OKC Thunder officials announce team's voices for television, Brian

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Sep 18, 2008 by Jerry Shottenkirk

The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise is getting closer to naming a flagship television station or network, team officials said Wednesday.

The Thunder took another step toward getting media matters in place as Ken Adelson, the team's senior vice president and executive producer, announced Brian Davis will be the television play-by-play voice of the Thunder, and former NBA player Grant Long will be color analyst.

Last month the team named WWLS The Sports Animal its radio flagship and on Wednesday confirmed Matt Pinto will return as the radio voice.

Pinto led radio broadcasts of the Sonics last year and prior to that spent two seasons as the voice of the Los Angeles Clippers and nine years as part of the Dallas Mavericks' broadcast team. Also, Adelson said it added Tulsa's KYAL The Sports Animal to the network.

The only thing remaining on the broadcast front is to find a television home. Adelson said the team wants all 82 regular-season games televised, along with some preseason encounters.

Davis has been with the franchise for five years and this will be his first as full-time voice. Last year he was host of Fox Sports Network Northwest's Sonics telecasts and hosted pre-game and post- game shows along with halftime. Davis was with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks from 2000 to 2003, called games for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League and was play-by-play man for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals from 2005 to 2007.

Long was an analyst for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks broadcast team and had been a part of Turner Broadcasting and Fox Network telecasts. He spent 14 years as a player for Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Vancouver (now Memphis) and Boston.

As executive producer of the team, Adelson's job is to coordinate television, radio, online and arena entertainment. He came to the team last month after 18 years with NBA Entertainment, where he played a role when NBA TV began in 1999.

"The process is that you do your homework like you would in any business," Adelson said. "We meet with the stations, cable operators and regional operators, and you start to see what common interests you have."