Antonio Daniels was built for a broadcast.

The marriage of his effortless energy and knowledge of basketball has brought him to the role of television color analyst for New Orleans Pelicans broadcasts, a role he has manned since 2019.

Daniels, one of the best basketball players in Bowling Green State University history, felt from the time he took on his first sports media responsibilities at ESPN Radio in San Antonio that he would be a natural fit as an NBA analyst.

Even though broadcasting was never on his radar to begin with.

“The reason I did, is because I know the game,” Daniels said. “The one thing is knowing the game. And, two, is you have to be able to articulate and teach the game to a fan base. So there’s a balance that goes on with knowledge, passion, articulation, and getting them to understand, like teaching.”

Daniels has been a natural student-turned-teacher of basketball, from his time as a BGSU Falcon and beyond his 14-year playing career in the NBA.

He was drafted by the Vancouver Grizzlies with the fourth overall pick in the 1997 draft after a standout career at Bowling Green. He was traded to the San Antonio Spurs following his rookie season, where he spent four seasons and won the 1999 NBA Finals.

While at San Antonio, Daniels became acquainted with Spurs broadcaster Joel Meyers. Two decades and some change later, the two can be seen side-by-side on Bally Sports New Orleans calling Pelicans games.

“He was always really good when it came to communicating,” Meyers said. “In conversation he was a bright, articulate young guy. So, not that I said, ‘Wow, he’s going to be a broadcaster.’ But looking back on it, it wasn’t going to be difficult for him, because he’s bright, he’s sharp, he gets it. It’s real simple.”

While he was still playing in the NBA, Daniels attended a week-long broadcast boot camp, better known as “Sportscaster U,” at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Sportscaster U was a program run in conjunction with the NBA Players’ Association and its career development program. There, Daniels received instruction from Matt Park, the play-by-play voice of Syracuse Orange men’s basketball and football, and an adjunct professor at Newhouse.

“We basically tried to throw a little bit of everything at them, so that when they left, they had a better idea of whether broadcasting was something they wanted to pursue further,” Park said. “That was really our only goal. Not to turn somebody into Hubie Brown overnight, but to really get them acclimated.”

A few former Sportscaster U participants include Shaquille O’Neal, Richard Jefferson, Vince Carter, and Richard Hamilton. But Park said Daniels was one of his best students.

“The biggest thing with Antonio is he’s incredible in terms of his energy and his charisma,” Park said. “Not everybody has that. People who think, ‘Oh, yeah, I want to get into television,’ they don’t really have the oomph, or they don’t have anything to say, and I don’t think either of those apply to Antonio.

“He’s got something to say, he wants to be there, he likes people, he is loquacious. You don’t have to beat it out of him. Big smile on his face all the time, so he had that leg up at the beginning.”

Daniels said the experience at Sportscaster U was his trial by fire into the broadcasting world.

“The thing I realized there is, you never realize how difficult someone else’s craft is until you do it,” Daniels said. “When you’re actually put in that position, and as a player that was the first time I had been put in that position where I had the headset on, and I had to talk about something that’s going on while I had the producer talking in my ear all in the same time. So that gave me a different appreciation from the media side of things that I didn’t have prior.”

Daniels ran his own basketball camps in the San Antonio area, and through radio appearances in the area to promote his camp, he gained interests of local program directors. He was named radio personality of the year in San Antonio after his first year at ESPN Radio. 

He then transitioned to SiriusXM NBA Radio, and broke in with Oklahoma City’s studio team as an analyst. From there, he earned a spot on SiriusXM’s weekday Give and Go show.

That’s when he caught the eyes and ears of the Pelicans.

Daniels’ style of calling games fits his personality. Informative, calculated, and timely; and he brings a crafted approach to keep the game simplified for the viewer.

“He gives you the ‘why,’” Meyers said. “Why it occurred. Not just ‘what’ just occurred, but why it happened, and why they’re either successful or they did not execute on the play. 

“It’s almost like Tony Romo on the NFL telecasts with Jim Nantz. He sees the big picture. A lot of times, the guys that played in the backcourt like AD did, they have conceptual skills where they see the big picture. It’s almost like in football when you’re watching ‘All-22.’ AD sees All-10.”

Meyers said he can feel the senses of one of Daniels’ former coaches in his style of broadcasting.

“He’s a no-nonsense guy. That’s Gregg Popovich,” Meyers said. “AD is a no-nonsense guy. He’s real honest. No nonsense. That’s what you want, don’t you? And especially on a telecast. You want a guy who’s straightforward, doesn’t talk in circles. AD’s straightforward and gets to the point.”

First Published February 14, 2022, 3:35 p.m.