Michael Grady moves from Brooklyn to Minnesota as the Timberwolves new voice

June 11, 2024

As Michael Grady takes a seat in a room adjacent to the Minnesota Timberwolves practice courts, the incessant dribbling of basketballs can be heard through the walls. On the other side, D’Angelo Russell, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid and a handful of Wolves are going through a late morning workout and, unknowingly, providing the soundtrack that has thumped through Grady’s life ever since he was a boy growing up in Indiana while Reggie Miller was throwing everything he had at Michael Jordan.

The son of Indianapolis is now the voice of Minneapolis. Bally Sports North is hiring Grady, most recently a member of the Brooklyn Nets broadcast team, as its new Timberwolves play-by-play man. Grady is replacing longtime voice Dave Benz, whose contract was not renewed earlier this summer after 10 years calling Wolves games.

Grady comes to Minnesota from Brooklyn, where he spent the last five-plus years on the Nets’ highly respected YES Network broadcast serving as a sideline reporter, pregame and postgame host and occasional play-by-play man. He steps into the high-profile role at BSN at a crucial moment for the franchise. The Wolves are coming off a renaissance season and pulled off the biggest trade of the summer, a blockbuster that brought Rudy Gobert to Minnesota from Utah with the goal of turning the Wolves into a contender in the Western Conference.

“I know the fan base already has a sense of excitement about what this team can be, and I’m excited about fanning that flame,” Grady told The Athletic. “I’m excited to be a part of this community. That means a lot to me.”

It is the culmination of a long journey for Grady, who spent his younger days grinding up the ladder, from radio show producer to Pacers in-arena host and, eventually, a job with a television station in Indy that he parlayed into a coveted spot with the Nets’ broadcast crew. Grady would call 10-12 games per season for the Nets while filling in for Ian Eagle, one of the most respected voices in the game. The way he cultivated relationships with the coaches and players and how he prepared for broadcasts resonated with color analyst Sarah Kustok, who held Grady’s job as sideline reporter before he came aboard.

“There are few professionals that compare to Michael Grady in his versatility, in his work ethic, in how much he pours his heart and soul into his craft,” Kustok said.

It is a bold decision for Bally and the Timberwolves, plucking an up-and-comer in favor of a more established voice. They cast a wide net over several months, including popular pregame and postgame host Marney Gellner, who applied for the position but eventually withdrew her name from consideration before interviewing for the job because she wanted to maximize her time with her family, she told The Athletic.

Choosing Grady falls in line with the vision new Wolves minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez — whose ties to the YES Network helped with homework on Grady as the Wolves waded through a mountain of resumes — have tried to instill since coming aboard. They have fostered a risk-taking ethos, as evidenced from the hiring of Tim Connelly to run the basketball operations and the heavily debated trade for Gobert. Bally and the Wolves decided to move on from Benz, a move met with strong pushback from fans who had grown accustomed to Benz and Jim Petersen calling games.

“I know the fans were upset with Dave Benz not being retained, but this is a best-case scenario,” Petersen said. “Ian Eagle, Sarah Kustok, Richard Jefferson are some of the nicest people in the league. They do an amazing job, and Michael Grady was a part of this team, which lends credibility to his intelligence, his knowledge of the NBA and his talent as a broadcaster in this league.”

Grady grew up in Indianapolis during the Pacers’ heyday, when Miller and Mark Jackson were battling with Jordan’s Bulls and Patrick Ewing’s Knicks for Eastern Conference supremacy. Watching his team from the Midwest get overlooked and discounted in favor of the bigger-market teams instilled in him a defiance — an audacity, as he likes to put it — that could serve him well here in Minnesota.

“You have the Lakers and Golden State and these big markets and these teams with players that are household names,” Grady said. “You mention Minnesota competing with them and some people might not take that seriously. But you have to have the audacity that you can go toe-to-toe with anybody out there. Being able to be a part of fanning the flame for what this franchise is building is something that I take very seriously and I’m really excited about.”

Grady set his sights on a career in broadcasting when he watched Bob Costas call the Bulls’ win over the Utah Jazz in the 1998 NBA Finals. He wanted to combine Costas’s institutional knowledge with Ahmad Rashad’s effervescent personality. He stopped hooping his junior year at Warren Central High School so he could call football and basketball games on the school’s radio station, then studied broadcast journalism at Vincennes University. He joined WIBC in Indy as a producer and eventually started hosting a sports talk radio show while also serving as the in-arena host for Pacers games. His big break came in 2014, when a short-handed television station needed another body to cover the Pacers in the playoffs while the Indianapolis 500 was occupying so much bandwidth.

The Pacers won a seven-game series against Atlanta, beat Washington in the semifinals and then pushed LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals. The deep run gave Grady a chance to build out a reel, which he parlayed into a contract to stay on the staff.

In 2017, he got the call to go to New York, leaving his hometown to go chase a dream of becoming an established NBA voice. He formed fast friendships with Eagle, Kustok, Jefferson and producer Frank DiGraci, endearing himself with a serious-minded work ethic and a genuine interest in the humanity behind it all.

“He may be an Indianapolis kid and from the Midwest, (but) he was born for the concrete jungle,” Kustok said. “Nothing fazed him. He was as cool and composed in every moment you will find.”

Grady called 10-12 games per season as the play-by-play man and has also called WNBA games. Last season, he called Kyrie Irving’s 60-point game against Orlando, among other big moments during the season. Kustok, a highly touted color analyst, said calling games next to one of her closest friends helped her feed off his fervor.

“He is just so passionate and enthusiastic. It’s like sitting next to a little kid and watching him open up presents on Christmas morning,” Kustok said. “He does not take a single moment for granted, and he loves the game so much.

“He’s always made my job the easiest it can be because of everything he’s put into it.”

“I don’t think I stepped into any broadcast without thinking about young Michael Grady when he was sitting six inches from the television with his tube socks on and watching my favorite team’s every move,” Grady said. “I want to be great for that person.”

With Gobert, Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Russell, who knows Grady from their time together in Brooklyn, the Timberwolves have one of the most formidable rosters in the West. Benz was known for his “ant facts” gimmick that would come after most Edwards’ highlight plays, but Grady said he is still workshopping ideas for catchphrases with his family.

“I’m going to be put to the test in terms of calls. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m really pumped about being able to be in the household of this fan base. I take that very seriously.”

Grady met his wife, Erica, in New York and also has a 17-year-old stepson, Tai. The family dynamic made Grady think long and hard about leaving New York behind. Ultimately, the pitch from Bally and the Wolves, including meetings with CEO Ethan Casson and COO Ryan Tanke, helped convince him to make the leap.

“I’m just so proud and happy for him,” Erica said as she sat next to Grady in the practice facility. “I am right there witnessing his hard work, his dedication and his passion for the game and his craft. As a human, he deserves this, and Minnesota deserves you.”

The family comes to a community still grappling with the fallout from the riots that followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. Grady marched in protests on the East Coast when Floyd was killed and said he planned to engage in the community as soon as he gets settled.

“I want to be visible, and I want to be a part of a progress of hope,” he said. “If my position puts me in a place where I can initiate or be a part of conversations, not necessarily on air but within the community, and with not only people of my ethnic background but of other backgrounds and shine a light on things and be a beacon, that’s important to me.”

Grady and his family have ridden a roller coaster of emotions in recent weeks. They are elated at the opportunity he has earned, the chance to be the voice for a rising team in the Western Conference in a community that fits with his Midwest sensibilities. He has worked for years to to get an opportunity like this, and the elation that comes with it is easy to see in his smile as he tries to articulate just what this means. But he is also speaking just two days after the funeral for his mother, Mavis Grady, who died after a five-year battle with cancer.

Mavis was Michael’s biggest fan. He recalled a story about his mother recently going to a dentist appointment in a building that was once a Taco Bell he worked in as a youth. She told the receptionist that her son once worked in the building, and the receptionist asked if he still worked for Taco Bell. Mavis chuckled and promptly offered her son’s long resume.

“The thing that brings me joy, that puts a smile on my face, is knowing how proud she was of me,” Grady said. “She was almost embarrassing in her love for me and how proud she was of everything I was accomplishing. She was my biggest cheerleader, my biggest fan, and seeing me step into this role, I know that she’s thrilled.”

Grady spoke at the funeral, telling the story of a “sweet, caring, gentle” woman who was also “tough, hard-nosed and competitive.” He told the story of a time when he was in middle school and she challenged him to a game of H-O-R-S-E.

“She whupped my ass that day,” Grady said. “That competitive edge that wouldn’t allow her to take it easy on her young son was there through her entire life and through a cancer battle that lasted five years.”

Mavis had already passed by the time Michael officially agreed to join BSN and the Timberwolves, but he knows that a woman that strong and that caring is still watching her son put it all together.

“She loved her family hard,” Grady said. “I’m clinging to those happy memories, but I know she’s looking down extremely proud of this position her son was stepping in.”

(Top photo courtesy of Michael Grady)

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