Clovis native who’s been part of several Bay Area broadcasts named NBA play-by-play announcer
A Clovis native is making sports history.
Kate Scott, a veteran sports broadcaster, became only the second woman to hold a full-time, play-by-play role with a major U.S. sports franchise after she was hired to call Philadelphia 76ers games.
Scott is also the first full-time female broadcaster of any major sport in Philadelphia history.
A 2001 Clovis High graduate, Scott studied sports journalism at Cal and worked briefly as a production assistant at Fresno’s ABC Channel 30 (KFSN) en route to become a trailblazer of sorts in her career.
Scott’s historic hiring comes a week after the Milwaukee Bucks named Lisa Byington as the team’s television play-by-play announcer, making her the first woman to handle full-time TV play-by-play duties for a major men’s professional sports team.
“I’m here because of all the women who’ve come before me, who had it much harder than me, who proved we deserve a shot,” Scott posted Thursday on social media. “I look forward to earning the respect and trust of a phenomenal city and fanbase one call and game at a time.”
Like Byington, Scott is replacing a man who’d held the position for a long time. In Scott’s case, she takes over for Marc Zumoff after he retired following 27 years of calling 76ers games.
Scott is used to breaking barriers.
Previously, Scott was the first woman to call a Golden State Warriors game and became the first woman to call an NFL game on the radio.
Scott spent this past summer handling Olympic broadcast duties as the play-by-play voice of men’s and women’s basketball in Tokyo.
Earlier this year, Scott called the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association’s Chicago showcase and the Premier Hockey Federation’s Isobel Cup semis and final on NBCSN.
She’s also spent time working for the Pac-12 Network and for the Bay Area’s KNBR (680 AM).
“When I graduated from Cal in 2005, I didn’t see play-by-play as a future for me. I thought reporting and anchoring was my ceiling, and that was only 16 years ago,” Scott said in a San Jose Mercury News story from March. “We’ve made some amazing strides, but now the next step is to normalize things.
“It’s up to us to show the next generation that this is definitely something you can do. And we need to show the people doing the hiring that we’re good at this.”
Scott will call games for a 76ers team that features All-Star center Joel Embiid and is coached by NBA championship coach Doc Rivers. Philadelphia has another All-Star in point guard Ben Simmons, but he’s has asked to be traded this offseason.
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 7:16 PM.