ESPN bolsters WNBA coverage, adds rules analyst for broadcasts

The WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, which cemented the league’s meteoric rise, was made possible thanks to the league’s new $2.2 billion media rights deal running through 2036. As part of the deal, ESPN and ABC will air five of the next 11 WNBA Finals and a conference finals series in eight of the 11 seasons, while also retaining rights to the WNBA Draft and All-Star Game, along with “extensive” regular-season inventory.

Susie Piotrkowski, ESPN’s VP of women’s sports programming, has spoken in the past about how the company views Indiana Fever phenom Caitlin Clark as a “gateway drug” to women’s sports. In a no-brainer move to capitalize on Clark’s enormous draw, the Worldwide Leader is leaning further and further into women’s sports coverage, as evidenced by Women’s Sports Sundays replacing Sunday Night Baseball’s primetime slot on the network this summer.

Now, ESPN is bolstering its already robust WNBA coverage. The network announced former NBA and WNBA official Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling will join play-by-play voice Ryan Ruocco and color commentator Rebecca Lobo for select broadcasts as a rules analyst this season.

Holtkamp-Sterling will draw on over a decade’s worth of officiating experience across the NBA and WNBA to “provide real-time analysis and context around officiating decisions, replay reviews and rules interpretations.”

“We’re excited to welcome Lauren to ESPN’s basketball coverage team,” Rodney Vaughn, ESPN WNBA Coordinating Producer, said of bringing on Holtkamp-Sterling. “Her experience at the highest levels of professional basketball, combined with her ability to explain complex rules and officiating decisions, will bring valuable perspective to our game telecasts.”

“Basketball has given me so much throughout my life and career, and I’m excited for this next chapter with ESPN,” Holtkamp-Sterling said in a statement of her own. “Joining ESPN allows me to bring fans behind the curtain, explain the ‘why’ behind officiating decisions and share insights from my years on the floor in both the NBA and WNBA.”

Holtkamp-Sterling will debut in her new role on Saturday, June 6, during a doubleheader broadcast of a Seattle Storm- Minnesota Lynx game at 1 p.m. ET, followed by a Golden State Valkyries-Las Vegas Aces contest at 3 p.m. ET.