J-Speaks: 2018 Curt Gowdy Award Recipients

The 2018 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame will feature members that run the gamut of those that achieved greatness at Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA on Friday night. The Hall will open its doors to recent NBA perennial All-Stars in Grant Hill, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, and Jason Kidd. Old-School pillars like Charlie Scott, Maurice Cheeks, Dino Raja, and long-time coach at the University of Maryland Charles (Lefty) Driesell. Legends of WNBA in champions Katie Smith and Tina Thompson and pioneer of women’s basketball Ora Mae Washington. Making the Hall as contributors to basketball are Rick Welts, COO of the back-to-back defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors and former player, executive, and coach in the NBA for over five decades in Rod Thorn. Two other individuals who have made their mark in bringing us coverage of the NBA were honored enshrined this week with the prestigious Curt Gowdy Award. 

On Thursday night ESPN basketball analyst and sideline reporter Doris Burke was honored with the Curt Gowdy Media Award for Electronic Media, while long time photographer Andrew Bernstein received the same honor for Print Media. 

Burke, who has been an analyst with ESPN since 1991 became the first woman to be named a full-time game color analyst for the National Basketball Association (NBA). 

Presenting the award to Burke was her ESPN colleague in Mike Breen, who Burke has known for a long time going back to her early years as a radio commentator for the New York Knicks and who have worked together for nearly a decade at ESPN. 

“That you would consider me worthy to stand in this place with that elite roster of recipients is more than my imagination could’ve dreamed,” Burke said in her acceptance speech. 

These two recipients painted a picture of the game that brought us right in whether we were watching from the small screen in the case of Burke for over a quarter century or in the case of Bernstein through photographs, especially his work as the official photographer for the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers. 

Reaching the mountain top of recognition of their professions did not come easy for both Burke and Bernstein. 

Burke, a Manasquan, NJ native and mother of two before working with ESPN was a sideline and color analyst on men’s and women’s college basketball and for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was a standout player at Providence College, where she held seven school records upon her graduation in 1987. 

After two seasons as an assistant for her alma mater, where a full-length bus of people representing Friar nation came out in support of Burke on her big night, she began her broadcast career as a color analyst for regional coverage of Big East and Atlantic 10 women’s basketball games. 

“That time was absolutely critical to my development,” Burke said of that opportunity as Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese and his successor Dave Gavitt to call men’s women’s games. 

Burke began her career at ESPN in 1991 and five years later became the first woman to call a Big East men’s basketball game on television. 

It was also during this time that she worked alongside three of the best to commentate College Basketball for ESPN with Dave O’Brien, Dan Shulman, and Hall of Famers Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas.  

Burke said that each time she worked with O’Brien called over a decade worth of Women’s NCAA National Championships and hundreds of college basketball games she “was better for it.” 

She also acknowledged ESPN broadcast colleagues in Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo, Holly Rowe, and Beth Mowins, who last season became the first woman to call an NFL regular season game for ESPN’s Monday Night Football said that their friendship and support is something that she cherishes and that kind of support is something that is necessary for all women and should always be there. 

Burke before analyzing NBA games on television for ESPN/ABC broadcast WNBA games when the league was launched in 1997, which she also called a pivotal moment in her career. 

She would continue to break the so-called glass ceiling in 2000 becoming the first woman commentator for New York Knicks games on radio and on television for Madison Square Garden Network (MSG). 

“The WNBA changed the equation for a young female broadcaster who wanted nothing more than to remain close to the game, and call basketball games,” she said. “And my subsequent association with Madison Square Garden Network, then the very vanguard of regional sports cable networks, that afforded me my first opportunity to call professional basketball, first for the New York Liberty and then under the intrepid leadership of Mike McCarthy, who was the head of MSG at that time to call the New York Knicks on both the television and radio.” 

“And in was virtually with few exceptions unheard of at the time, and I am so indebted to MSG and all the people there.”

While she has a new role with “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” as a full-time NBA color analyst, she still is the lead sideline reporter for the network during its NBA playoff coverage. 

“To the players and coaches of the NBA—Rick Carlisle, LeBron James, Steve Kerr, Chris Paul and many, many others, your private words of support to me, and your public statements of support of my work, went far beyond what you could imagine. And the confidence that I had to the job ESPN has given me,” Burke said.

When Bernstein was a collegiate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, there were no courses in either photography or film. 

As a result, the 2013 Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductee transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He became hooked after stepping the plane into the 85-degree sunshine of that part of the West Coast. 

From there he began his professional journey that has taken him across the globe yet kept him in L.A. as the NBA’s senior photographer. 

His journey to now being a Hall of Famer began when he worked part-time as an assistant to Sports Illustrated, which led to him to his first gig as a photographer at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game at the Lakers’ former home The Great Western Forum. 

He eventually became the Lakers’ photographer as well as for the Dodgers of MLB, Clippers, and the Kings of the NHL. 

Three years later began a 25-year stint as senior director of NBA photos as the league’s in-house licensing agency starting back in 1986. 

He also chronicled the Gold medal runs of 1992 Hall of Fame Dream Team as well as the runs of Team USA in 1996 and 2000, while also working 36 All-Star Games and NBA Finals.  

“I don’t know what era we’re in now, but whatever era it is they still want me around documenting it. So, I will still be sitting baseline where you’ve seen me for so many years,” Bernstein said of his career to NBATV’s Ros Gold-Onwude and Steve Smith earlier this week on “Gametime.”

Both Burke and Bernstein reached the Hall of Fame because of their ability to create magical moments when the opportunity came. 

The first person to interview now Los Angeles Lakers four-time league MVP LeBron James after leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first championship in franchise history, his fourth title overall and the city of Northeast Ohio’s first title since 1964 was Burke. 

She was also the first one to interview now back-to-back Finals MVP Kevin Durant of the now back-to-back champion Golden State Warriors when they beat the Cavs in the 2017 Finals, his first title. 

When it comes to capturing some of the greatest moments in NBA history from the late 1980s to now, Bernstein is the one that presented those memories to us through his lens. 

Moments like Michael Jordan holding the first of six Larry O’Brien trophies the Bulls would win the 1990s alongside his late father James in the visitor’s locker room at the Forum after the Bulls won Game 5 of the 1991 Finals over the Lakers 108-101. 

Another moment captured through the lens of Bernstein was future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant with both ankles in two ice buckets before a tilt against the Knicks at MSG in Jan. 2010.

He also captured an emotional embrace between two former league MVPs in Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry after the Warriors following their Game 5 victory in the 2017 NBA Finals. 

Bernstein got one of the most iconic shots of the NBA during the 1980s when the two pillars of the league then in Hall of Famers Earvin “Magic” Johnson of the Lakers and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics fighting for rebound position along the charity stripe at the old Boston Garden in the 1987 Finals, the third and final time these two teams met with them as the headliners. 

In 2016 Bernstein got a shot of him and Bryant before the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in the Western Conference locker room at the Toronto Raptors’ home the Air Canada Centre. 

What allowed Bernstein the chance to capture these moments was the kind of respected relationships he formed with some of the stars in those photos like “Magic” Johnson, whose career was just beginning at the same time as Bernstein’s. 

He also formed solid relationships with former NBA Commissioner David Stern and has continued that with his predecessor Adam Silver and Hall of Famer Phil Jackson where when he was able to get unprecedented access to photos of all 11 of his title runs with the Bulls and Lakers. The two even wrote a book together about the Lakers title team in 2009-10. 

It was also during this time he was able to record some of the best moments of Bryant from his first day in the league to his very last, Bernstein said he formed a solid relationship with Shaquille O’Neal going back to before he came into the NBA.  

In fact, Bryant and Bernstein just finished a book together called “The Mamba Mentality,” which will be out next month.  

Both Burke and Bernstein reached this great pinnacle through relentless hard work; dedication to their craft; a focus to be the best of the best at their craft and a great encouragement and respect from those that they worked with and covered during their remarkable careers. 

In a time where it seems like certain parts of our society seem to be exclusive, the NBA in Burke’s words under the leadership of former NBA Commissioner and his successor Adam Silver “is the single most inclusive, open-minded, progressive sports league in the country.” “And both men’s support of me speaks volumes.” 

For Bernstein, he felt that what makes a great photograph was the one that would elicit a response or as he put it, “an emotional response.”

“So, things just don’t happen but when they do happen and come together it’s very gratifying and to have some of my photos be remembered as sort of the image of the NBA or what people want to remember certain eras or certain athletes by is incredibly humbling and gratifying for me,” Bernstein said of his work. 

On Thursday night, the Naismith Hall of Fame enshrined Doris Burke and Andrew Bernstein with the Curt Gowdy Media Award for Electronic and Print Media respectably for their work on bringing us closer to the players we have come to love of yesterday and today. 

This moment for both also represented a moment for them to say thank you to not just the players, coaches, and staffs of the collegiate and professional game, but in Burke’s the people involved in the decision making at the Big East, MSG, and ESPN that lifted her up every single day. 

For Burke, this was a moment to acknowledge her son Matthew and daughter Sarah, who she sacrificed quality a lot of her time to chase her dream. 

“You were not afforded the luxury of a mom who was home every night, nor Midnight Madness or the NBA Playoffs. A schedule that resembled anything that would come close to normal and I appreciate the sacrifices you both made and the way you did it,” Burke said to her kids at the close of her acceptance speech. 

“I have the best job in the world for somebody who loves the game. But that pales in comparison to the pride and the joy and love I have of being your mom. God Bless and thank you.”    

Bernstein recognized his friend and fellow photographer Lane Murdock, who passed away a few weeks ago. 

Bernstein said of his friend in Murdock, “I hope to one day to present this award to his family in his memory.”  

Information and quotations are courtesy of www.nba.com video section of Doris Burke and Andrew Bernstein’s acceptance speeches receiving the Curt Gowdy Award for Electronic and Print Media respectably; www.hoophall.com/index.php/events/enshrinement/class-of-2018; 9/3/18 www.nba.com article, “Worth a Thousand Words: NBA Photographer Andrew Bernstein Details His Best Shots,” by Steve Aschburner; www.espn.com article, “Hoops HOF Awards Doris Burke, Andy Bernstein with Curt Gowdy Awards;” and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Burke.