New Orleans, LA – The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced today, at NBA All-Star Weekend, longtime NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager and New York Times sports reporter and columnist Harvey Araton are the 2017 Curt Gowdy Media Award recipients. The two will be acknowledged for their contributions to basketball during the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement events September 7-9 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Curt Gowdy Media Award is named in honor of the late Curt Gowdy, a legendary sports broadcaster and former Hall of Fame Board member and President. This prestigious award is presented annually to members of the electronic and print media whose longtime efforts have made a significant contribution to the game of basketball.
In a world of dominate athletes and personalities, Craig Sager still managed to stand out from the crowd. A graduate of Northwestern University, where he was a basketball walk-on for the Wildcats, Sager was affectionately known as “America’s Sideline Reporter.” From his courtside perch at NBA and NCAA Tournament games, he carefully and skillfully asked all the right questions in the heat of the moment and was considered one of the best in the business when he was forced to go off-the-cuff.
Sager joined Turner Broadcasting System in 1981 and soon solidified his reputation as an NBA insider. He covered 30 NBA Playoffs, 27 consecutive All-Star Games, and 22 NBA Drafts. While he was widely recognized in basketball for his NBA work, Sager also covered USA Basketball during the FIBA World Championships, Pan-American Games, the Goodwill Games, and Summer Olympics since 2000, where he handled duties for both the men’s and women’s teams. Sager also covered the World Series, NFL football, NHL hockey, PGA golf, World Cup soccer, Notre Dame football, college bowl games, tennis, skiing and golf.
Sager began his career as a reporter for WXLT in Sarasota, Florida where he was honored as the Florida Sportscaster of the Year. He famously interviewed Hank Aaron as he rounded third after swatting his 715th homerun and his basketball introductions came via Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, with whom Sager conducted one-on-one interviews for the 1979 NCAA Final Four. He served as the radio voice for the Kansas City Kings franchise from 1979-1981 and co-anchored CNN Sports Tonight and was the recipient of a CableACE Award in 1985. As a fan favorite, Sager was a featured voice on the NBA2K video game series.
Recognized posthumously for the Gowdy Award, the basketball community was deeply saddened to have lost Craig Sager in December of 2016. NBA teams, players and fans paid tribute to Sager, praising him for his perseverance and positivity, proving the vast impact he had on the game and those who love it.
For 25 years, Harvey Araton has served as an acclaimed sports reporter and national basketball columnist with the New York Times. He has also covered several NBA Finals, MLB World Series, NFL Super Bowls and men’s and women’s NCAA Final Fours. A native New Yorker, he is a 1975 graduate of the City University of New York.
As an undergraduate, Araton began his career at the Staten Island Advance in 1970, before joining the New York Post, from 1977-1983, covering the New York Knicks basketball beat. With the New York Daily News from 1983-1991, he was both a sports writer and columnist, before joining the New York Times in 1991.
Araton is an accomplished author with several books about the basketball landscape including “When the Garden was Eden” and “The Selling of Green.” As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Sport magazine, Inside Sports, The Sporting News, The Village Voice, and Basketball Weekly.
Araton was nominated by the Times for the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and was named Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 1998. In 1997 and 2007, he was honored for Column Writing by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He is currently an adjunct professor of journalism at Montclair State University.
Previous Curt Gowdy Media Award Winners:
1990 - Dick Herbert/Curt Gowdy
1991 - Dave Dorr/Marty Glickman
1992 - Sam Goldaper/Chick Hearn
1993 - Leonard Lewin/Johnny Most
1994 - Leonard Koppett/Cawood Ledford
1995 - Bob Hammel/Dick Enberg
1996 - Bob Hentzen/Billy Packer
1997 - Bob Ryan/Marv Albert
1998 - Larry Donald & Dick Weiss/Dick Vitale
1999 - Smith Barrier/Bob Costas
2000 - Dave Kindred/Hubie Brown
2001 - Curry Kirkpatrick/Dick Stockton
2002 - Jim O’Connell/Jim Nantz
2003 - Sid Hartman/Hot Rod Hundley
2004 - Phil Jasner/Max Falkenstien
2005 - Jack McCallum/Bill Campbell
2006 - Mark Heisler/Bill Raftery
2007 - Malcolm Moran/Al McCoy
2008 - David DuPree/Bob Wolff
2009 - Peter Vecsey/Doug Collins
2010 - Jackie MacMullan/Joe Tait
2011 - Alexander Wolff/Jim Durham
2012 - Sam Smith/Bill Schonely
2013 - John Feinstein/Eddie Doucette
2014 - Joe Gilmartin/John Andariese
2015 - Rich Clarkson/Woody Durham
2016 - David Aldridge/Jay Bilas
About the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: Located in Springfield, Massachusetts, the city where basketball was invented, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame promotes and preserves the game of basketball at every level – professional, collegiate and high school, for both men and women on the global stage.
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