John Christopher Casey (born 30 June 1964) is an Australian journalist and sports broadcaster. He has had a notable career as a play-by-play commentator for the National Basketball League (NBL).

Early life and education

Casey was born in the mining town of

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

. He was educated at Burke Ward Primary School and Broken Hill High School, earning the vice-presidency of the Student Representative Council at the latter institution. He led the school band, was an athletics champion, and helped New South Wales win a national schoolboys Australian football title in the 1979 Shell Cup.

Career

Casey started writing for the ''

Barrier Daily Truth The ''Barrier Daily Truth'' was a local newspaper for the mining town of Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia. It covered a range of stories that affect local residents, including industrial news relating to the mines and stories submitt ...

'' newspaper as an 18-year-old in 1981 and upon completion of his cadetship moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and joined ''

The Sun News-Pictorial ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' (known as ''The Sun'') was a morning daily tabloid newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria, from 1922 until its merger in 1990 with '' The Herald'' to form the '' Herald-Sun''. ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' was p ...

'' where, as a general news reporter, he wrote numerous front-page stories. In 1985, Casey joined '' The News'' in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

as a sports journalist and combined this role with duties for the '' Sunday Mail'' where he was chief racing sub-editor. After seven years service with newspapers in three states, Casey began his television career as an on-camera sports presenter with SAS-10 (later to become SAS-7). As well as reading the weekend sports news, he served as a commentator on national

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

telecasts and National Basketball League (NBL) games. During this time, he also presented sports breaks for radio stations 5KA and

5AA FIVEAA (pronounced ''Five Double A'') is Adelaide's only commercial Talk radio, talkback radio station. The station has a range of programs including news, sports, current affairs, social issues, football calls, gardening, lifestyle, cars, trave ...

. In 1990–91, Casey became the first ever sports journalist contracted to Channel 7's

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

bureau and covered events such as

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

tennis,

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

s, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp,

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

and

Susie Maroney Susan Jean Maroney (born 15 November 1974) is an Australian former marathon swimmer. In 1997, aged 22, Maroney was the first woman and second person to swim the Florida Straits from Cuba to the United States with a shark cage. In 1998 she ...

's epic

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

swim. On his return to Australia in 1992, Casey moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and took up a position as senior reporter with Channel 7's national prime time sports program "Seasons" while also reading news on '' 11AM'' and the weekend sports breaks for

ATN-7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, two ...

. He was named "Best Sportscaster" in the 1992 Better Hearing Australia Clear Speech Awards. He later covered the 1993 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Argentina and the

1994 Commonwealth Games The 1994 Commonwealth Games ( French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, between 18 and 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, box ...

in Canada. Having gathered experience with Sky Television and

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...

in London, Casey was recruited to help launch

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

in Australia (

Galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

), which debuted in 1995 with the Premier Sports Network. From 1995 to 2008, Casey was the senior commentator with

Fox Sports Australia Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as w ...

, commentating on some of the world's biggest sporting events including the Olympic Games, Wimbledon tennis and golf's major tournaments along with

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

and a host of other national events. He has also hosted studio shows for Fox Sports, including Main Game and '' The Back Page''. Casey worked briefly for the ''

Sunraysia Daily The ''Sunraysia Daily'' is a local newspaper in the north-western Sunraysia region of Victoria, Australia, it is published on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. From its first publication in 1920 until 14 September 2007, it was published ...

'' in

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

, Victoria, in 2010, before returning to his hometown of Broken Hill to take on the role of general manager and Managing Editor of the ''Barrier Daily Truth''.

NBL

In 1987, Casey began his television career in the Channel 7 newsroom in Adelaide in the sports department. Channel 7 had the rights to the NBL at the time and he started doing the sideline commentary at

Apollo Stadium Apollo Stadium (officially called the Apollo Entertainment Centre) was a multi-purpose indoor arena located at 41 Kingston Avenue, Richmond, South Australia, just 5 minutes from the Adelaide city centre. The stadium had an original seating capa ...

. The

2023–24 NBL season The 2023–24 NBL season was the 46th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested in the 2023–24 season. Australian broadcast rights to the season are held by ESPN in the third seas ...

marked his 37th year commentating the NBL. In January 2024, Casey called his 1000th career basketball game.

Personal life

Casey and his wife, Kylie, have three children. In 1991, Casey was elected councillor for Albert Park Ward of Woodville City Council, South Australia."Off Air" TV Week, page 52, 16/11/91

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casey, John 1964 births Basketball announcers People from Broken Hill, New South Wales Living people Olympic Games broadcasters Australian tennis commentators Australian golf commentators Boxing commentators Australian sports journalists