'I don't know who on the internet has been treated better than me': A chat with NBA TV's GOATmentator
Beau Estes, aka "The GOATmentator," is as renowned as they come when someone thinks about the voice behind NBA highlights. When that famous gravelly voice comes on with basketball highlights, even the most casual of hoops fans will know what's going on. The voice has become such an instrumental part of our basketball culture that even the Euroleague and NBL have him doing their highlights.
Estes talked with HoopsHype about how he got started, his thought process as he's doing the calls, his nickname, and more.
You’ve been doing this for decades. Probably since the start of the digital era with the NBA. Take me through how you first got started to where you are now as the voice of NBA highlights.
Beau Estes: I started working for Turner Sports while I was still a college student. So, the Olympics were coming to Atlanta in 1996, and we were all preparing for that and doing internships in college for that. I was lucky enough to get an internship at CNN Sports when I was a college junior. And my first day there we heard about people getting paid to do what we were doing at CNN Sports as interns over at Turner Sports covering the NBA.
So I made a call to a guy named Craig Barry who now happens to be basically in charge of our company, and said, 'Hey, I’m interested, I’m doing this at CNN Sports', and he said let me just put you on the schedule. So he put me on the schedule in November 1994 – my first day with Turner Sports ever – and I have basically been in with that company ever since. So, I migrated over there and I did the Turner Sports thing covering highlights as a young editor and logger in that program and quickly became the person, when Kenny Smith came on, to be assigned to Kenny Smith to do his analysis. But I always knew I wanted to be on camera, I always knew I wanted to be an announcer, so as all this is happening I’m also working on the side to become an announcer and eventually Turner had an open audition and I was, at this point an announcer for CBS. Myself and a lady perhaps you’ve heard of named Erin Andrews won the auditions, so we just had the Atlanta Braves job doing that. From there, I got a hockey job with the Atlanta Thrashers through Turner Sports, and I was the Atlanta Hawks sideline reporter, and studio host for a while. So all of that was basically me bouncing around and in that span of time, I became the NBA.com and NBA TV guy.
Honestly the whole NBA highlights operation, it was just a real perfect spot for me through all of those experiences because the one thing I loved most was basketball. I wasn’t in love with hockey, I wasn’t in love with MLB. As a kid, I was in love with NBA basketball. I told my parents when I was in elementary school that I wanted to be a sportscaster and that I loved the NBA. So this is a dream I’ve followed since I was a little kid, and I never veered from it. And so, to land here where I am now, as sort of the guy who is the voice for NBA highlights is just an immense dream come true for a little kid all those years ago.
In this day and age, do you think you could have gotten into the industry with how you just called Turner?
BE: It’s different. I used to be an instructor out in Las Vegas for Sports Business Classroom and I ran the media department and I told students there that there are more opportunities now and less opportunities now in the same way. You can start off now tonight doing a podcast if you want to, and nobody’s gonna stop you, you can do it, but will it get seen? Will it get appreciated? Will you get paid? All of those things are true. I was lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time.
So much of this business is luck. I was in Atlanta going to college as the Olympics came to town. That means every media apparatus in the world was coming to Atlanta and there’s gonna be jobs. So I was able to be in a position to impress people who can hire folks. I did well because I felt so much pressure, honestly. I thought this is my life, this is my make-or-break moment, and if I screwed up I failed. I put so much pressure on myself which isn’t great, right?
You look back and think... Man, that’s a ton of pressure for a 21-year-old kid but I did that because I knew that this was my dream and I was dedicated to it and I made it. It was just sort of a convoluted path, but working at Turner Sports allowed those doors to open for me.
Honestly, making friends with people who ended up becoming legends in our business was a tremendous asset. Ernie Johnson was a guy that I used to call, and email with every question about announcing in the world. I must have been the most annoying guy ever, but he was always so patient and so giving. It helped me out a ton in terms of confidence, like everybody goes through this. You’re not struggling or you’re not doing particularly well. You’re just doing what you should be doing. So all of those assets, Ernie, Tim Kiely – the great producer – the guy that sort of created Inside the NBA, all of that. It’s such a leg up on what most people get, and in some sense that’s luck, but in some sense that’s capitalizing on your luck too. Not everybody capitalized on it and I do feel like if I am gonna give myself credit, at least I recognize the opportunity and took advantage of it.
In terms of confidence, when did you realize you had full reign on how you wanted to go about your calls?
BE: It’s an evolution. I wanted to be very clean at first with those NBA highlights. I look at the highlights and the Top 10 as two absolutely separate things. I wanted to be very clean, very informative, on the highlights and focus less on entertainment; and to some degree that’s still true because I feel like if I’m doing a Bucks-Cavaliers highlight, people need to know the details and not silly Beau, joke of the day or whatever. I need to give them this highlight to know what happened in this game. So how many points did Donovan Mitchell have? How did Giannis Antetokounmpo do?
All those things I focus on for a highlight, but the Top 10 thing really was sort of an evolution. Since Day 1, I know I wanted that to be a moment of basketball joy for fans. I thought at the end of the day after all the analysis, after all the injury news, the bickering and this or that, I wanted that to be two and a half minutes of pure fun, pure enjoyment. Almost what I would want it to be. I wanted it to be basketball love. I told somebody once that I wanted the Top 10 to be a scoop of ice cream, a scoop of basketball ice cream at the end of the day. Pure joy, pure childlike joy, and I can honestly tell you that there’s one Top 5 that I did where I knew things were starting to change and fans were starting to really get interested. It was like a moment. I recognized that sort of becoming a thing, with Deadspin sort of talking about it, and everybody else started talking about it. It was a process turning the thing to what you see today.
When we look back at how people used to tune into Sportscenter for highlights and Top 10 plays, and how with the new age, we have sorta shifted from that and focused on social media with House of Highlights and short reels where people can just pull up their phones and instantly watch things. That’s really putting less attention on those Top 10 plays on Sportscenter and probably even your space with highlights. What’s your take on how social media has shifted the interest and attention of viewers?
BE: We’re in competition with everyone who’s putting out creative and great content on the internet and on social right away. We’re not gonna win every eye, so it’s a challenge to do something great, unique, and again this is where I think if we do something unique – like I try to do with the Top 10 – we’re in an advantage because you can only find that where only we do that.
But it certainly makes our challenge greater, right? You look out there and look at the amount of incredibly talented people who are doing content with the NBA, not just fun stuff like I do, but in great analysis, fantasy breakdowns of games and stuff like that. It’s just a real challenge, and to take that a step further, what makes it really interesting is if you’re a television programmer – like ours or ESPN – what do you put out there because you need to get as many eyes as possible on it. It’s not just about doing the greatest bit of analysis or the funniest thing you can possibly do. You’re trying to cast a wide net, so they have a different challenge than I have.
The one thing with today’s media landscape is that everybody has a chance, and I do believe that most of the time – there’s probably some people that get overlooked – but most of the time the cream rises to the top and these incredibly talented people build a profile. Look at the creative way like a guy like Rob Perez has created a profile for himself and does such unique stuff that you wouldn’t get anywhere else and that doesn’t fit on Inside the NBA, but there is a landing spot for his unique brand of coverage that is there for everyone to see. So, I think it’s better for a fan now, but I don’t think it’s necessary tougher for a broadcaster.
Did you feel like you had to change how you called the Top 10 players knowing how the landscape has shifted?
BE: I didn’t consider that at all to be honest. That was not really in consideration, it’s just happenstance. There was early on a bit of a back and forth from good friends that are executives in this business of both should you go down this road of making it to this level of going for entertainment versus going for just Giannis Antetokounmpo at No 4 with the jam, that sort of thing. As you can see, I sort of stuck to my guns and it worked out. But it wasn’t necessarily a response, it was my gut instinct of what I thought people would find enjoyable and frankly really what I wanted to do. It was just what I wanted to make that thing and how much fun. It’s just supposed to be about joy and fun and I just really wanted people to have a moment where they’re not thinking about stats, where they’re not thinking about anything else, just great basketball plays, and nothing else.
I think you have accomplished that with how you call plays and how renowned you have become with those Top 10 plays.
BE: At some level it’s ridiculous what I’m doing out there. [Laughing] It really is, I mean I sound like I’ve lost my mind and it’s everything that you do. Like the professional Beau Estes, you can find on NBA highlights. This thing is almost like Will Ferrell has a character. It really is, I know I almost have to channel that person before I do it and it’s me. It’s pure basketball love out there, but it’s silliness too right? Like it’s a crazy thing, so I recognize it like I’m not too serious about it and somebody’s like this is nuts. I would say yeah, fair. Totally fair, but all those people in the comment section, I don't know who on the internet has been treated better than me. I feel very lucky on that front.
You just mentioned how you have to sort of channel yourself to get to that point to call those plays. What’s the process like of actually getting those Top 10 plays for the day?
BE: You could imagine how the NBA schedule works. Some guys wind up late and so my responsibility is to do all the highlights of a segment called The Fastbreak, which is a little mini podcast and the Top 10. I try to do the Top 10 last, if I can.
You mentioned the media landscape, so we’re trying to get it out there quickly so we can compete with everybody, but I try do it last because it’s a different mindset I have to be in. And what happens is throughout the course of the evening, a producer is putting together the list. They will occasionally consult with me – they did last night, it doesn’t happen all the time. It happens less than half the time, but if I feel something strongly and I have the time to weigh in, I will. But most of the time, it is a producer sending me a list. I will look at the list one time with the plays and then I’ll just call it.
There is no writing involved. There is nothing else. It’s just me watching it one time and calling it with as much energy as I possibly can, and it’s wild because when I’m done with it, I’m like, whew, you feel like you landed a plane with one wing or something like that. It’s almost like a different part of your brain that you just have to go to and find that energy and find that dialect and really lean into it. There’s times in my mind where I’ll say you went too far, you shouldn’t have gone that far. And every time I release one of those where I say I went too far, that’s the thing people love most which is ridiculous. [Laughing] The stupider the thing I say, the more people seem to love it. So you know, it’s walking that line of where it’s too far and every time I think that’s too far, people love it even more.
In terms of your rhymes, how do you go about that? Is that all improv?
BE: Yeah. I’ll go for a long walk on a day and I’ll see a kite getting lost in the sky – totally making this up – but I’ll see a kite get lost in the sky. I’ll say, hmm I wonder if I could do something with that, and I’ll think about that and I may use that that night. That’s maybe the most preparation I’ll do, and that’s at most maybe once every three days. But everything else is just on the fly, and I’ll take stuff and I’ll send a note to the producer like the note will literally be, if there’s anything that’s insane in this, just let me know, and that’s the email when I send it back to the producer and they tend to like it, so we go with it.
Last night was Tyrese Haliburton. I said something like Tyrese Haliburton puts the hurting on the Bucks. I didn’t plan that, that’s just me talking. All that stuff is just very much in the moment and then again, it’s just a different part of my brain that is not the highlight call guy. I used to do studio hosting for NBA TV, and that is a very buttoned up, very hey this is your format, this is what you’re going to do next. You’ve got a graphic here, you’ve got a bump to break, you’ve got music, that is a very different part of my brain and the Top 10 is very free flowing, almost like a raft on a river, you just look and react. The other stuff is very planned and structured and everything like that. I’m probably honestly better as an announcer on that raging river than I am in a one-up situation, which probably speaks to the way my brain works.
I’m so thankful there is a spot for me in the NBA. That’s the great thing about basketball going digital and the internet or social. I would be at Summer League and I would meet people from Australia, or the Philippines or Belgium, and they all knew my work from the Top 10 and they knew who I was. That’s obviously not possible in the 90s, it’s not possible in the 80s. So this is something that is new, where the NBA has connected with an audience from around the world and I’m lucky enough to help be a big part of that connection. And boy, if there’s anything that really makes me happy about my career it’s that.
On a global level like you just talked about, how did you go from doing NBA to now doing NBL, and now the Euroleague?
BE: It started with the NBL, and it was somebody who was a young NBA fan, who got a job with the NBL and says you know who we should hire? It’s that crazy lunatic from the NBA to do our Top 10. So it was a young person suggesting it and I went to Australia and man, they really loved it. We had a great relationship for years and I was lucky enough to do something at the end of the year again with the team in that league and then there’s a guy at the Euroleague who was apparently in a meeting who said the only thing basketball fans around the world agree on is I love that guy Beau Estes from the NBA, and so they reached out to me and hired me.
It’s just such a weird phenomenon that this two-minute piece of basketball ice cream is connected with so many people. Maybe people want that sort of happiness with their sports and that sort of enjoyment with their sports. I don’t know that there’s a bigger reason, but I do know that it’s like you said, the fact that this has gone around the world and that style of calling the Top 10 that I do is something that people want. There’s a connectivity between basketball fans in Belgium and in Boise, Idaho, and in China, and India. I talked to people in India right now who love basketball and wish there was a basketball league there. So, all this stuff is fantastic. It’s just great to see a way to connect the world of basketball fans, even if it’s something small like our Top 10.
Do you have to research to learn all the players in those leagues as well, like pronunciations and all that?
BE: That’s the greatest question I’ve ever been asked! Yes, so like there’s that for sure and what’s funny is the Euroleague did a great job of this. What they do is even better than the NBA in this situation.
They sent me a video of every player in the league saying their own name. What I learned from that is we’ve never said a player’s name right in the NBA or our pronunciation for everybody at all. And I talked to them about this, like look, some of this is a player who I know who I’ve called a certain way for all these years. If you want me to go and try to call it like he does in his native tongue, I can, or I can call it like maybe basketball fans around the world have come to know that name. And so, I think a lot of times you want to be respectful of the player in that situation. And do your best to pronounce it the way that they pronounce it, and so their names that I’ve sort of changed to their pronunciation and stuff like that but it is wild. I’ll get a list, here’s Bayern Munich 15 guys and here’s them pronouncing their own name and you’re just blown away.
I really thought about with the NBL is if I’m making a reference to something cultural that many of us touch on here in America, I wanna make sure that that’s gonna land with an Australian or European audience. I wanna make sure that the reference is gonna land and I’m very careful in working with producers on stuff like that. I remember there was a guy named Mitch McCarron over in the NBL, and I said something stupid like he's got 99 problems, but a Mitch ain’t one and I was like are you guys gonna get that and they’re like, oh yes, we love Jay-Z here. You just wanna make sure you serve the audience, that’s my goal is to make sure that they enjoy what we’re doing because again this more than anything else is supposed to be about putting a smile on somebody’s face.
Lastly, what are your thoughts on the NBA internet community calling you the GOATmentator?
BE: [Laughs] It’s a great way for my friends and family to make fun of me. I’ll start there, when that first came out, all those years ago, that was really what everybody used to make fun of me in my personal life over that.
But let’s be really honest, it’s an incredibly flattering thing to hear. I’m not gonna pretend that it’s not a wonderfully nice thing that people say that like if you google GOATmentator my stupid face pops up. It’s really a nice, nice gesture. I am certainly not the greatest commentator of all time In terms of Ernie Johnson’s way better than I’ll ever be – but for that one specific thing, for that one specific sort of type of piece, I’m very proud that people have connected with it and it’s a wonderful thing to hear people call you the GOATmentator and honestly it’s sort of silly, just like that Top 10 is sort of silly. I take it with a grain of salt, I don’t take it too seriously. I don’t walk into negotiations with Turner Sports and say look right here, I’m the GOATmentator, pay me $10 million. I know it’s not bad right? Like it’s just not but it is something very nice and I know when I die, the one thing I’ll be known for is these Top 10, and that GOATmentator thing, and I’m OK with that. That’s very much what a young Beau Estes would have dreamed about. Being known to be an announcer with the NBA would have been a dream come true. I’ve lived it. I’ve had a dream come true and I’m very lucky for that.
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: 'I don't know who on the internet has been treated better than me': A chat with NBA TV's GOATmentator
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