1, I’d hire Grady immediately and not look back.
The network had been on his radar for a few years and they finally locked in a deal this past summer. Then, he called a few games at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
A few months later, he was the play-by-play announcer for the Mercury-Lynx first-round WNBA playoff series. Even more, Hall of Famer (and longtime Fever TV analyst) Debbie Antonelli was the analyst.
Now Grady will be on the call of the NBA’s Christmas Day nightcap with Stephanie White, who recently returned to Indianapolis to become the head coach of Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.
“I don't take anything for granted. I really appreciate this opportunity,” Grady said by phone while in his Uber ride to his Phoenix hotel.
“I think my mindset always is to serve the game and I know my passion and the work that I put in will do the rest. You grow up on Christmas Day games. This is my third year as a full-time play-by-play guy so it's not lost on me that I did a TNT game last year and then I'm doing ESPN games this year, in my third year as a full-time play-by-play guy.
“But as you as you get some reps under your belt and you realize that OK, I think I got that. This is something I always wanted to do. There is no substitute for getting reps. And as time went on, I started to think about things that would be really cool to do and Christmas is certainly out there on that list, along with other things.
“So to have this opportunity and then to be able to do it with Stephanie is amazing. I remember she would join me when I was a sports anchor for RTV6 (in Indianapolis). She would join occasionally on Sunday nights to talk about the Indiana Fever. This is back during her first go around as Indiana Fever head coach. We’ve maintained a relationship from those days when I was working, doing Fever stuff as PA announcer or another stuff in the city while she was a terrific coach.”
Grady, 41, called his first NBA on ESPN this season and it couldn’t have been more perfect: Pacers and Knicks, inside Madison Square Garden, in Game 2 of the season.
“(It) brought all those feelings and emotions of being a kid in Indianapolis and cheering my heart out for Reggie Miller and Rik Smits and Mark Jackson, Dale and Antonio Davis and those guys going against Patrick Ewing Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, John Starks and Derek Harper and those guys,” he said. “That’s just such a huge part of my childhood and hearing the Madison Square Garden organ, that's what I grew up on and so to have an opportunity to call a Pacers-Knicks game on that level was really special for me.
“Now fast-forward to Christmas Day and it's another great opportunity because I grew up on watching Christmas Day games and I just feel incredibly fortunate.”
Grady attended Warren Central High School and while still a teenager, at 19, he started working at WIBC, located on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. From there, he helped 1070 The Fan transition to FM radio, growing from the executive producer to co-hosting the popular morning show “The Grady and Big Joe Show.”
Before he had his own radio show, he put in extra work nearby at The Fieldhouse. First as a game emcee for the Pacers and Fever, then eventually becoming the public address announcer — the booming voice you hear inside the building at games.
“One of my fondest memories was being there for the championship,” Grady said of the Fever title in 2012. White was an assistant coach on Lin Dunn’s coaching staff. “That was a special, special run. No doubt about it. During those times, especially at their peak, the Pacers weren't doing so great so we were all looking forward to the summer to watch Tamika Catchings in there and that group have the chance to do something special.”
Grady is great behind the microphone and he’s well-studied, but he’s also a people person. Being discovered nationally was a matter of relationships and luck — a broadcasting agent learned about Gray in an Uber ride while in Indy one spring for the NFL Scouting Combine.
Seriously.
From there, Grady departed for Brooklyn in 2017 to become the sideline reporter for Nets games — which is annually one of the best broadcast crews in the league.
Grady could’ve stayed in Indy and maintained a successful career on local radio and TV. But he wanted more.
He had bigger dreams.
“The goal from when I was a kid was television,” he said. “And then there was a stretch where I wasn't sure if that was going to happen for me. The years were going by, I was entrenched in radio and doing a number of different things, and then RTV6 just worked out.
“They needed some assistance during the Pacers postseason run. I was only asked to do pregame and postgame reports during the 2014 Pacers run and the thought going into that was it was a temp gig and after the playoff run, that would be it. But things went so well that they asked me to come on full-time and that gave me the opportunity to cut my teeth, learn about editing, script writing. I shot high school football practices and games, etc, and it just gave me an education once again in in television and that helped me build my confidence in that OK, this is something that I can do. This is something that I still want to do.”
Then two years ago, Grady made another move — accepting the role as TV voice of the Timberwolves. On top of that, he started doing a few games for NBA TV. And last season, he made his debut on TNT for one game.
I wondered ahead of Christmas Day, often a time of reflection, whether he had taken the chance to reflect back on the bold move he made to leave Indy (which is forever home), where he was beloved on the sports scene, and had to establish himself in a much bigger market.
“The tough part about moving is that you never, in your heart of hearts, want to move,” Grady acknowledged. “It's easier when there are great people in front of you and what I mean by that is if I had aspirations of doing sideline reporting and wanted to do sideline reporting — well, Jeremiah Johnson is one of the best and he continues to do a tremendous job. And so there's no openings. I had aspirations to do play-by-play — well, Chris Denari is one of the best out there (for Pacers TV).
“If you feel like you're ready for that next opportunity and there's no opportunities in your hometown or where you currently reside, then you have to find where that next opportunity is. So I’m thankful that that opportunity arose with the Brooklyn Nets and on the flip side, even with Brooklyn, there became a point where I feel like I'm ready to be a play-by-play guy.
“And the guys in front of me on the roster with Brooklyn are Ryan Ruocco and Ian Eagle. And so for me to be able to live that dream as a play-by-play guy, I'm now gonna have to look outside of a place that I had called home for six years and absolutely loved in Brooklyn also. That’s where Minnesota came into the picture.”
Grady is appreciative. He’s thankful for his time in Indianapolis, for Pacers fans who remain connected with him on social media, and, of course, for those who have supported him since he was that teenager just trying to figure it out at WIBC.
“People have watched me or listened to me in some way shape or form for over 20 years — and there have been people who have cheered for me and rooted for me the entire way,” said Grady. “So I'm incredibly thankful for that, that even when moving outside of town, people understood and continued to support me.
“I really appreciate that because this meant a lot for me personally, it meant a lot for my mom, who's no longer here, and my family. I just want to keep pushing it as far as far as it can go.
“I still feel like we’re just getting started.”
Nuggets at Suns tips off after 10:30 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN. Angel Gray will be the sideline reporter.