ESPN Crew Pays Adorable Tribute to Cassidy Hubbarth During Final Network Broadcast

The longtime NBA reporter is headed to Amazon.
Cassidy Hubbarth interviews LeBron James in early 2024.
Cassidy Hubbarth interviews LeBron James in early 2024. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

For 15 years, Cassidy Hubbarth has been an ESPN stalwart. Joining the network just a handful of years after graduating college, the Evanston, Ill. native became a respected presence on the network's NBA coverage throughout the league's 2010s mini-golden age.

Now, as basketball enters a new media era, Hubbarth is moving on. She is headed to Amazon to become a face of the platform's NBA coverage, and Wednesday's play-in tournament game between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls was her last on ESPN.

As the Heat's blowout win wound to a close, announcers Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson took turns praising Hubbarth.

"Cassidy has been such a dedicated professional, a wonderful teammate, and most importantly, as kind and caring a friend as you could possibly have," Breen said.

"She's a pro's pro," Burke added. "You’ve become a star, Cass, when you go make a little more, work a little less—see some good things in the industry. You are a star among stars."

Jefferson, too, expressed gratitude to Hubbarth for making him feel welcome as he broke into the media world, saying "she's gonna do outstanding at where she's at next."

Moved nearly to tears, Hubbarth thanked her colleagues before modestly deflecting attention back to the game.

"I still have a postgame interview! You can't make me cry right now," she said. "I love you guys. ESPN has allowed me to grow and nurture my career in so many beautiful ways.


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .