ANN MEYERS

Basketball Analyst

Ann Meyers is the women’s basketball analyst for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Rio marks Meyers’ fifth Olympic assignment with NBC Sports Group.

Currently, Meyers serves as Vice President of the NBA Phoenix Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury. An accomplished broadcaster, Meyers has served as an analyst for NBC, ESPN, ABC, Fox Sports and CBS, providing commentary for men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, tennis and volleyball

Meyers’ basketball resume spans more than four decades after becoming the first high school player ever to make a U.S. National Team in 1974. She was the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship from UCLA in basketball, where she was a four-time Kodak All-American– the first male or female to achieve that honor. Meyers also competed in volleyball and track and field. She was the first female to be named to the UCLA’s prestigious Athletic Hall of Fame.

Meyers helped establish the U.S. as a women’s basketball powerhouse in the 1970s. She earned a silver medal as part of the first women’s U.S. Olympic basketball team at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and won the 1975 Pan American Games and the 1979 World Championship.

Meyers turned professional as the top overall draft pick of the women’s basketball league in 1978, and she made history in 1979 as the first and only woman to tryout with a men’s team when she was signed by the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. After being released by the Pacers, she provided color commentary for the Pacers broadcasts and was the first woman to broadcast an NBA game.

Meyers was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Tennessee as part of its inaugural class in 1999. The following year at the 2000 WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, she was recognized as one of the pioneers in women’s basketball.  Meyers also became a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2007, Meyers was one of three Americans, along with Bill Russell and Dean Smith, to be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame as a first-time nominee.

In 2006, Meyers was awarded the Ronald Reagan Media Award from the United States Sports Academy. She graduated from UCLA in 1978 and resides in southern California.

@MeyersAnn