Michael Eaves is an American sportscaster. He serves as an anchor 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 ...

's ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of American cable and satellite television network ESPN. The show covers various sports teams and athletes from around the world and of ...

'' and as a co-host of ''

NBA Countdown ''NBA Countdown'', branded for sponsorship purposes as ''NBA Countdown Presented by Mountain Dew'', is an American pregame television show airing prior to National Basketball Association (NBA) telecasts on ABC and ESPN. ''NBA Countdown'' typi ...

'' for shows preceding ''

NBA Wednesday ''NBA Wednesday'' is a weekly presentation of the National Basketball Association on ESPN. Debuting in 2002, ''NBA Wednesday'' starts the first Wednesday of the NBA season and runs throughout the entire regular season. Games typically air at 9:30& ...

''. He began working at ESPN in 2015.

Early life

Growing up in rural

Hopkins County, Kentucky Hopkins County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,423. Its county seat is Madisonville. Hopkins County was created December 9, 1806 from Henderson County. It wa ...

, Eaves played various sports but did not have access to sports broadcasts until his father purchased a satellite dish when he was in the sixth grade. This introduced him to teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers,

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one o ...

, and the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in B ...

, something that Eaves credits for his interest in sports. Eaves grew up as a multi-sport athlete, playing

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, football, and

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

. He was the first black golfer to qualify for the

Kentucky High School Athletic Association The Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) has been the governing body of the U.S. state of Kentucky high-school athletics since 1917. It is located in Lexington. Sports The organization sanctions competition in the following sports ...

state golf tournament. He graduated from South Hopkins High School in 1990 and was named "Mr. South Hopkins," a top honor at the school. Eaves attended the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's ...

and graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1994.

Career

Eaves began his professional career at CBS affiliate

WKYT-TV WKYT-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Winchester Road ( US 60) near I-75 ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

, working as a sports reporter and producer for seven years. He later worked at WTPY-TV in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

, working as a sideline reporter for the

Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...

. Eaves made the move to the west coast in 2003 when he joined

Fox Sports West Bally Sports West is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as part of Bally Sports, along with its sister network Bally Sports ...

. He hosted the ''Angels Live'' pregame show for the

Los Angeles 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 ha ...

and the ''Clippers Live'' show 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 ...

. Eaves also reported from the sideline at

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) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brookly ...

and Los Angeles Lakers games while with the network. In addition, Eaves often appeared on KLAA AM 830 radio shows. After many years working with local broadcasts, Eaves joined

Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jaze ...

in 2013 to report on national sports news. He left the network in 2015 to join ESPN. While with the company, he has primarily served as an anchor for ''

''s night editions. He has also reported from the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...

and the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

. Following the death of

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely ...

in the

2020 Calabasas helicopter crash On January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crashed in the city of Calabasas, California, around northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, while en route from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport. All nine people on board were killed: retir ...

, Eaves anchored ''SportsCenters breaking news coverage of the incident alongside Zubin Mehenti for 5 hours. The duo was commended for their coverage of the accident. Eaves personally knew Bryant from his days as a sideline interviewer for Laker games on Fox Sports West. In May 2021, Eaves signed a four-year deal to remain with ESPN. After a shakeup of on-air NBA staff at ESPN during the

2021–22 NBA season The 2021–22 NBA season was the 76th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA returned to a full 82-game regular season in its normal mid-October to mid-April schedule for the first time since the 2018–19 NBA season, aft ...

, it was announced that Eaves would assume the role of co-host for ''

'' shows on Wednesdays, preceding the network's presentation of ''

''. He joined co-hosts

Richard Jefferson Richard Allen Jefferson Jr. (born June 21, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on ESPN. He played college basketball with the Arizona Wildcats. Jefferson was drafted in the first round of the ...

, Stephen A. Smith, and

Chiney Ogwumike Chinenye "Chiney" Ogwumike (born March 21, 1992) is a Nigerian-American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In 2020, she became the first Black woman and the first WNBA ...

. Eaves has won four regional Los Angeles Emmy Awards for his work with Fox Sports West. The

Los Angeles Press Club The Los Angeles Press Club is an American journalism organization founded in 1913. It honors journalists through its annual National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and SoCal Journalism Awards. The Board of Directors includes the organi ...

named him the region's top television anchor in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaves, Michael American television sports announcers American sports radio personalities ESPN people University of Kentucky alumni Living people People from Hopkins County, Kentucky Year of birth missing (living people)