Sports broadcaster Debbie Antonelli keeps two basketball rims at her home in Mount Pleasant.
One is outside, attached to the family’s driveway goal. It holds great basketball memories since she and her husband Frank moved to South Carolina in 1999. It’s the rim that the couple’s three sons — Patrick, Frankie and Joey — grew up using for practice. And it’s also the rim she has used since 2019 when hosting her annual “Nothing But Net” event in which she sinks 2,400 free-throws in a 24-hour span each May.
The second hoop is nowhere in sight from the outdoor court. It’s tucked away in the garage, the metal rusting, orange paint chipping away. Antonelli’s father first nailed it to the garage of her childhood home in Staatsburg, N.Y., when she was 9. When the family moved to Cary, N.C. ahead of Debbie’s eighth grade year, they detached the hoop and brought it with them. Even across adulthood moves to Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina, Antonelli never let go of that rim.
And she’s never let go of her lifelong love of basketball.
“I don’t know my life without it. I really don’t remember,” she said of basketball. “I was that little girl in the driveway at 9 years old, shooting hoops all the time.”
A top sports broadcaster
After an accomplished playing career from 1982 to 1986 under legendary coach Kay Yow at N.C. State University, Antonelli made a brief go at post-collegiate coaching as a graduate assistant at Ohio University before pivoting into intercollegiate marketing.
She was hired by the University of Kentucky, where, given her knowledge of the sport, she appointed herself to call the televised games for the women’s team. She has been on the air ever since and, now in her 38th year of calling games, has climbed to the top of the profession.
For the past few years, Antonelli has been the sporting voice at games for ESPN’s Charleston Classic tournament, which is Nov. 21 and 23 at the College of Charleston’s TD Arena. Her annual game and tournament assignments vary based on ESPN scheduling. She wasn’t assigned to the Classic this year, but she’ll still be in the stand scouting and enjoying the buzz.
“This is one of ESPN’s premier events because of the location of the College of Charleston in the middle of the downtown between King and Meeting,” she said. “The fans that come here absolutely love the proximity to all the restaurants and the things that you can walk to.”
She received the 2024 Curt Gowdy Media Award and been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She was on the call for both Pat Summit and Geno Auriemma’s 1,000th win, Diana Taurassi’s final WNBA game, and Mike Krzyzewski’s final three home games in Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Antonelli even called her son Patrick’s first Division I points when the seldom-used fifth-year graduate transfer checked in for Louisville with 1:55 remaining during a 2024 blowout win over Indiana. Louisville coach Pat Kelsey, a friend of the Antonelli family since his time coaching at the College of Charleston, winked at his pal as her son reported to the scorer’s table. In his limited playing time, Patrick connected on three free-throws, his only points of the season.
“We saw the moment coming, and we were ready,” remembered close friend and colleague Beth Mowins, who lives in San Diego and was also on the call for the game. “We ran with it and I think did it incredible justice. A chance to call your kid’s game has got to be one of the coolest things ever, and she handled it quite well.”
Keeping busy
Antonelli remains active.
Between the 2024-25 winter college basketball season and the summer’s WNBA schedule, she called more than 100 games. Ostensibly, coming home to Mount Pleasant offers the chance to unwind with some golf and dinners with friends, but even her down time is comparatively busy.
Her numerous off-court ventures include a board seat for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, hosting her Build Serve Empower All Girls Sports Camp each summer, and the annual 24-hour free-throw shooting marathon benefitting the Special Olympics. (In 2026, the camp and free-throw marathon will be held in a gym renamed in May as the Debbie Antonelli Gymnasium.)
In between commitments, there is always more film to watch, more prep to do.
“I love to work, I love to watch film. I love to watch games,” she said. “Sometimes my husband’s like, are you alright? Have you had enough? And I’m like, ‘No, I’ve never had enough.’”
Then it’s back on the road, where continuous travel comes with challenges. She has slept in her car at the airport, followed snowplows down the interstate and even been pushed out of the snow by the National Guard after she got stuck in a blizzard in North Carolina.
“It tells you how crazy I am about the game,” she chuckled.
The 2025-26 college season promises new adventures, new names to learn and new trends. Antonelli admits the game looks different from when she was first introduced to it more than five decades ago in upstate New York. Yet amid all of the changes, what has remained intact has allowed Antonelli to continue to thrive.
“I want fans to know how much I love the game when I walk in the gym,” she said. “I want everybody to think the same thing: ‘Oh, we got Debbie on the game. She’s going to be prepared, she will be fair, and she’s going to have a lot of fun.’ ”
ESPN’s Charleston Classic is Nov. 21 and 23. Tickets and info: espnevents.com/charleston-classic
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