TheGrio's 100: Chris Broussard, ESPN sports analyst knows the ins and outs of the NBA

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Chris Broussard is an ESPN sports analyst who mainly covers the NBA. He started his career as a sportswriter for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio in 1991, moving on to the Akron Beacon Journal as a beat writer covering the Cleveland Cavaliers. He went on to cover the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks for the New York Times before joining ESPN Magazine in 2004.

Broussard has added TV personality to his byline, appearing frequently on ESPN as an NBA analyst and commentator. He is also a frequent guest on ESPN 2’s First Take where he usually spars with commentator Skip Bayless.

Chris Broussard is making history as… an NBA expert with two decades of work experience and expertise covering the sport.

A little-known fact about Chris Broussard…

“I’m an avid reader of African and African-American history—and also contemporary issues surrounding the African-American community,” Broussard said. “I’m reading a book now, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.”

Who is Chris’ mentor?

“My father, Edward Broussard. He taught me how to be a man. He taught me that the most important thing a man can do is provide for his family. [My father] was committed to the family, committed to my mother. And he raised myself and my brother up to respect authority and to respect his authority. We are really close-knit family. He was also very pro-black. Not so much in the activist sense—he just very much instilled in us a strong sense of blackness and how important it was to be committed and connected to our people. We always felt that pride and feeling great about being black. Unfortunately, some of our people have an inferiority complex about being black. I never felt that at all. I feel a great overwhelming pride in being black.”

What’s next for Chris?

“I’ll continue to do my ESPN/ABC television shows and write for ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine,” Broussard said. “It’s very hard to say because seven years ago, I never would have thought that I would be on ABC (on NBA Countdown) w/ Magic Johnson. Seven years before that, I never thought I’d be on ESPN on a regular basis. Seven years before that, I never thought I’d be at the New York Times for six years. So I’m just trying to be the best I can be at my job, television and my writing.”