Lisa Byington blazes trail as Milwaukee Bucks' full-time play-by-play voice
By Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer
Lisa Byington shattered a glass ceiling in her profession.
Last month, she was hired by the Milwaukee Bucks as the first full-time female play-by-play announcer for a men's professional sports team. Byington makes her Bucks debut Tuesday night, when Milwaukee plays its preseason opener against the Memphis Grizzlies.
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Her biggest goal for the broadcast is for viewers to forget they're listening to a woman.
"I just want a female voice on a men's game to become background noise," said Byington, who has been calling college football and college basketball games for nearly a decade. "I hope that this opens the door for that."
Byington has a smooth voice, a deep knowledge of basketball and a warm personality. But she knows that when fans tune into Bucks games, the first thing they'll notice will be her gender.
She acknowledges she's often guilty of the same thing.
"When I hear a female voice on a men's game, no matter the sport, I will stop and try to figure out who is that female announcer," she said. "That's because it's unique."
But her job is to quickly fade from the viewer's consciousness and let the fan enjoy the game.
Former Bucks great Marques Johnson, a five-time All-Star who is now an analyst for the team on Bally Sports Wisconsin, said the best play-by-play announcers are so effortless that they're practically invisible.
"The pros do it seamlessly where you don't notice it," he said. "It's like a great official at a basketball game is the one you don't notice."
Byington knows she'll be under a microscope in her new role because her voice is octaves higher than those of most of her co-workers.
The same is true for Kate Scott, who, shortly after Byington was hired by the Bucks, was tabbed by the Philadelphia 76ers to do play-by-play for their games, replacing retiring announcer Marc Zumoff.
Byington has been preparing to make history for a long time.
In fact, her first play-by-play opportunity came nearly a decade ago, when she was working as a sideline reporter and studio host for the Big Ten Network in Lansing, Michigan, and she received an unexpected phone call asking her to call a women's basketball game between Michigan State and Indiana.
At the time, she didn't think she did all that well, but she must have because the network kept asking her to call more games.
Over the past decade, Byington has devoted herself to working on her craft. She has zeroed in on her inflections, expressing excitement in appropriate moments and having strength in her voice.
She's also learned to "take a 20,000-foot view of what's going on" instead of getting lost in the weeds on statistics and minutiae. Being a successful play-by-play announcer means having your brain going 1,000 miles a minute while making it seem as though you're hanging out on the viewer's couch with a beer in hand.
"You're not only calling the action," Byington said. "You've got to follow storylines in the game, you're paying attention to a statistician or a stats monitor, you're listening to your analyst and your sideline reporter, and you've got a producer yapping in your ear. You're trying to connect all of the dots and make it make sense for the viewer — and also make it fun."
The difficulty of the role is often underappreciated, but Byington has always excelled in stressful circumstances.
After being recruited to play women's basketball at Northwestern, she decided to also walk on to the women's soccer team her junior year. Playing two collegiate sports while majoring in print journalism was a dizzying load, but her mind was sharpest when she was busiest.
It's a skill that has served her well throughout her broadcasting career.
Over the past 10 years, in any given week, Byington would spend 30 to 40 hours preparing to do play-by-play for a football game. A few days later, she would pivot on a dime and make herself an expert in another sport and its teams and rosters. In addition to football and basketball, she's done play-by-play for the Women's World Cup and the Olympics.
When her agent told her the Bucks' gig had opened up, she jumped at the opportunity to put her name in for the job.
"I look at myself as a broadcaster, not a female broadcaster," the 45-year-old Byington said. "That's why I applied for the job. And, ultimately, that's why the Bucks hired me, just for my broadcasting skills."
When the Bucks announced that Byington would take over for Jim Paschke, who retired after 35 years as the team's play-by-play announcer, team president Peter Feigin recognized the importance of the moment. But he also made it clear that Byington's gender had nothing to do with the hire.
"Lisa’s extensive television broadcasting background, including her play-by-play work for high-level NCAA basketball on several national networks, makes her the perfect choice to take on this major role," Feigin said in a statement. "While we appreciate the significance of selecting Lisa, and we celebrate this historic moment, Lisa earned this position based on her extraordinary skills and experience."
Johnson, who worked with Paschke for several years, looked up footage of Byington and was impressed by her poise, breadth of knowledge and the way she interacts with her analysts.
"I was excited to have the opportunity to work with her," Johnson said. "We're coming off an NBA championship, we're the world champions, and to have this as a part of this team's legacy — it's expected that the Bucks are looking to be at the forefront of things of this nature."
For Byington, it's all an incredible honor.
She received congratulatory calls from Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer and many other people within the organization. And she can't wait to build a relationship with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom she has long admired.
By now, Byington is used to being a trailblazer. This past March, as part of the CBS and Turner Sports coverage, she was the first woman to call NCAA men's basketball tournament games.
She has also paved the way for women behind the scenes, sometimes unintentionally.
Recently, Byington was working out at a gym and wanted to switch the TV channel from news to sports. She asked the man exercising near her if he minded. He shook his head, but after he finished his workout, he approached her and acknowledged that he was surprised.
"He said, 'I've never met a woman who wanted to watch sports while working out,'" she recalled. "I laughed and said, 'Well, you're not hanging around the right women then.'"
Soon it will be Byington's voice regularly filling gyms and homes, subtly influencing people on the largest of stages.
And she can't wait until none of it is surprising.
"I'm happy to play a small part in that," she said.
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She has previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.
