Suns Announcer Kevin Ray on Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Barkley & Phoenix’s Greatest Players

Phoenix Suns television play-by-play announcer Kevin Ray joins the Hoopsology Podcast to talk about his path from a small farming community outside Kansas City to the Suns broadcast booth, plus how the NBA’s new media deal is affecting local broadcasters and the fans who rely on them. Ray shares his first basketball memory, a Christmas gift from his dad: tickets to a Harlem Globetrotters game when he was around eight or nine.

He talks about following the Kansas City Kings through the sports section of the Kansas City Star, how the NBA looked in the 1970s (including tape-delayed Finals), and why he feels lucky to have watched the league grow into a global phenomenon. He also explains why former Kings guard Eddie Johnson, now his Suns broadcast partner, would hold his own in today’s game.

We also get into his broadcasting career: growing up a sports junkie with four sisters and an aunt who always had a game on, filling in on a high school football broadcast in college and deciding on the spot that play-by-play was his calling, and his first NBA broadcast filling in on Washington Wizards games. He covers his years calling Phoenix Mercury basketball and national Dallas Cowboys radio, and how his game prep has changed with beat writers, podcasts, and Substacks.

Ray weighs in on the NBA’s media rights deal that has shut local TV broadcasters out of the playoffs, what it could mean for fans’ connection to their teams, and how he decompresses after an intense game. He tells the story of the night laryngitis got him pulled off the air within the first five minutes, and reflects on the players who defined his time in Phoenix: Charles Barkley, Dan Majerle, Kevin Johnson, Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Goran Dragic, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, and Chris Paul, including how he first met Paul at a team hotel in Cleveland.

Follow Kevin Ray on social media: @KRay1Voice. Catch Suns games locally on Channels 3 and 5 in the Phoenix market, or on NBA League Pass.

Hoopsology Podcast, presented by Ballislife. Subscribe for more conversations with the voices who cover basketball.

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