Longtime Yahoo Sports columnist Pat Forde is joining SI as a senior writer, a role that will see him contribute stories to all of SI's digital, print, video and audio platforms. Forde will continue to write his signature columns, Forde-Yard Dash (college football) and Forde Minutes (college basketball), for SI (Sports Illustrated). Forde said that the recent round of layoffs at SI gave him pause. He had been negotiating a deal with SI for several months before slamming the breaks on talks when he heard about the layoffs. But new CEO Ross Levinsohn and co-Editor in Chief Ryan Hunt remained persistent until they finally persuaded Forde to end his sterling eight-year run at Yahoo and join the new SI (Michael Smith, SBJ College).
POSITIVE DEBUT: Former NBAer Kelenna Azubuike on Sunday made his regular-season debut as the Warriors' TV analyst on NBC Sports Bay Area alongside play-by-play man Bob Fitzgerald, and in San Jose, Chuck Barney wrote it "would be crazy to expect" Azubuike to be in former analyst Jim Barnett's league "from the get-go." Azubuike will "need time to grow into the job." But, as with a young Warriors team, there are "some positive signs." Azubuike "brings plenty of energy to the telecast and plays well off Fitzgerald." The pair did a "good job of not stepping on each others' toes in their regular season debut." Azubuike also "seems to have a handle on a key broadcast rule: Be succinct" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 10/29).
GETTING HER SHOT: The Big Ten Network yesterday announced that Christy Winters Scott, the lead analyst for BTN women's basketball coverage since '16, will call three men's basketball games as well this year. AWFUL ANNOUNCING's Andrew Bucholtz noted Winters Scott also has hosted the Wizards' pre- and post-game shows on NBC Sports Washington since '12, "serving as an analyst for selected Wizards' games, calling college games for ESPN, BTN and other networks." She also has served as the "primary analyst" for WNBA Washington Mystics games on NBCSW for the past 10 years (AWFULANNOUNCING.com, 10/29).
SURPRISE DECISION: In Honolulu, Ferd Lewis reported Jeff Portnoy has been "removed as a color analyst for this season" after a "quarter-century as a mainstay" of Univ. of Hawaii men's and women's basketball radio broadcasts. A spokesperson for ESPN Radio 1420 said that play-by-play announcer Bobby Curran will "go solo on both the home and away games" (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 10/29).
