There’s no missing when it comes to the queen of NBA ESPN.
Cassidy Hubbarth, full-time ESPN reporter, host of Hoop Streams, and the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, knew she was destined for prominence within the sports industry as early as her middle school years. It was prior to a Chicago Bears game when Cassidy first saw Pam Oliver reporting for the FOX Pregame Show. She recalls enjoying watching Pam deliver statistics and facts so effortlessly, that it was almost more entertaining than the game itself!
Even before this influential sports moment in Cassidy’s life, she found herself drawn to athleisure and casual wear due to her own athletic career. Not only was she a standout basketball star in her high school, Evanston Township High, but she also won the state championship on her soccer team in 2002.
"I remember seeing her do a talkback interview with one of the players, and it just kind of finally opened my eyes to, 'I'm not just watching the game, but I'm actually enjoying coverage about the game.'” - Cassidy Hubbarth for BarrettSportsMedia
Throughout high school, Cassidy had long dreamt of attending Northwestern University because of its prominent journalism program but initially attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Which honestly, I’m seeing as a sign that your dreams will come to pass, regardless of where life takes you. This certainly rang true for Cassidy who eventually transferred to Northwestern where she not only studied journalism like she wanted but also took on two career opportunities at the school’s job fair. One was a production assistant role at Intersport and the other was collecting data for an NBC news station.
Then a little bit later, in 2007, Cassidy moved up the ranks at Intersport and began producing on-air content for exclusive entertainment. She had yet another achievement to add to her list after she graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism with a Bachelor of Science degree.
“Before I graduated, the only place you could go was a local sports newscast and work your way up. By the time I graduated, Twitter was launched and there were websites and even blogs that were expanding the space of how sports were covered.” - Cassidy Hubbarth for NBA.com
Cassidy’s career began to skyrocket in the summer of 2010 when she received a call to audition for an ESPN3 hosting role. Two weeks later, she not only got the job, she also began working her way up from digital media to roles on other channels including International Sports Center, Highlight Express, ESPN News, and more. One of the many contributors to her success was the fact that her career was developing at the same time as social media and other digital platforms. It made her one of the first to make room for her online presence.
“Growing up in Chicago as a Bulls fan during the Michael Jordan era and now covering the NBA is really a dream come true.” - Cassidy Hubbarth for One37PM
The ultimate big break came in 2012 when Cassidy earned the privilege of hosting NBA Tonight for ESPN. That only opened more doors that led to a plethora of other host roles at NBA Coast to Coast, NBA Countdown, Get Up, First Take, just to name a few. She was also associated with the media that covered the NBA’s “Bubble Site” in Walt Disney World Resort during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Today, Cassidy is a full-time reporter for ESPN game telecasts throughout both the regular season and the playoffs. Covering playoff games is one of Cassidy’s greatest loves (second to her lovely daughter of course!), but she’s long dreamt of covering the NBA finals and playing some sort of role during the trophy ceremony. Most of us may have an NBA team that we hope to see win this year’s championship, but I hope you’ll join me in rooting for Cassidy this season!
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