Andscape’s Marc J. Spears (print) and ESPN’s Holly Rowe (electronic) have been named the recipients of the 2023 Naismith Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award.
Spears began his career covering college basketball at various stops, including the University of Arkansas, University of Louisville, the University of Kentucky and Cal-State Northridge. But he began covering the NBA in 1999 when he began covering the Denver Nuggets for The Denver Post, and said his career changed forever when, in 2007, he took over the Boston Celtics beat at The Boston Globe in the wake of Kevin Garnett being traded there.
“When I got that job, in 2007, or when I was up for it, I remember in the midst of me, the week before I interviewed, they got Garnett,” Spears said. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got to get this job.’ I got that job, and I remember [NBA journalist] Ric Bucher telling me, ‘People are going to see your work differently now.’ Not that they didn’t think it was good in Denver. But it’s the Celtics, and Boston.”
Spears went on to spend several years at Yahoo before joining Andscape in 2016.
Rowe has worked for ESPN since August 1998 and has become its lead men’s and women’s college basketball reporter in addition to holding the same role with the NBA, and also working on the Utah Jazz broadcast.
