Prime Video and WNBA Announce All-Star Broadcast Team for 2022 WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship Game Presented by Coinbase on July 26
Emmy-winners Sarah Kustok and Michael Grady will serve as lead analyst and play-by-play announcer of Cup Championship
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and University of South Carolina women's basketball head coach Dawn Staley will contribute as second analyst
Veteran basketball reporter Zora Stephenson will be the sideline reporter for the contest
WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship Game presented by Coinbase, featuring Chicago Sky vs.
Las Vegas Aces, will stream exclusively on Prime Video for second consecutive year
NEW YORK - July 20, 2022 - Today, Prime Video and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced their on-air broadcast team for the second annual WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship Game presented by Coinbase, airing exclusively on Prime Video on Tuesday, July 26 at 8:30 p.m. ET. Emmy-winners Sarah Kustok and Michael Grady will serve as analyst and play-by-play announcer, while Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and University of South Carolina women's basketball head coach Dawn Staley will also contribute as an analyst.
This year, the defending WNBA Champion Chicago Sky and the Las Vegas Aces will face off in the 2022 Championship Game at Chicago's Wintrust Arena. The Commissioner's Cup is an in-season competition that designates a portion of games in the first half of the season - 10 per team - as Cup play. The teams with the top record from each conference in Cup play then compete in the Commissioner's Cup Championship Game presented by Coinbase for a $500,000 prize pool. Two tiebreakers were needed to decide the host for this year's championship, in which the Sky earned homecourt advantage after recording the higher winning percentage in all regular-season games through July 7, at 16-6.
YES Network's Kustok, a Chicago native and basketball broadcast veteran, will serve as lead analyst for the game. Kustok is a four-time Emmy-winner and has served as YES Network's primary game analyst for the Brooklyn Nets since 2017, following five years as courtside reporter for the team. In addition to her work with YES Network, she is a regular contributor to FS1's Men's Big East regular season telecasts, FOX Sports 1's First Things First morning show, Sirius XM NBA Radio, We Need to Talk on CBS Sports Network, and the NBA Flashback podcast on iHeart Radio. In 2020, Kustok was named to Cynopsis Media's "Top Women in Sports" list, which recognizes top women in media.
Grady will serve as the play-by-play announcer for the Commissioner's Cup title game. Grady joined the YES Network in September 2017 as its Brooklyn Nets courtside reporter, and currently handles play-by-play duties for YES' WNBA New York Liberty telecasts. He won a New York Emmy Award in 2019 as part of YES' season-long Nets coverage and was nominated for a Sports Reporter Emmy in 2021. Grady also hosts the interview show Appreciate You on YES' digital platforms and guest hosts a show on SiriusXM.
Staley will serve as an analyst for the game alongside Kustok and Grady. A former six-time WNBA All-Star and three-time Olympic Gold medalist during her playing career, Staley has served as an NCAA basketball coach for over 20 seasons, leading the South Carolina Gamecocks to the Women's NCAA National Basketball Championship in 2017 and 2022.
Zora Stephenson, who serves as the sideline reporter for the Milwaukee Bucks on Bally Sports Wisconsin, will be the sideline reporter at the Commissioner's Cup. Stephenson made history last season when she became the first woman to do play-by-play for the Bucks when she filled in for Jim Paschke during the team's game against the Atlanta Hawks at Fiserv Forum on April 9.
"We are honored to be the home of the WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship Game for a second consecutive year," said Marie Donoghue, vice president of Global Sports Video at Amazon. "With All-Star players including Chicago's Candace Parker and Las Vegas' Kelsey Plum, and top-tier on-air talent to call the game, WNBA fans will have a lot to cheer for on Prime Video as the Chicago Sky take on the Las Vegas Aces for the 2022 Cup Championship title."
Prime Video is streaming a total of 17 nationally televised in-season WNBA games, and approximately 30 Seattle Storm games locally in Washington State, during the 2022 season. Following the WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship Game presented by Coinbase on July 26, three more games will air on Prime Video during the remainder of the WNBA season, in addition to select remaining Seattle Storm games to regional fans.
Sunday, July 31 - Seattle Storm @ Washington Mystics - 3 p.m. ET
Sunday, August 7 - Atlanta Dream @ Minnesota Lynx - 7 p.m. ET
Sunday, August 14 - TBC
The WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship Game presented by Coinbase on Prime Video will be available across hundreds of compatible devices worldwide as part of a Prime membership (excluding China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Finland, and Germany) including on the web or by using the Prime Video app on smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, game consoles, and select smart TVs. A complete list of compatible viewing devices can be found here.
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About Amazon
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About the WNBA
The WNBA, which tipped off its 26th season on May 6, 2022, is a bold, progressive basketball league that stands for the power of women. Featuring 12 teams, the W is a unique sports property that combines competition and entertainment with a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and social responsibility. Through its world-class athletes, the in-game fan experience, TV and digital broadcasts, digital and social content and community outreach programs, the league celebrates and elevates the game of basketball and the culture around it.
In 2020, the WNBA and the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) signed a groundbreaking eight-year CBA that charts a new course for women's basketball - and women's sports overall - with a focus on increased player compensation, improvements to the player experience, expanded career development opportunities and resources specifically tailored to the female professional athlete. Key elements of the agreement are supported through the league's partnership platform, WNBA Changemakers, with AT&T, the WNBA's Marquee Partner and inaugural Changemaker, as well as fellow inaugural Changemakers Deloitte and NIKE, Inc, and subsequent additions Google and U.S. Bank. During the 2020 season, the WNBA and WNBPA launched the WNBA Justice Movement forming the Social Justice Council with the mission of being a driving force of necessary change and continuing conversations about race and voting rights, among other important societal issues.
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