April 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Hannah Storm's life and career in basketball began with a front-row seat to the red, white and blue ABA in the 1970s, featured prime broadcasting roles on NBC's coverage of Michael Jordan's second three-peat with the Bulls in the 1990s and continues today after more than 15 years at ESPN. In this wide-ranging conversation with Marc Stein, Hannah tells more than four decades' worth of stories about her experiences in the game as a table-setter for her new NBA DNA podcast series which traces that journey through 12 separate episodes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this League uncut in the rule.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of twenty four hour NBA News.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is you, Chris Haynes. It's time, work's time, it's
some time. This League uncut is underway in on fire.
This should be a good one.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Welcome in everyone to the latest edition of this League Uncut,
A very special edition of this League Uncut. I have
to say from the jump, Chris Haynes is not here
for this recording. We are doing this on a Thursday afternoon.
Later tonight, Chris will be on the sidelines in Sacramento.
(00:45):
But don't worry because I am joined by Absolute NBA
Broadcasting Royalty. In our midst we were colleagues together at
ESPN for several years. We covered some Olympic basketball together
in Rio in twenty sixteen. But basketball fans, real hoopeeds.
(01:05):
You know her as one of the faces of NBC's
wonderful coverage of the NBA in the nineties, throughout the
last dance glory days of the Chicago Bulls, and her
basketball journey actually stretches much farther back than that, all
the way back to the Red, White.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
And Blue ABA. She's going to cover it all.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
From the time that there were two professional basketball leagues
in this country to the modern day. It is all
found in her new long form podcast series, NBA DNA,
produced by iHeart all Right, I have babbled on long enough.
Let's just welcome her in, Hannah Storm. So great to
be with you again after a long long time.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I know, Mark, it's so great because I follow you
from Afar, but we haven't seen each other in person
for a while. But it's awesome to be chatting with
you again. We did have a lot of fun back
in the day at ESPN covering some of the same
events and you know, run it in all those same
(02:09):
basketball circles.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Thanks for having me, except now I think this interaction
might be the first where I am the one who
has to ask the questions.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So I know, I hope I am to the task.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But look, I have to say first, congratulations on this
podcast series, because you are doing something I hope to
do someday. I would love to do a long form
series that traces history. I love basketball history, and you're
taking it even farther back than my experience because you know,
I don't have any ABA stories to tell, so just
(02:40):
share with us.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Like what was the genesis behind even doing.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
This, well, for years, I have wanted to tell the
story of the ABA. My dad was the fifth commissioner
of the ABA, and he always used to tell us
all these stories growing up. He'd well, we were at
basketball games for as long as I can remember, when
it wasn't a school night. And that's why I actually
at a time when women were not sportscasters, it really
(03:06):
was not a career option. I was determined to do
sports because I had grown up around it. I just
associated sports with it was really fun, right, and I
was super, super comfortable with it, and it's something that
my dad and I always shared. And I was like
a lot of the people that were involved in the
ABA were getting older, and as I went on and
(03:28):
covered the NBA and of course understood at a very
visceral level everything in the NBA that's derivative of the
old ABA, I just really wanted to tell that story.
And I've done a lot of documentaries, I've directed and
so forth over the course of the last fifteen years.
And so when I brought this story to the NBA,
(03:50):
they said, can you just write us an essay about
your life in basketball, not just the ABA, but everything
that happened after that, and I said sure, so I
like banged out this essay and they said this is
really interesting and unusual and this could make a great podcast,
and so I partnered with them. And it's it's twelve parts,
(04:12):
probably could be a lot more than that. So it's
kind of like different, right because it's through my lens
and the things that I did. So there are teams,
like my first big full time job was Sean Hornet's
right their first year in existence, So we talked to
Rex Chapman and Del Curry like things that you don't
(04:32):
necessarily expect, you know, I just did a dream Team episode, right.
I came to NBC in ninety two to cover the Olympics.
That was my first big assignment then, so really fun.
But going all the way back to my childhood and
the ABA.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, and look, I don't want to ask you to
give away a bunch of secrets from the podcast, because.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I correct, I want people.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
To listen to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But it's commissioners commissioner's daughter. I don't know that I've
ever met a commissioner's dog. So and again, like I said,
my my basketball fandom started right right like the season
before the merger, so I I wish I had seen.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
The ABA, but I genuinely only know what I've read.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And that's one thing in basketball, we've done such a
poor job preserving history. And it's it really, you know,
the seventies, like there's just so you know, I always
complain that, you know, George Gervin and David Thompson had
the incredible scoring duel at the end of the seventy
seven seventy eight season, and there isn't one stitch of
footage of that, so ABA, it's even harder to touch
(05:35):
that history.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So just tell us what's.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Like to be, you know, in your formative years around
the ABA all the time.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
First of all, you are you are so right, which
is why it's perfect for a podcast because we do
have radio calls and such, including a very young Bob
Costas who was the left college to call games for
Saint Louis. But it's the stuff kind of of legend
and lore because they didn't have a television contract, so
it's the stuff that people didn't see. It really is
(06:04):
stories that were passed down and what it was was
incredibly free wheeling basketball and the players could do a
lot of things that were not allowed in the NBA,
like dunking the basketball, which was also not allowed in college,
or things that were not a part of the NBA.
Believe it or not, three pointers were not a part
(06:26):
of the game. It was much more like the kind
of basketball that you would see at Rutger Park or
that you would see, you know, quote unquote street basketball.
Very freewheeling, very entertaining, and the ABA didn't have money
from a television contract, so they had to make the
game itself entertaining. And they also brought in a lot
(06:47):
of players who weren't eligible for the NBA for some reason.
My dad was one of the architects of the quote
unquote hardship rule, which allowed players they did not have to.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Finish college to be able to go into the ABA.
You know, I e.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Doctor J So really fun, very loose, very wild, very
pushing the envelope from the halftime shows and cheerleaders and
all of that was derivative of the ABA to the Red,
white and Blue basketball. Just really free wheeling and you know,
(07:22):
kind of renegade.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Honestly. I mean, they wanted to merge with the.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
NBA at some point, and they wanted to prove that
their players were as good as the NBA players, and
they went after like all the NBA refs at the time,
and they they battled them toe to toe for some players.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
But I mean, it was just a bunch.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Of guys who were like, Hey, let's go for it
and maybe maybe someday.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
We'll get to merge with.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
The with the NBA, and let's have a good time
and entertain people in the process.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
At ESPN, I got to work with Chris Ramsey, who
son of the legendary doctor Jack Ramsey, and I was
a Buffalo Braves so doctor Jack having coach in Buffalo,
I used to always hit Chris up for stories. And
Chris once told me that as a kid, when Doctor
Jack was in Philadelphia, he had actually heard some trade
discussion at the house, revealed it to his school friend
(08:14):
and it actually got out from there. And this is
in the six lower Twitter or anything like that. So
I have to ask you, was there any were there
any ABA secrets you heard at home that you maybe
shared that you weren't supposed to share. How good were
you at secret keeping when you when you heard some
of the league gossip.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
I was a little kid for a lot of it.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
But I'll tell you one thing that stuck with me,
and that is what it is like when not only
when you win, but how painful it is when you
lose or when your.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Dad is run out of town. You know that happened.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
If people are holding up signs and I tell you what, Mark,
I have such an empathy slash appreciation slash understanding what
it takes to run about football franchise or any franchise.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
And we are so critical.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Of people and and sometimes even in the media, we like,
you know, we this guy should be fired and blah
blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I think it gave me a really well rounded view
of the business. But one of the things that my
dad always used to talk about was Operation Kingfish, which
is always a secret operation that they had to try
to lure Louel Cinder. Obviously later kareemail dul Jabbar try
to lure him too, the AVA and so there is
like this like secret document that my dad kept in
(09:35):
his desk and it had everything that they were going
to do and as legend, they did a psychological profile
of him. You know, they were going to go meet
with Leuel Cinder. What is it going to take to
get him to come to our league? You know what
is what resonates with him and George Miken had a
million dollars in a suitcase, but he left the meeting
(09:58):
so convinced that Leuwell's was coming to the ABA that
he never gave him the money. And then somebody from
the NBA gave him a million dollars and he went there,
you know, stuff like that. But like my dad, so
we had this document, this Operation Kingfish document which I've
actually seen, which he kept in his desk. But you
mentioned leaks, so somebody had gotten somebody was looking at
(10:22):
the document. He knew somebody, somebody had kind of seen
it or seen what was in it, right, so he
changed the document.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
He falsified the document to.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Say that secretly the ABA had already signed lou Al
Sinder and so it got out through whatever that leak
was that they had actually signed it, when of course
they didn't. But like crazy story, like no, no, no,
I was not the leak.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It was not me.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
But like I do remember sitting at the kitchen table
and like drawing up the pacers logo, Like how crazy
is that? And it's still the same logo, and I remember,
you know, all these guys would come over like Thanksgiving or.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Yeah, they had nowhere to go.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
They were hanging out at the house, Christmas party, stuff
like that. It was really fun. But it kind of
normalized athletes for me. So I was never at any
point in my career. I was never like starstruck really,
you know, being around athletes. They just felt like you know,
people that were at the house.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Well, that was the foundation for an absolutely incredible career.
You have literally covered everything, and I saw it just
came out today you're doing the Boston Marathon. Like I
don't know what major event there is that you have
not done, and like.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
I have not done that one.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Speaking for myself, like, you know, the era of specialization
really served me well because I'm like, you know, basketball, soccer, tennis,
a little bit of hockey and that's it. Like you,
but you've done like twenty sports. I remember running into
you at the US Open.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
You're doing tennis.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, But as you've said in many interviews, I know
the broadcasting world was not exactly teeming with opportunities for
women as you're making your way through the rank. So
at what point did it become real to you, when
did you see that this was actually possible.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
I mean I always saw that it was possible.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I just couldn't get other people to see it the
same way. And my dad always told me, he said,
because I back in the day, I sent out hundreds
of tapes and resumes and all of that, and you know,
you just could get rejection letters in the mail.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
I mean that was what you did.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
It.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
You're answering one ads, you're sending stuff out, and I
was just getting, like, I mean, dozens and dozens and
dozens of rejection letters and people saying, you know, you
should just be a feature reporter or something like that.
And my audience won't accept a woman, and my sports
director doesn't want to work with a woman. And you know,
nobody was very politically correct back then, so they just
(12:54):
they just said it like it was. But my dad
was like, you only need one yes, like you literally
only need one single person. So if you look at
the odds that way, somebody, there's gonna be one person
along the way. And I got my first full time
job in Charlotte, and I kind of got hired as
a gimmick because it was a new station and they
were trying all these crazy things, and they were like, wow,
what if we had a woman sportscaster. And I was like,
(13:16):
I'm there, awesome, I'm want me to learn NASCAR.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
And it was the first year of the Charlotte Hornets
and that was a pretty cool year because the NBA
came to town and I had covered in radio. You know,
I'd covered the Rockets and stuff like that in Houston.
I used to host the Rockets. I think when I
got a job part time in Houston hosting the Rockets
pregames and halftimes, and the same station carried the Astros
(13:41):
and you know that being in the mid eighties, and
those teams were really good. You know, they didn't win titles,
but they got close. I think then it became for me,
like I would say, Houston days really solidified. And then
when I got my first full time job in Charlotte,
and I was only there like a year and a half,
and then I got hired by CNN, and then that
was was really you know, the big leap was doing
(14:03):
late nights at CNN. And then at the time CNN
was like a viable like it was it was ESPN
versus CNN.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Like I became I mean that I first became aware
of you. I was in college, and I mean yeah,
every night, I mean every night late night like ESPN,
you know ESPN and CNN, Like we lived for those shows.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean those shows.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Now now an amazing play happens in the NBA and
it circulates literally within seconds to millions of social media.
But for our generation, like ESPN and CNN at night
are gonna have highlights from calves hornets. It was just
it was unbetable, you know, it was it was It
was such a game changer.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Man, And we did highlights from every single game every
single night. And then, I mean obviously then NBC got
so many properties. NBC got the Olympics, and they got
they got the NBA, they had the NFL, and NBC
need all of a sudden found itself like there was
like a triple cast for the Olympics. Like we need talent,
like we need it like it was nineteen ninety two,
(15:07):
Like we have all this stuff going on. And Dick Eversall,
who ran NBC Sports was he didn't sleep. He never slept,
so he watched late night television all the time.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Who was on late night?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I was on late night and so it was my
husband Dan Hicks at the time obviously not my husband.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
So Dick eversall saw me.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Like all the time and also saw Dan and he's
a guy who always thought out of the box. And
we separately got hired by NBC to do different things,
and hilariously, secretly we were like dating. No one knew
about it, and we both ended up going to NBC,
which was pretty cool. But it really was the NBA
(15:48):
on NBC where you know, everything came full circle. You
mentioned how different it was back then. We had five
games on a weekend when things got really really busy,
right the playoffs, we would do a doubleheader one day
and a triple header the next day, and that was it.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
That was the only place you'd go watch the NBA.
And that was the Jordan years.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
So this is literally the glory days of basketball.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
And I was hosting.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I was either hosting games or Bob was hosting games,
and if I wasn't, I was on the sidelines like
for all the great moments, like all the great games,
and it was just, yeah, talk about shit getting real.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah, that's when it got really really real.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
And I would see all these people who knew my dad.
I mean, it was just like unbelievable. It was just
like I just felt so at home.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Because you've been now with the ESPN for more than
fifteen years, so I'm guessing probably the longest stop of
your career. But it is those NBC years have to
be incredibly meaningful because it was, Yeah, it was such
it was such a seminal time. Yeah, for the fans,
for fans of the game, and I think people look
back on NBC's coverage with huge funness.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Now there's just a lot of nostalgia about it.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you look back at obviously
the Last Dance was incredibly successful because of Michael and
the Bulls, but we were the network that documented all
of that. And then obviously for me kind of really
being usedon kind of being my adopt at hometown and
then the Rockets winning back to back titles was incredible,
and I just think that obviously, when Magic and Bird
(17:26):
came into the NBA, that took the NBA to one level,
and then you know, Michael and I think you know
the Dream Team Barcelona that was just that was just
such a I mean there had never been anything like that.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
There never will be again.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
But when you look at the audience that watches the Olympics, right,
because those are a lot of your non traditional sports fans,
and you look at what the Olympics and the kind
of ratings that those got back in the day, and
so all those guys who would later go on to
battle it out in all those years following, you know,
(18:04):
because you had Stockton.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
And Malone, and you had you Ing, and you had.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
David Robinson, and you know, you had all those guys
like on that.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Dream team too.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
So I think that also just kind of like pushed
it along.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Selfishly.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I have to ask you this because you worked with
some real heavyweights at NBC, just legendary former players and coaches.
But I mean, you know what I do for a living,
so naturally my focus was the reporting of mister Vessi,
who is a one kind character in this league and
someone who has been a tremendous mentor to me. But
(18:50):
just I gotta ask, give me a tail or two
of Peter Vessi muckraking and causing some trouble with him.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I mean, his reporting was.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Okay, real Mark Peter Vessi is in the first three
episodes of this series. You know, one of my first
calls was Peter Vessi. Peter Vessi was so he was
in love with my mother. He liked my dad, He
covered my dad. But my mom was extremely She was,
(19:21):
you know, so glamorous. She always you know, dressed to
the nines for the game, She had her wigs, she
was just you know, she was a beauty. And so
Peter Vessi obviously never let me forget that my mother
was really the reason why he talked to my father
all the time. But you know, I mean, Peter's so
(19:44):
good in this series, Like he talks about coaching doctor
j at Rucker Park, like the Rucker Park days, which
are really cool, which everyone should know about. I mean,
talk about legendary stuff that wasn't you know, isn't on
video anywhere, right, And you know he was part of
the you know, so Peter and and you know Bob Costas,
I mean those guys who covered the ABA. I mean
(20:05):
they would go out with the players afterwards. I mean,
this wasn't and they would. They're they're flying commercial, they're
flying early flight, they're flying the cheapest flights possible, you know,
and Peter talks about like sleeping in. You know, whatever
clothes you were gonna wear on that plane the next day,
that's what you went out with the night before because
you were gonna have time. You know, you were never
(20:26):
gonna go to bed, you were never gonna be able
to change your clothes.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
And he was a good time and we had a
great time on NBC.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
He called me Hannah. He never called me Hannah, hannaer
And people just give me grief about it all the time.
And then Peter always had these sly, sarcastic one liners
that worked great in print, and then he would say
them on the air and then we would all like laugh,
but we knew the one liner was coming at the
end of everything.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
But I am telling you that guy scooped everybody. He
scooped everybody on everything. He pissed so many people off.
People were always mad him. I loved it. I love
every time.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
And he would give you this like sly little look
in his eyes, like you're not gonna believe what I have,
and then he would just boom drop this bomb on.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
The air like whatever it was, and uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And again it was the days of the Twitter.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
There's not even no Internet, like you could break news
on TV, like the Brian Hill, the magic, the magic
gonna fire, Brian Hill.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Just like incredible all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It couldn't happen. Now it just came.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
He knew, he knew everybody and everything, and I don't,
I don't know how. And he and we had this
tiny teeny we need little green room at NBC.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
And I mean we.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Were, like I said, we were on for tripleheaders, doubleheaders,
pregames post.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
I mean we were there for hours in there.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I have spent a giant, huge portion of my life
with him. He was in there, you know, Spider Sally,
Tom tomar Ziah Thomas, Quinn Buckner. I mean we had
all sorts of guys sort of in and out of
there as analysts, you know, doctor J. I mean all
sorts of people. And the one constant was Peter VESSI.
(22:08):
He was always there, always scooping, causing trouble man, big trouble.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So what is the secret though, to doing like fifteen
other sports on top of basketball?
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Oh, I don't. I guess work in somewhere that has
all those sports. I don't know. I'm a big homework person.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
People always kind of tease me or if they don't
know me that well, Like I'm like, I drilled down
on everything.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
So for me, I just figure, you know what I
think as.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
A woman, I came in and I was like, I
can learn this stuff. And NASCAR really taught me that,
you know what I mean, Like Witch to Charlotte through,
You're you're gonna do NASCAR specials, You're going to cover
NASCAR full time. I barely knew, like I didn't know
anything about it, but I was like, if you study
hard enough and you ask questions, you can learn it,
you know what I mean, if you're willing to put
(22:57):
in the work.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
And so I guess I've all that way about basically.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Every sport, every event I've ever done, and that's just
kind of how I approach it. And then you know,
if I study really hard enough and I ask enough
questions and all of that, and once I get there,
I feel comfortable and then I can relax and cover it.
But you know what sports is. You and I are smart,
but you know what, it's not brain surgery. It's really not,
(23:23):
and it's not Sports isn't really like some secret language
that only certain people can speak.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
But what it is, though, is it is something that
everyone cares about so deferent yes, so much more than
almost anything else in life.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
And that's what gets people angry.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
It's sports and music. It's I think music, right.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
It's like most team owners, you know, I think when
they come into the sports world from the business world.
You they might have made bazillions of dollars in business,
but they never work. They're never in the spotlight like
they are owning sports teams and that, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I mean, some handle it better than others, and some
I've never out of my group phone they didn't like
and maybe they should back off.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
But yeah, being a team owner, sometimes I just sit
there and I hear the salaries, and you know, I
was just like kind of listening about, you know, sort
of what was happening with the Timberwolves, and I was
just like, man to like write those checks, Like wow,
I don't know, you have to be like a certain
certain kind of person to just write those checks and
(24:27):
take so much grief and also lose a lot, because
you lose a lot more than you win. You know,
you could go through your whole career and not get
that championship and not get the success that you want,
and you got to be okay with that, because that's
just the reality.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I'm sure you're sought quite a bit, sought out by
young women who want to do some of the things
in the business that you've been able to do. I mean,
it's probably not easy to just generally say what is
your best advice? But what kinds of things do you say?
You know, that's something I struggle with. I have, you know,
a lot of young people who ask me for advice,
(25:07):
and that business has changed so much and so much
so many of them, you know, there's just so much
less media, there's so fewer places to go than there
were when when we were trying to get started. So like,
if I ask you to maybe give us some words
of encouragement to the aspiring youth of today, what are
some of the things you tell students who seek you
(25:29):
out for advice.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
I mean, I do think there's in some ways more opportunities,
like you don't just have to like I had to
go to, you know, a radio station to start off right,
or you know, I couldn't get a job in TV,
you know, and so I started off in.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Radio my first two jobs.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
But I do think like there are more opportunities obviously
with all the expanding media and and I think we've
seen it and how successful people can be in different
areas like you know that do monetize like a YouTube,
you know, and there is still a ton of radio,
and there's satellite radio, and there's podcasts here we are
(26:11):
yay you and me, and thank God for that, and
you know, there are opportunities out there. I would say,
you know, I always tell people that there's no substitute
for hard work, and that's very very boring answer, it
is very very true. I do think the thing that
plagues young people today is I think rejection is so
(26:36):
much a part of their lives because they put themselves
out on social media and Instagram and things like that,
where people can be really cruel, and I think that,
you know, I think you have.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
To be okay with rejection.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I think you have to be okay with the fact
that you're going to get a lot more knows than
you are. Yes is, but you still have to put
yourself out there. And I do think that people are
little bit afraid young people at times to take risks
and put themselves out there and taking risks and doing
things that might not be exactly what you want, but
it might be a path to getting there. And being
(27:11):
open minded about it is really huge. I mean, if
I didn't put myself out there and take risks like
I never would have called NFL games for four years
at Amazon, Like that just wouldn't have happened, you know,
something that seemed terrifying but was an opportunity, and I
was like, Okay, I'm going to do this. You know,
sometimes it's hard to take a leap of faith like
that and or believe in yourself or believe that you
(27:33):
can do it.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
You can learn it.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
And I would just say, you know, to try to
get comfortable with the fact that not everybody's going to
like you.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
They're not going to see your vision.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
But if you see it, that's enough, you know, and
that's okay, and just man keep at it.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
When you say radio you started off as.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
A heavy metal DJ, really, yeah, That's where I got
my name. So I had done I had actually had
a really nice television reel coming out of college. But again,
no nobody was hiring a girl. They just weren't doing it,
and they just weren't going to do it, you know.
And again I got told over and over you know,
my audience doesn't want this, like this isn't happening, you know,
(28:15):
do something different, blah blah blah. But I had done,
you know, a good amount of work at Notre Dame,
and through the four years they had done a ton.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Of internships and stuff. So I was like. My dad
was like, hey, Hannah li In, it's my middle name.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
There's a lot more radio stations in the country than
TV stations.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
And I was like, you're right, dad, And.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
So I there were a couple of publications back then,
broadcasting magazine and radio and records, and they both had
one ads, and so I started, I went, I just
made a radio tape, just made a tape. And I
had done some radio and college. I had DJed and
I had a sports radio talk show at our local
Notre Dame station. So I was like, all right, So
I did sports tape and I did a DJ tape,
(28:54):
just made one up, started sending those out.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
I got two job offers.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
One was for a station in somewhere into San Angelo, Texas,
and the other one was for a heavy metal rock
station of Corpus Christy will come on, I mean rock
was going to be a lot more fun, So I.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Was like going down to Corpus Christy.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
They changed my aim. My name is Hannah Storn. They
changed it to Hannah Storm and it was stormed by
the c C one oh one headbanger era. I played
like Quiet Riot, like Motley Crue, Hagar, Shaun Eyrinson and Strieve,
you know, scorpions, like back to back to back Death Leopard,
Quiet Riot.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
You get the idea, can we get some of that
audio in this podcast?
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I believe it is going to make its way in
because that story is there in the podcast.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
So yes, because I mean, you know, so every one
of our.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Podcast episodes has what's called a cold open, so it
kind of opens with something like a story or whatever.
So my first one is the story of me and
Charles and incident that happened when I was at NBC
and he's we're really good friends now I remember, you
know that incident. The second one is about the movie
(30:10):
like Mike, and the third one.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Is the story of like DJ Days and you know,
like all of that. So it's really fun.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
We're not going to do the Charles story here. Let's
save that.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Yeah, yea, yeah, no, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
It's awesome, and but but yeah, but but you know,
my voice was a lot higher.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And like now that i'm they have some old clips
and stuff.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I like my voice is like I guess your voice
gets lower as you get older.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Charles sounds way different years later than he did.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yeah, he his voice was very high. And I guess
maybe we all I guess I guess.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Mark.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
I'm sure if you listened to your voice like back
in the day, the octaves would be higher. I think
that's one of the things that gets like more mellow
and beautiful, you know, with.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Age, is your voice.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
But but yeah, that was me.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
I was like headbangerri era man. I loved it.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
And then and then I got my first job in
Houston doing morning and afternoon drive sports, but I was
still spinning records on the weekends, and that was at
ninety seven Rock, which was a legendary Houston rock station
Kick Ass Rock and Roll KSRR Houston.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
So you know, we've mentioned your dad many times here,
and as you said, you know, Mike Storen, former commissioner
of the ABA, your last name is actually Storin. But
so basically what you're saying is the station just said
you are now hannahs Storm and you had to roll
with it.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Well, they said, first of all, Storin does not translate
like storin like they're like, But then, nobody was named
Hannah at the time. There were literally no Hannahs. And
I was named after my mom and my grandma. Now
it's super popular. So they said, we would like you
to be Anna Storm, and I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
I'll change one of my names.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
But I'm like, I don't want to like completely lose
myself and be Anna Storm, Like can I be Hannah?
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Can you? And they're like, oh, okay, whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And so you know when you have a baby and
they have all the baby names in there and they say, well,
this person has that name, right, like this celebrity has
that name. For a long time, I was like the
only Hannah. It was like the next to baby Hannah.
It was like Hannah Storm sportscaster because it just wasn't
like a nobody was named Hannah. Now we've got all
these great especially like all these girls in the NCAA
(32:16):
tournament there were tons of Hannahs, but especially Hannah Hadagah
my favorite.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
But yeah, so that was it Anna Storm, but Hannah Storm.
So that's how I got I.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Have a TV name, and people always joke like you
should do weather.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's amazing that it just like they just tell you
and that's the way it is.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
And oh, I mean I've been told like die your
hair blonde, you know, wear dress, don't wear you know, pants,
wear hair long, don't wear dangly earrings. Do you know?
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Like listen, I.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Mean I came up, you know, back in the day
when you know, like I said, a lot of people
said and a lot of things that you know, they
probably wouldn't say today. But yes, I have been told many, many,
many things about you know everything.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Well, look, in our short time together, you've told several
great stories. And if you enjoyed this, you can listen
to the NBA DNA podcast series, twelve episodes worth of
stories like this from Hannah Storm, who has been around
professional basketball since the seventies, all the way back to.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
The ABA, a league that I sadly did not get
to experience firsthand.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
But now I'm going to listen to this podcast and yeah,
try to learn about it. And like you said, you know,
you've got Bob Costas on there, You've got Peter Vessi
on there. These guys are champions of the Doctor j
They all are champions of ABA history and it's you.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
No.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I am always going.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
To urge listeners please learn the league did not start
with Michael Jordan. Please go back in time and learn
some of these lessons and let me let me just say,
this is my chance to say thank you to you.
I don't know if you remember this, but for me
in Rio, I was doing both TV and writing, and
so it was it was constant. I mean, the days
were really really long, and I am the worst morning
(34:13):
person ever. The sports centers you were hosting were always
in the morning, and I'm up late at night covering
games and writing. But I remember that mister Woodtalka, our producer,
said hey, you know, Hannah, Hannah really needs Hannah really
wants you to join her for this morning segment.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
So when once I heard that, then sleep.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Was sleep was off the table because that was that
was a very high sorry, that was a very high
compliment to hear that you did insisting that I should
join you.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
So thank you.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
I did.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Well.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
You were amazing, and you know, we really kind of.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Smushed a lot of our Olympic programming into like these
special hours, so you know, it was really important to.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Have you there, and I mean you were like a
one man band. Man. I don't know how you did it.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I do not know how you did it because you
were you were everything. Like you were like one person
covering an entire Olympic basketball.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Series and that was it. That was a really.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Special I remember, like you know, interviewing coach k and
some of the players leading up to that. That was
a really cool It was a cool team.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
It was a really interesting experience. Well, we'll talk about
Rio another time on our next podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Let's definitely do it again.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Seriously, congratulations on this, Thank you this podcast. And let
me also say, you know, you recently revealed your battle
with breast cancer, and I can't even imagine what that
was like for you to do. You're a public person,
so I mean it must make it twenty five times harder.
And I really just wanted to send you all the
best wishes. And you have a zillion fans out there
who love you, and I just again wanted to send
(35:46):
you all.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
The best wishes and.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
You're the best. Don't don't feeling great.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Don't have a don't have a elegant way to say it,
but just.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
You know, what there. You know, the thing is there.
You don't have to have an elegant way to say it.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Like what you said was incredible, and people are like,
I don't know what to say, and I'm like, say anything,
say anything, just same thinking of you whatever, whatever you
want to say. Like just what you said was beautiful
and perfect and it wasn't easy, but I want I
just want people to get out there and you know,
get tested, like get their mammograms, do what you're supposed
(36:20):
to do. And for guys, you know, if there's a woman,
a person that you love in your family, you know,
obviously men have a history of breast cancer too.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
You know they have to be very careful.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
But you know, just make sure whoever that person is
in your life, support them however you can, and make
sure they're getting tested because it really really does save lives.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Everybody, listen to Hannah Storm on matters of life and basketball.
All right, that is going to do it for this
edition of This League Uncut. Like I told you from
the jump, Chris Haynes missed out the legendary with us here. Everybody,
you know what to do, follow the show, rate the show,
review the show, and listen to Hannah Storm's NBA DNA,
(37:02):
a twelve part podcast series produced by iHeart Chris and
I'll be back together with you very soon.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Thanks for listening everyone, and that'll do it for us.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
This league un Cutters and iHeartRadio production Chris Hanes and
Mark Stein
Welcome to this League uncut in the rule.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of twenty four hour NBA News.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is you, Chris Haynes. It's time, work's time, it's
some time. This League uncut is underway in on fire.
This should be a good one.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Welcome in everyone to the latest edition of this League Uncut,
A very special edition of this League Uncut. I have
to say from the jump, Chris Haynes is not here
for this recording. We are doing this on a Thursday afternoon.
Later tonight, Chris will be on the sidelines in Sacramento.
(00:45):
But don't worry because I am joined by Absolute NBA
Broadcasting Royalty. In our midst we were colleagues together at
ESPN for several years. We covered some Olympic basketball together
in Rio in twenty sixteen. But basketball fans, real hoopeeds.
(01:05):
You know her as one of the faces of NBC's
wonderful coverage of the NBA in the nineties, throughout the
last dance glory days of the Chicago Bulls, and her
basketball journey actually stretches much farther back than that, all
the way back to the Red, White.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
And Blue ABA. She's going to cover it all.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
From the time that there were two professional basketball leagues
in this country to the modern day. It is all
found in her new long form podcast series, NBA DNA,
produced by iHeart all Right, I have babbled on long enough.
Let's just welcome her in, Hannah Storm. So great to
be with you again after a long long time.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I know, Mark, it's so great because I follow you
from Afar, but we haven't seen each other in person
for a while. But it's awesome to be chatting with
you again. We did have a lot of fun back
in the day at ESPN covering some of the same
events and you know, run it in all those same
(02:09):
basketball circles.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Thanks for having me, except now I think this interaction
might be the first where I am the one who
has to ask the questions.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So I know, I hope I am to the task.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But look, I have to say first, congratulations on this
podcast series, because you are doing something I hope to
do someday. I would love to do a long form
series that traces history. I love basketball history, and you're
taking it even farther back than my experience because you know,
I don't have any ABA stories to tell, so just
(02:40):
share with us.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Like what was the genesis behind even doing.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
This, well, for years, I have wanted to tell the
story of the ABA. My dad was the fifth commissioner
of the ABA, and he always used to tell us
all these stories growing up. He'd well, we were at
basketball games for as long as I can remember, when
it wasn't a school night. And that's why I actually
at a time when women were not sportscasters, it really
(03:06):
was not a career option. I was determined to do
sports because I had grown up around it. I just
associated sports with it was really fun, right, and I
was super, super comfortable with it, and it's something that
my dad and I always shared. And I was like
a lot of the people that were involved in the
ABA were getting older, and as I went on and
(03:28):
covered the NBA and of course understood at a very
visceral level everything in the NBA that's derivative of the
old ABA, I just really wanted to tell that story.
And I've done a lot of documentaries, I've directed and
so forth over the course of the last fifteen years.
And so when I brought this story to the NBA,
(03:50):
they said, can you just write us an essay about
your life in basketball, not just the ABA, but everything
that happened after that, and I said sure, so I
like banged out this essay and they said this is
really interesting and unusual and this could make a great podcast,
and so I partnered with them. And it's it's twelve parts,
(04:12):
probably could be a lot more than that. So it's
kind of like different, right because it's through my lens
and the things that I did. So there are teams,
like my first big full time job was Sean Hornet's
right their first year in existence, So we talked to
Rex Chapman and Del Curry like things that you don't
(04:32):
necessarily expect, you know, I just did a dream Team episode, right.
I came to NBC in ninety two to cover the Olympics.
That was my first big assignment then, so really fun.
But going all the way back to my childhood and
the ABA.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, and look, I don't want to ask you to
give away a bunch of secrets from the podcast, because.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I correct, I want people.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
To listen to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But it's commissioners commissioner's daughter. I don't know that I've
ever met a commissioner's dog. So and again, like I said,
my my basketball fandom started right right like the season
before the merger, so I I wish I had seen.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
The ABA, but I genuinely only know what I've read.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And that's one thing in basketball, we've done such a
poor job preserving history. And it's it really, you know,
the seventies, like there's just so you know, I always
complain that, you know, George Gervin and David Thompson had
the incredible scoring duel at the end of the seventy
seven seventy eight season, and there isn't one stitch of
footage of that, so ABA, it's even harder to touch
(05:35):
that history.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So just tell us what's.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Like to be, you know, in your formative years around
the ABA all the time.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
First of all, you are you are so right, which
is why it's perfect for a podcast because we do
have radio calls and such, including a very young Bob
Costas who was the left college to call games for
Saint Louis. But it's the stuff kind of of legend
and lore because they didn't have a television contract, so
it's the stuff that people didn't see. It really is
(06:04):
stories that were passed down and what it was was
incredibly free wheeling basketball and the players could do a
lot of things that were not allowed in the NBA,
like dunking the basketball, which was also not allowed in college,
or things that were not a part of the NBA.
Believe it or not, three pointers were not a part
(06:26):
of the game. It was much more like the kind
of basketball that you would see at Rutger Park or
that you would see, you know, quote unquote street basketball.
Very freewheeling, very entertaining, and the ABA didn't have money
from a television contract, so they had to make the
game itself entertaining. And they also brought in a lot
(06:47):
of players who weren't eligible for the NBA for some reason.
My dad was one of the architects of the quote
unquote hardship rule, which allowed players they did not have to.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Finish college to be able to go into the ABA.
You know, I e.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Doctor J So really fun, very loose, very wild, very
pushing the envelope from the halftime shows and cheerleaders and
all of that was derivative of the ABA to the Red,
white and Blue basketball. Just really free wheeling and you know,
(07:22):
kind of renegade.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Honestly. I mean, they wanted to merge with the.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
NBA at some point, and they wanted to prove that
their players were as good as the NBA players, and
they went after like all the NBA refs at the time,
and they they battled them toe to toe for some players.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
But I mean, it was just a bunch.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Of guys who were like, Hey, let's go for it
and maybe maybe someday.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
We'll get to merge with.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
The with the NBA, and let's have a good time
and entertain people in the process.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
At ESPN, I got to work with Chris Ramsey, who
son of the legendary doctor Jack Ramsey, and I was
a Buffalo Braves so doctor Jack having coach in Buffalo,
I used to always hit Chris up for stories. And
Chris once told me that as a kid, when Doctor
Jack was in Philadelphia, he had actually heard some trade
discussion at the house, revealed it to his school friend
(08:14):
and it actually got out from there. And this is
in the six lower Twitter or anything like that. So
I have to ask you, was there any were there
any ABA secrets you heard at home that you maybe
shared that you weren't supposed to share. How good were
you at secret keeping when you when you heard some
of the league gossip.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
I was a little kid for a lot of it.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
But I'll tell you one thing that stuck with me,
and that is what it is like when not only
when you win, but how painful it is when you
lose or when your.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Dad is run out of town. You know that happened.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
If people are holding up signs and I tell you what, Mark,
I have such an empathy slash appreciation slash understanding what
it takes to run about football franchise or any franchise.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
And we are so critical.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Of people and and sometimes even in the media, we like,
you know, we this guy should be fired and blah
blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I think it gave me a really well rounded view
of the business. But one of the things that my
dad always used to talk about was Operation Kingfish, which
is always a secret operation that they had to try
to lure Louel Cinder. Obviously later kareemail dul Jabbar try
to lure him too, the AVA and so there is
like this like secret document that my dad kept in
(09:35):
his desk and it had everything that they were going
to do and as legend, they did a psychological profile
of him. You know, they were going to go meet
with Leuel Cinder. What is it going to take to
get him to come to our league? You know what
is what resonates with him and George Miken had a
million dollars in a suitcase, but he left the meeting
(09:58):
so convinced that Leuwell's was coming to the ABA that
he never gave him the money. And then somebody from
the NBA gave him a million dollars and he went there,
you know, stuff like that. But like my dad, so
we had this document, this Operation Kingfish document which I've
actually seen, which he kept in his desk. But you
mentioned leaks, so somebody had gotten somebody was looking at
(10:22):
the document. He knew somebody, somebody had kind of seen
it or seen what was in it, right, so he
changed the document.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
He falsified the document to.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Say that secretly the ABA had already signed lou Al
Sinder and so it got out through whatever that leak
was that they had actually signed it, when of course
they didn't. But like crazy story, like no, no, no,
I was not the leak.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It was not me.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
But like I do remember sitting at the kitchen table
and like drawing up the pacers logo, Like how crazy
is that? And it's still the same logo, and I remember,
you know, all these guys would come over like Thanksgiving or.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Yeah, they had nowhere to go.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
They were hanging out at the house, Christmas party, stuff
like that. It was really fun. But it kind of
normalized athletes for me. So I was never at any
point in my career. I was never like starstruck really,
you know, being around athletes. They just felt like you know,
people that were at the house.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Well, that was the foundation for an absolutely incredible career.
You have literally covered everything, and I saw it just
came out today you're doing the Boston Marathon. Like I
don't know what major event there is that you have
not done, and like.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
I have not done that one.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Speaking for myself, like, you know, the era of specialization
really served me well because I'm like, you know, basketball, soccer, tennis,
a little bit of hockey and that's it. Like you,
but you've done like twenty sports. I remember running into
you at the US Open.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
You're doing tennis.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, But as you've said in many interviews, I know
the broadcasting world was not exactly teeming with opportunities for
women as you're making your way through the rank. So
at what point did it become real to you, when
did you see that this was actually possible.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
I mean I always saw that it was possible.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I just couldn't get other people to see it the
same way. And my dad always told me, he said,
because I back in the day, I sent out hundreds
of tapes and resumes and all of that, and you know,
you just could get rejection letters in the mail.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
I mean that was what you did.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
It.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
You're answering one ads, you're sending stuff out, and I
was just getting, like, I mean, dozens and dozens and
dozens of rejection letters and people saying, you know, you
should just be a feature reporter or something like that.
And my audience won't accept a woman, and my sports
director doesn't want to work with a woman. And you know,
nobody was very politically correct back then, so they just
(12:54):
they just said it like it was. But my dad
was like, you only need one yes, like you literally
only need one single person. So if you look at
the odds that way, somebody, there's gonna be one person
along the way. And I got my first full time
job in Charlotte, and I kind of got hired as
a gimmick because it was a new station and they
were trying all these crazy things, and they were like, wow,
what if we had a woman sportscaster. And I was like,
(13:16):
I'm there, awesome, I'm want me to learn NASCAR.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
And it was the first year of the Charlotte Hornets
and that was a pretty cool year because the NBA
came to town and I had covered in radio. You know,
I'd covered the Rockets and stuff like that in Houston.
I used to host the Rockets. I think when I
got a job part time in Houston hosting the Rockets
pregames and halftimes, and the same station carried the Astros
(13:41):
and you know that being in the mid eighties, and
those teams were really good. You know, they didn't win titles,
but they got close. I think then it became for me,
like I would say, Houston days really solidified. And then
when I got my first full time job in Charlotte,
and I was only there like a year and a half,
and then I got hired by CNN, and then that
was was really you know, the big leap was doing
(14:03):
late nights at CNN. And then at the time CNN
was like a viable like it was it was ESPN
versus CNN.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Like I became I mean that I first became aware
of you. I was in college, and I mean yeah,
every night, I mean every night late night like ESPN,
you know ESPN and CNN, Like we lived for those shows.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean those shows.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Now now an amazing play happens in the NBA and
it circulates literally within seconds to millions of social media.
But for our generation, like ESPN and CNN at night
are gonna have highlights from calves hornets. It was just
it was unbetable, you know, it was it was It
was such a game changer.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Man, And we did highlights from every single game every
single night. And then, I mean obviously then NBC got
so many properties. NBC got the Olympics, and they got
they got the NBA, they had the NFL, and NBC
need all of a sudden found itself like there was
like a triple cast for the Olympics. Like we need talent,
like we need it like it was nineteen ninety two,
(15:07):
Like we have all this stuff going on. And Dick Eversall,
who ran NBC Sports was he didn't sleep. He never slept,
so he watched late night television all the time.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Who was on late night?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I was on late night and so it was my
husband Dan Hicks at the time obviously not my husband.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
So Dick eversall saw me.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Like all the time and also saw Dan and he's
a guy who always thought out of the box. And
we separately got hired by NBC to do different things,
and hilariously, secretly we were like dating. No one knew
about it, and we both ended up going to NBC,
which was pretty cool. But it really was the NBA
(15:48):
on NBC where you know, everything came full circle. You
mentioned how different it was back then. We had five
games on a weekend when things got really really busy,
right the playoffs, we would do a doubleheader one day
and a triple header the next day, and that was it.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
That was the only place you'd go watch the NBA.
And that was the Jordan years.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
So this is literally the glory days of basketball.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
And I was hosting.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I was either hosting games or Bob was hosting games,
and if I wasn't, I was on the sidelines like
for all the great moments, like all the great games,
and it was just, yeah, talk about shit getting real.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah, that's when it got really really real.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
And I would see all these people who knew my dad.
I mean, it was just like unbelievable. It was just
like I just felt so at home.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Because you've been now with the ESPN for more than
fifteen years, so I'm guessing probably the longest stop of
your career. But it is those NBC years have to
be incredibly meaningful because it was, Yeah, it was such
it was such a seminal time. Yeah, for the fans,
for fans of the game, and I think people look
back on NBC's coverage with huge funness.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Now there's just a lot of nostalgia about it.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you look back at obviously
the Last Dance was incredibly successful because of Michael and
the Bulls, but we were the network that documented all
of that. And then obviously for me kind of really
being usedon kind of being my adopt at hometown and
then the Rockets winning back to back titles was incredible,
and I just think that obviously, when Magic and Bird
(17:26):
came into the NBA, that took the NBA to one level,
and then you know, Michael and I think you know
the Dream Team Barcelona that was just that was just
such a I mean there had never been anything like that.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
There never will be again.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
But when you look at the audience that watches the Olympics, right,
because those are a lot of your non traditional sports fans,
and you look at what the Olympics and the kind
of ratings that those got back in the day, and
so all those guys who would later go on to
battle it out in all those years following, you know,
(18:04):
because you had Stockton.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
And Malone, and you had you Ing, and you had.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
David Robinson, and you know, you had all those guys
like on that.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Dream team too.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
So I think that also just kind of like pushed
it along.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Selfishly.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I have to ask you this because you worked with
some real heavyweights at NBC, just legendary former players and coaches.
But I mean, you know what I do for a living,
so naturally my focus was the reporting of mister Vessi,
who is a one kind character in this league and
someone who has been a tremendous mentor to me. But
(18:50):
just I gotta ask, give me a tail or two
of Peter Vessi muckraking and causing some trouble with him.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I mean, his reporting was.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Okay, real Mark Peter Vessi is in the first three
episodes of this series. You know, one of my first
calls was Peter Vessi. Peter Vessi was so he was
in love with my mother. He liked my dad, He
covered my dad. But my mom was extremely She was,
(19:21):
you know, so glamorous. She always you know, dressed to
the nines for the game, She had her wigs, she
was just you know, she was a beauty. And so
Peter Vessi obviously never let me forget that my mother
was really the reason why he talked to my father
all the time. But you know, I mean, Peter's so
(19:44):
good in this series, Like he talks about coaching doctor
j at Rucker Park, like the Rucker Park days, which
are really cool, which everyone should know about. I mean,
talk about legendary stuff that wasn't you know, isn't on
video anywhere, right, And you know he was part of
the you know, so Peter and and you know Bob Costas,
I mean those guys who covered the ABA. I mean
(20:05):
they would go out with the players afterwards. I mean,
this wasn't and they would. They're they're flying commercial, they're
flying early flight, they're flying the cheapest flights possible, you know,
and Peter talks about like sleeping in. You know, whatever
clothes you were gonna wear on that plane the next day,
that's what you went out with the night before because
you were gonna have time. You know, you were never
(20:26):
gonna go to bed, you were never gonna be able
to change your clothes.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
And he was a good time and we had a
great time on NBC.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
He called me Hannah. He never called me Hannah, hannaer
And people just give me grief about it all the time.
And then Peter always had these sly, sarcastic one liners
that worked great in print, and then he would say
them on the air and then we would all like laugh,
but we knew the one liner was coming at the
end of everything.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
But I am telling you that guy scooped everybody. He
scooped everybody on everything. He pissed so many people off.
People were always mad him. I loved it. I love
every time.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
And he would give you this like sly little look
in his eyes, like you're not gonna believe what I have,
and then he would just boom drop this bomb on.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
The air like whatever it was, and uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And again it was the days of the Twitter.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
There's not even no Internet, like you could break news
on TV, like the Brian Hill, the magic, the magic
gonna fire, Brian Hill.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Just like incredible all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It couldn't happen. Now it just came.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
He knew, he knew everybody and everything, and I don't,
I don't know how. And he and we had this
tiny teeny we need little green room at NBC.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
And I mean we.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Were, like I said, we were on for tripleheaders, doubleheaders,
pregames post.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
I mean we were there for hours in there.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I have spent a giant, huge portion of my life
with him. He was in there, you know, Spider Sally,
Tom tomar Ziah Thomas, Quinn Buckner. I mean we had
all sorts of guys sort of in and out of
there as analysts, you know, doctor J. I mean all
sorts of people. And the one constant was Peter VESSI.
(22:08):
He was always there, always scooping, causing trouble man, big trouble.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So what is the secret though, to doing like fifteen
other sports on top of basketball?
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Oh, I don't. I guess work in somewhere that has
all those sports. I don't know. I'm a big homework person.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
People always kind of tease me or if they don't
know me that well, Like I'm like, I drilled down
on everything.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
So for me, I just figure, you know what I
think as.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
A woman, I came in and I was like, I
can learn this stuff. And NASCAR really taught me that,
you know what I mean, Like Witch to Charlotte through,
You're you're gonna do NASCAR specials, You're going to cover
NASCAR full time. I barely knew, like I didn't know
anything about it, but I was like, if you study
hard enough and you ask questions, you can learn it,
you know what I mean, if you're willing to put
(22:57):
in the work.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
And so I guess I've all that way about basically.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Every sport, every event I've ever done, and that's just
kind of how I approach it. And then you know,
if I study really hard enough and I ask enough
questions and all of that, and once I get there,
I feel comfortable and then I can relax and cover it.
But you know what sports is. You and I are smart,
but you know what, it's not brain surgery. It's really not,
(23:23):
and it's not Sports isn't really like some secret language
that only certain people can speak.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
But what it is, though, is it is something that
everyone cares about so deferent yes, so much more than
almost anything else in life.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
And that's what gets people angry.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
It's sports and music. It's I think music, right.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
It's like most team owners, you know, I think when
they come into the sports world from the business world.
You they might have made bazillions of dollars in business,
but they never work. They're never in the spotlight like
they are owning sports teams and that, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I mean, some handle it better than others, and some
I've never out of my group phone they didn't like
and maybe they should back off.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
But yeah, being a team owner, sometimes I just sit
there and I hear the salaries, and you know, I
was just like kind of listening about, you know, sort
of what was happening with the Timberwolves, and I was
just like, man to like write those checks, Like wow,
I don't know, you have to be like a certain
certain kind of person to just write those checks and
(24:27):
take so much grief and also lose a lot, because
you lose a lot more than you win. You know,
you could go through your whole career and not get
that championship and not get the success that you want,
and you got to be okay with that, because that's
just the reality.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I'm sure you're sought quite a bit, sought out by
young women who want to do some of the things
in the business that you've been able to do. I mean,
it's probably not easy to just generally say what is
your best advice? But what kinds of things do you say?
You know, that's something I struggle with. I have, you know,
a lot of young people who ask me for advice,
(25:07):
and that business has changed so much and so much
so many of them, you know, there's just so much
less media, there's so fewer places to go than there
were when when we were trying to get started. So like,
if I ask you to maybe give us some words
of encouragement to the aspiring youth of today, what are
some of the things you tell students who seek you
(25:29):
out for advice.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
I mean, I do think there's in some ways more opportunities,
like you don't just have to like I had to
go to, you know, a radio station to start off right,
or you know, I couldn't get a job in TV,
you know, and so I started off in.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Radio my first two jobs.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
But I do think like there are more opportunities obviously
with all the expanding media and and I think we've
seen it and how successful people can be in different
areas like you know that do monetize like a YouTube,
you know, and there is still a ton of radio,
and there's satellite radio, and there's podcasts here we are
(26:11):
yay you and me, and thank God for that, and
you know, there are opportunities out there. I would say,
you know, I always tell people that there's no substitute
for hard work, and that's very very boring answer, it
is very very true. I do think the thing that
plagues young people today is I think rejection is so
(26:36):
much a part of their lives because they put themselves
out on social media and Instagram and things like that,
where people can be really cruel, and I think that,
you know, I think you have.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
To be okay with rejection.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I think you have to be okay with the fact
that you're going to get a lot more knows than
you are. Yes is, but you still have to put
yourself out there. And I do think that people are
little bit afraid young people at times to take risks
and put themselves out there and taking risks and doing
things that might not be exactly what you want, but
it might be a path to getting there. And being
(27:11):
open minded about it is really huge. I mean, if
I didn't put myself out there and take risks like
I never would have called NFL games for four years
at Amazon, Like that just wouldn't have happened, you know,
something that seemed terrifying but was an opportunity, and I
was like, Okay, I'm going to do this. You know,
sometimes it's hard to take a leap of faith like
that and or believe in yourself or believe that you
(27:33):
can do it.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
You can learn it.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
And I would just say, you know, to try to
get comfortable with the fact that not everybody's going to
like you.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
They're not going to see your vision.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
But if you see it, that's enough, you know, and
that's okay, and just man keep at it.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
When you say radio you started off as.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
A heavy metal DJ, really, yeah, That's where I got
my name. So I had done I had actually had
a really nice television reel coming out of college. But again,
no nobody was hiring a girl. They just weren't doing it,
and they just weren't going to do it, you know.
And again I got told over and over you know,
my audience doesn't want this, like this isn't happening, you know,
(28:15):
do something different, blah blah blah. But I had done,
you know, a good amount of work at Notre Dame,
and through the four years they had done a ton.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Of internships and stuff. So I was like. My dad
was like, hey, Hannah li In, it's my middle name.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
There's a lot more radio stations in the country than
TV stations.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
And I was like, you're right, dad, And.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
So I there were a couple of publications back then,
broadcasting magazine and radio and records, and they both had
one ads, and so I started, I went, I just
made a radio tape, just made a tape. And I
had done some radio and college. I had DJed and
I had a sports radio talk show at our local
Notre Dame station. So I was like, all right, So
I did sports tape and I did a DJ tape,
(28:54):
just made one up, started sending those out.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
I got two job offers.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
One was for a station in somewhere into San Angelo, Texas,
and the other one was for a heavy metal rock
station of Corpus Christy will come on, I mean rock
was going to be a lot more fun, So I.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Was like going down to Corpus Christy.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
They changed my aim. My name is Hannah Storn. They
changed it to Hannah Storm and it was stormed by
the c C one oh one headbanger era. I played
like Quiet Riot, like Motley Crue, Hagar, Shaun Eyrinson and Strieve,
you know, scorpions, like back to back to back Death Leopard,
Quiet Riot.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
You get the idea, can we get some of that
audio in this podcast?
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I believe it is going to make its way in
because that story is there in the podcast.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
So yes, because I mean, you know, so every one
of our.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Podcast episodes has what's called a cold open, so it
kind of opens with something like a story or whatever.
So my first one is the story of me and
Charles and incident that happened when I was at NBC
and he's we're really good friends now I remember, you
know that incident. The second one is about the movie
(30:10):
like Mike, and the third one.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Is the story of like DJ Days and you know,
like all of that. So it's really fun.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
We're not going to do the Charles story here. Let's
save that.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Yeah, yea, yeah, no, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
It's awesome, and but but yeah, but but you know,
my voice was a lot higher.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And like now that i'm they have some old clips
and stuff.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I like my voice is like I guess your voice
gets lower as you get older.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Charles sounds way different years later than he did.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yeah, he his voice was very high. And I guess
maybe we all I guess I guess.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Mark.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
I'm sure if you listened to your voice like back
in the day, the octaves would be higher. I think
that's one of the things that gets like more mellow
and beautiful, you know, with.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Age, is your voice.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
But but yeah, that was me.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
I was like headbangerri era man. I loved it.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
And then and then I got my first job in
Houston doing morning and afternoon drive sports, but I was
still spinning records on the weekends, and that was at
ninety seven Rock, which was a legendary Houston rock station
Kick Ass Rock and Roll KSRR Houston.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
So you know, we've mentioned your dad many times here,
and as you said, you know, Mike Storen, former commissioner
of the ABA, your last name is actually Storin. But
so basically what you're saying is the station just said
you are now hannahs Storm and you had to roll
with it.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Well, they said, first of all, Storin does not translate
like storin like they're like, But then, nobody was named
Hannah at the time. There were literally no Hannahs. And
I was named after my mom and my grandma. Now
it's super popular. So they said, we would like you
to be Anna Storm, and I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
I'll change one of my names.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
But I'm like, I don't want to like completely lose
myself and be Anna Storm, Like can I be Hannah?
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Can you? And they're like, oh, okay, whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And so you know when you have a baby and
they have all the baby names in there and they say, well,
this person has that name, right, like this celebrity has
that name. For a long time, I was like the
only Hannah. It was like the next to baby Hannah.
It was like Hannah Storm sportscaster because it just wasn't
like a nobody was named Hannah. Now we've got all
these great especially like all these girls in the NCAA
(32:16):
tournament there were tons of Hannahs, but especially Hannah Hadagah
my favorite.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
But yeah, so that was it Anna Storm, but Hannah Storm.
So that's how I got I.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Have a TV name, and people always joke like you
should do weather.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's amazing that it just like they just tell you
and that's the way it is.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
And oh, I mean I've been told like die your
hair blonde, you know, wear dress, don't wear you know, pants,
wear hair long, don't wear dangly earrings. Do you know?
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Like listen, I.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Mean I came up, you know, back in the day
when you know, like I said, a lot of people
said and a lot of things that you know, they
probably wouldn't say today. But yes, I have been told many, many,
many things about you know everything.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Well, look, in our short time together, you've told several
great stories. And if you enjoyed this, you can listen
to the NBA DNA podcast series, twelve episodes worth of
stories like this from Hannah Storm, who has been around
professional basketball since the seventies, all the way back to.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
The ABA, a league that I sadly did not get
to experience firsthand.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
But now I'm going to listen to this podcast and yeah,
try to learn about it. And like you said, you know,
you've got Bob Costas on there, You've got Peter Vessi
on there. These guys are champions of the Doctor j
They all are champions of ABA history and it's you.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
No.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I am always going.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
To urge listeners please learn the league did not start
with Michael Jordan. Please go back in time and learn
some of these lessons and let me let me just say,
this is my chance to say thank you to you.
I don't know if you remember this, but for me
in Rio, I was doing both TV and writing, and
so it was it was constant. I mean, the days
were really really long, and I am the worst morning
(34:13):
person ever. The sports centers you were hosting were always
in the morning, and I'm up late at night covering
games and writing. But I remember that mister Woodtalka, our producer,
said hey, you know, Hannah, Hannah really needs Hannah really
wants you to join her for this morning segment.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
So when once I heard that, then sleep.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Was sleep was off the table because that was that
was a very high sorry, that was a very high
compliment to hear that you did insisting that I should
join you.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
So thank you.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
I did.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Well.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
You were amazing, and you know, we really kind of.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Smushed a lot of our Olympic programming into like these
special hours, so you know, it was really important to.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Have you there, and I mean you were like a
one man band. Man. I don't know how you did it.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I do not know how you did it because you
were you were everything. Like you were like one person
covering an entire Olympic basketball.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Series and that was it. That was a really.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Special I remember, like you know, interviewing coach k and
some of the players leading up to that. That was
a really cool It was a cool team.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
It was a really interesting experience. Well, we'll talk about
Rio another time on our next podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Let's definitely do it again.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Seriously, congratulations on this, Thank you this podcast. And let
me also say, you know, you recently revealed your battle
with breast cancer, and I can't even imagine what that
was like for you to do. You're a public person,
so I mean it must make it twenty five times harder.
And I really just wanted to send you all the
best wishes. And you have a zillion fans out there
who love you, and I just again wanted to send
(35:46):
you all.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
The best wishes and.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
You're the best. Don't don't feeling great.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Don't have a don't have a elegant way to say it,
but just.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
You know, what there. You know, the thing is there.
You don't have to have an elegant way to say it.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Like what you said was incredible, and people are like,
I don't know what to say, and I'm like, say anything,
say anything, just same thinking of you whatever, whatever you
want to say. Like just what you said was beautiful
and perfect and it wasn't easy, but I want I
just want people to get out there and you know,
get tested, like get their mammograms, do what you're supposed
(36:20):
to do. And for guys, you know, if there's a woman,
a person that you love in your family, you know,
obviously men have a history of breast cancer too.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
You know they have to be very careful.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
But you know, just make sure whoever that person is
in your life, support them however you can, and make
sure they're getting tested because it really really does save lives.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Everybody, listen to Hannah Storm on matters of life and basketball.
All right, that is going to do it for this
edition of This League Uncut. Like I told you from
the jump, Chris Haynes missed out the legendary with us here. Everybody,
you know what to do, follow the show, rate the show,
review the show, and listen to Hannah Storm's NBA DNA,
(37:02):
a twelve part podcast series produced by iHeart Chris and
I'll be back together with you very soon.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Thanks for listening everyone, and that'll do it for us.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
This league un Cutters and iHeartRadio production Chris Hanes and
Mark Stein
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