NBC Sports added the final pieces to its WNBA broadcast team this week, naming Ashley ShahAhmadi, Jordan Cornette, and Caroline Pineda as courtside reporters for the season that tips off May 8.
Everything else — the play-by-play team of Zora Stephenson, Noah Eagle, and Michael Grady, LaChina Robinson’s multi-year deal as studio host and game analyst, Sarah Kustok joining as a game analyst, and the studio trio of Maria Taylor, Sue Bird, and Cheryl Miller — had already been previously announced or reported.
ShahAhmadi spent several seasons as the Charlotte Hornets’ sideline reporter on Bally Sports South before moving to NBC, where she has served as an NBA courtside reporter all year. Cornette has one of the more interesting trajectories in the business — ESPN laid him off in 2023 after six years, which he eventually came to describe as the best thing that happened to his career — having landed at NBC, where he’s become a staple on Big Ten College Countdown and NBC’s college basketball coverage, while also handling hosting duties for Golf Channel. He was a four-year player and two-time captain at Notre Dame and the program’s all-time leader in blocks. Pineda has been with NBC Sports since 2022, covering Notre Dame football, Big Ten football, and Big East women’s basketball.
When NBC announced its partnership with the WNBA, it said it would air more than 50 regular-season and first-round playoff games across NBC, Peacock, and USA Network. Some of those games were pared off from the package when NBC spun off the Versant networks. NBC will tip off the first finals under the new package this summer, and will get a conference finals in seven of 11 seasons. Select games in each series are expected to air on USA Sports.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.