After years of radio broadcasting for the Los Angeles Lakers, Spero Dedes will reportedly be moving over to television broadcasts.
The Lakers play-by-play shift comes as no major surprise, given Dedes’ recent broadcasting success with the NFL and college football. The 31-year-old broadcaster was considered a major up and coming talent since first joining the organization 6 seasons ago. His previous endeavors took him through New York’s YES Network and NBA TV.
Dedes is set to take over for Lakers 8 year play-by-play announcer, Joel Meyers; whose contract will expire following this season. Meyers had replaced Chick Hearn successor, Paul Sunderland.
Almost 9 years after Chick’s passing, Dedes would become the third to attempt filling the Laker legends microphone. In 2008, we had asked Spero, our very first live blog guest, about what Chick means to him.
One of the biggest — and only — regrets I have is never having met Chick. Right after I got this job in 2005, the first thing I did was buy as much material on Chick as I could find… books… CDs… magazine articles… whatever. He was one of a kind… as unique a talent as there will ever be in ANY profession. The gold standard. It’s pretty daunting to sit in his old chair sometimes, but there’s no place else I’d rather be. Just thankful that the Lakers would have me.
According to the LA Times, the Lakers declined to comment on possibility of next seasons booth change. “All of our announcers are under contract and we’re not going to discuss that situation until the end of the season,” said Lakers vice president of public relations John Black.
The reports come just months after the Lakers announced a TV deal with Time Warner that will give the back-to-back champions a new dedicated cable network.
If said reports are correct, we would like to congratulate Spero Dedes — who’s been a long time friend of the website. We would also like to wish Joel Meyers the best.
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