Joel Meyers is an American sportscaster who is the

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

announcer of the

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their hom ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA). He also is the lead host of "Above the Rim", which airs weekdays from 10am-1pm ET on SiriusXM NBA Radio. He is also the preseason play-by-play announcer for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

Career

His professional resumé includes NFL telecasts on NBC,

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

telecasts from 1990 to 1991,

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ...

telecasts from 1987 to 1989,

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

radio broadcasts in 2002,

Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

radio broadcasts from 1993 to 1996,

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home ...

telecasts, various assignments for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and FSN, and even the

Los Angeles Lazers The Los Angeles Lazers were an indoor soccer team that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) from 1982 to 1989. History Jerry Buss, the owner of California Sports, the parent company of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kings and Strings of Te ...

of the Major Indoor Soccer League. Meyers called the 2007 FIBA Americas gold and bronze medal games with

Steve "Snapper" Jones Stephen Howard "Snapper" Jones (October 17, 1942 – November 25, 2017) was an American basketball player in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA), and later a television analyst. He was a three-time A ...

. From 2012 to 2013 he called preseason games for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their home games at NR ...

with

Spencer Tillman Spencer Allen Tillman (born April 21, 1964) is an American former professional football player who played running back for eight seasons for the Houston Oilers and San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). College career Colle ...

. He also called games for the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

. Meyers currently calls

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

games for FSN and NBA games for

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN ...

. He previously worked

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

games for

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

(usually teamed with

Bob Trumpy Robert Theodore Trumpy Jr. (born March 6, 1945) is a former professional American football tight end who played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968 through 1977. He was a two-time National Football League Pro Bowler and a two-time American Footb ...

), but left that network after the 2006 season. He currently works for

Bally Sports New Orleans Bally Sports New Orleans is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group (a joint-venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios), and operated as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local ...

as the play-by-play announcer for the

(formerly New Orleans Hornets). Meyers also called the 2014 preseason lineup on local

Cox Sports Television Cox Sports Television ( a.k.a. CST; sometimes referred to as Cox Sports TV) was an American regional sports cable and satellite television channel owned by Cox Communications. The channel, which serves the Gulf South region of the United Sta ...

for the

. Meyers called 1st Round games for the 2014 NBA Playoffs on

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

partnered with

Chris Webber Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III (born March 1, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player. Drafted number one overall by the Orlando Magic, though arguably best known and remembered as the star forward for the Sacramento Ki ...

. He also called 1st Round games for TNT and NBATV during the 2020 NBA Playoffs. He worked with

Greg Anthony Gregory Carlton Anthony (born November 15, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Anthony also cont ...

for the 1st-round games in the 2020 NBA Playoffs. Joel Meyers also worked 1st round games for the 2021 NBA Playoffs for NBATV and TNT.

Los Angeles Lakers

Meyers most notably started work for the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

of the

in 2003 as their radio voice, the year after

Chick Hearn Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years. Hearn is remembered for his rapi ...

died. Two years later, he was moved from radio to television where he was paired with

Stu Lantz Stuart Burrell Lantz (born July 13, 1946) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television commentator for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Spectrum SportsNet. He played college basket ...

. Meyers replaced

Paul Sunderland Paul Benedict Sunderland (born March 29, 1952) is an American professional sportscaster who resides in Los Angeles, California. He worked as the indoor volleyball play-by-play announcer for NBC Olympics’ coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics, ...

, who had succeeded Chick Hearn. Meyers left the Lakers at the end of the 2010–2011 season when the team did not renew his contract. He was supposed to be replaced by

Spero Dedes Spero is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Anthony Spero (1929-2008), American criminal * David Spero (born 1951), American DJ and music manager * Deborah Spero, American law enforcement official * Donald Spero (born 1939), Amer ...

, but Dedes ended up choosing a contract with the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

instead. Eventually, Meyers would be replaced by

Bill Macdonald Bill Macdonald is an American professional sportscaster who is currently the TV play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Spectrum SportsNet alongside color commentator Stu Lantz. Care ...

Key and Peele skits

Meyers portrayed the

announcer Dave Stassen in two

Key & Peele ''Key & Peele'' (abbreviated to ''K&P'') is an American sketch comedy television series created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for Comedy Central. Both Key and Peele previously worked on '' Mad TV.'' Each episode of the show consists ...

football skits, beginning in Season 2, airing in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Accolades

In 2010, he was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themsel ...

Personal

A St. Louis native, Meyers graduated from

Ladue Horton Watkins High School Ladue Horton Watkins High School is a public high school in Ladue, Missouri, United States, that is administered by the Ladue School District. Its namesake, Horton Watkins, was vice president of the International Shoe Company and died in 1949. The ...

in 1972."Distinguished Alumni"
Ladue Education Foundation and Alumni Association. Accessed 8 February 2018. He attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, and served as the public address announcer at

Busch Stadium II Busch Memorial Stadium, also known as Busch Stadium II, was a multi-purpose sports facility in St. Louis, Missouri, that operated for 40 years, from 1966 through 2005. The stadium served as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League ba ...

for the

from 1980 until 1982, with the Cardinals winning the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

in his final season. He and his wife, Carol, have two sons, Drew and J.J. They reside in

Hidden Hills, California Hidden Hills is a city and gated community in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California. It is located next to the city of Calabasas. It is notable for being home to many actors and celebrities. The population was 1,7 ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyers, Joel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Association football commentators California Angels announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Houston Texans announcers Ladue Horton Watkins High School alumni Los Angeles Clippers announcers Los Angeles Dodgers announcers Los Angeles Lakers announcers Los Angeles Raiders announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters New Orleans Hornets announcers New Orleans Pelicans announcers Oakland Raiders announcers Olympic Games broadcasters People from Hidden Hills, California People from Missouri People from St. Louis San Antonio Spurs announcers St. Louis Cardinals announcers University of Missouri alumni Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) commentators