For the coming Hawks season, Fox Sports Southeast will be making some changes to its broadcast team.
Dream guard Renee Montgomery is joining “Hawks Live” as a pregame and postgame analyst in the studio, and Kelly Crull will be the new courtside reporter.
Montgomery has served as an analyst before, and has also done play-by-play for the College Park Skyhawks, the Hawks’ G League affiliate. Crull, who has a similar role with the Braves and ACC football games on Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast, has a long history with basketball, having previously covered the Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls.
Montgomery and Crull aim to bring great coverage of the Hawks as the team hopes to go from 20-47 last season to the playoffs this season, with the help of a revamped roster. Bob Rathbun and Dominique Wilkins will return to call games. “Hawks Live” host Jerome Jurenovich also will return as an analyst, and reporter Mike Glenn will continue to work select telecasts.
The Hawks’ schedule for the first half of the season was announced Friday, and Fox Sports Southeast will broadcast all four exhibition games as well as all 37 games in the first half. The team also plays on ESPN once (at Dallas on Feb. 10) and NBA TV three times (at Memphis on Dec. 26, vs. Minnesota on Jan. 18 for the MLK Day game, at Milwaukee on Jan. 24).
Fox Sports Southeast is available via AT&T TV and various cable providers, but for now is not available on YouTube TV or Hulu. Here’s a link to help determine where you can watch the Hawks based on your ZIP code.
As far as attending games in-person, the team will not allow fans in State Farm Arena for the first five home games of the season, but expects to open at 10% fan capacity on MLK Day, Jan. 18, vs. Minnesota. Priority will be given to season ticket holders, the AJC has learned, but expect an update on individual ticket sales as soon as next week.
Montgomery played at Connecticut and helped the Huskies to an undefeated season and national title in 2009; she won two WNBA championships with the Lynx in 2015 and 2017 and was named an All-Star in 2011 and Sixth Woman of the Year in 2012. She also studied communications in college and was on the call during the G League’s “Winter Showcase” on ESPN.
Her vast basketball experience will give her an edge as an analyst, Montgomery thinks.
“It’s everything to me, in the sense that I understand the game, I understand the X’s and O’s in-depth, not just from the outside looking in, I understand how team chemistry works, so I can understand why a player might be playing a certain way. … I would say just my basketball experience is going to help me understand just what’s going on with the Hawks on a deeper level,” Montgomery said.
Because the NBA and WNBA have opposite seasons, Montgomery can balance playing and being in-studio. Montgomery sat out the last season to focus on social-justice initiatives.
“I don’t think you have to choose, and I’m thankful for that, because we do have opposite seasons,” Montgomery said.
For Crull, who played basketball through high school before playing tennis at Missouri, this is an exciting opportunity to get back to covering the NBA.
Crull covered the Thunder during the 2011-12 season when the team had Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook and made it to the NBA Finals. Before coming to Atlanta, Crull spent six years in Chicago covering the Cubs, but also covered the Bulls for two seasons, so she’s familiar with new Hawks players Kris Dunn and Tony Snell.
“There is nothing better, honestly, than being around a young team that is starting to figure it out and realizing how good they can be, and watching that unfold, and I think that’s exactly what the Hawks are going to be this year,” Crull said. “I could not be more thrilled to be back on the NBA sidelines and covering hoops again.”
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Crull may be limited in areas she’s allowed to go to during games. But she thinks the broadcasting team will be able to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the team, which carries added importance when most people likely won’t be able to attend home games.
“We have to be creative, and that’s what we learned with the Braves this year is there’s some really fun ways to do that, and now I get to join another fantastic team, which I’m really looking forward to working with Bob (Rathbun) and (Dominique Wilkins), especially, Renee, Jerome I get to work with with the Braves, but it’s just such a great group, great energy, and I think we’re going to be able to bring fans at home a lot of different things because of the setup this year,” Crull said. “Really, things they’ve never really been able to see before, and the product on the floor is going to be fantastic.”
According to a news release, for Hawks away games, Fox Sports Southeast will carry the home team’s feed.
“Telecasts for the 2020-21 season will exist in an environment like none other in NBA history with little-to-no fans in the stands,” the release reads. “In addition, there will be broad changes to production elements and protocols due to the global pandemic. Each production will be a multi-network effort to deliver quality games with Fox Sports Southeast shooting all Hawks home games on the network and taking the home team’s network feed for road games. Our broadcasts for both home and road games will emanate from our broadcast areas at State Farm Arena.”
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