J. A. Adande
Encyclopedia
Joshua Ade "J. A." Adande (əˈdɑːndeɪ; born October 25, 1970 in Los Angeles
, California
) is an American sports columnist who covers the National Basketball Association
for ESPN.com
. He also serves as a panelist for ESPN
's Around the Horn
and as a guest host on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption
television shows. Adande is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists
, and also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California
's Annenberg School of Journalism, where he teaches a class entitled "Sports Commentary," and co-teaches a class entitled "Sports Public Relations."
, along with other famous people such as NBA star Baron Davis
and Kate Hudson
. Adande served as Editor-in-Chief in 1988 of Crossroads School's newspaper, Crossfire.
Adande received his bachelor of science degree from the Medill School of Journalism
at Northwestern University
, where he served as sports editor of The Daily Northwestern
. He was also a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University.
Adande first started work at the Los Angeles Times
as an intern with the Westside edition in 1990. He continued his internships at The San Bernardino Sun and The Washington Post
in 1991 and The Miami Herald
in 1992.
He became a full-time staff writer for The Chicago Sun-Times, where he covered Illinois football
and basketball
and the Chicago Bulls
. In 1994, he returned to The Washington Post
as a staff writer where he covered college football, college basketball and the Washington Bullets (as they were known at the time).
to become a sports columnist for the paper's Orange County edition. In 1998, his column began running in all editions. In 1997, Adande was made a member of the BBWAA.
Adande briefly hosted the "Celebrity Sports Talk" radio program with ex-NBA player Marques Johnson in 2002. The show aired on KMPC in Los Angeles and WSNR in New York City.
Adande's assignments at the Los Angeles Times included the Olympic Games
, Wimbledon
, the Super Bowl
, the NCAA
Final Four
, the NBA, Major League Baseball
and World Cup 2006
.
In 2007, the Tribune Company
, parent company to the Los Angeles Times, sought to cut costs at the newspaper by offering a voluntary buyout package to the newspaper's employees. Adande was one of those who accepted the buyout, and he published his final column (titled "He's outta here") for the newspaper on May 31, 2007. When he announced he was leaving during the June 1, 2007 episode of Around the Horn
the other panelists applauded him, among them Kevin Blackistone
(who accepted a similar buyout in 2006 from the Dallas Morning News and appears on ATH regularly from a Washington, D.C.
studio) who joked, "Aren't there enough people here without a job?"
, Adande is sometimes known as "Top Cat Killer" for his numerous Showdown victories over Tim Cowlishaw
of The Dallas Morning News
. (Cowlishaw is sometimes nicknamed "Top Cat" based on his initials.) Adande is also known for the "J.A. Adande Lounge" which he usually mentions during his "Face Time" (which is the 20 to 30 second speech the winner gets after a victory on the show). His birthday was revealed to be October 25 on the episode of that date in 2006 (he won the episode). Another notable Adande feature is his impersonation of NFL analyst (and former quarterback) Ron Jaworski
(Jaws). During the NFL season, when the panelists make their weekend predictions, Adande dons his Ron Jaworski jersey and talks in a deepened voice, similar to Jaworski's.
Since leaving the Times, Adande has continued to appear as a panelist on Around the Horn. As of November 21, 2011, he has won on the show 206 times in 756 appearances.
and debuted as a substitute host on July 2, 2007 with Dan Le Batard
. On August 3, 2007, Adande performed the rare task of being a panelist on "Around the Horn" and a guest host on "Pardon the Interruption" in the same day.
On May 7, 2010 J.A. Adande appeared as a fill in for Tony Kornheiser who was according to Mike Wilbon, "out golfing."
.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) is an American sports columnist who covers the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
for ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
. He also serves as a panelist for ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's Around the Horn
Around the Horn
Around the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
and as a guest host on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption
Pardon the Interruption
Pardon the Interruption is a sports television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels, TSN, ESPN America, XM, and Sirius satellite radio services, and as a downloadable podcast. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories...
television shows. Adande is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists
National Association of Black Journalists
The National Association of Black Journalists is an organization of African American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C...
, and also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
's Annenberg School of Journalism, where he teaches a class entitled "Sports Commentary," and co-teaches a class entitled "Sports Public Relations."
Schooling and early career
J.A. Adande is an alumnus of Crossroads School of Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, along with other famous people such as NBA star Baron Davis
Baron Davis
Baron Walter Louis Davis is an American professional basketball player with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. Drafted as the third pick in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, Davis was a star at Crossroads School and UCLA....
and Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
. Adande served as Editor-in-Chief in 1988 of Crossroads School's newspaper, Crossfire.
Adande received his bachelor of science degree from the Medill School of Journalism
Medill School of Journalism
The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...
at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, where he served as sports editor of The Daily Northwestern
The Daily Northwestern
The Daily Northwestern is a student newspaper at Northwestern University that is published on weekdays during the academic year. Established in 1881 and published in Evanston, Illinois, it is run entirely by undergraduates, many of whom are students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.The...
. He was also a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University.
Adande first started work at the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
as an intern with the Westside edition in 1990. He continued his internships at The San Bernardino Sun and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
in 1991 and The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
in 1992.
He became a full-time staff writer for The Chicago Sun-Times, where he covered Illinois football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
. In 1994, he returned to The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
as a staff writer where he covered college football, college basketball and the Washington Bullets (as they were known at the time).
Recent professional career
In 1997, he returned to the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
to become a sports columnist for the paper's Orange County edition. In 1998, his column began running in all editions. In 1997, Adande was made a member of the BBWAA.
Adande briefly hosted the "Celebrity Sports Talk" radio program with ex-NBA player Marques Johnson in 2002. The show aired on KMPC in Los Angeles and WSNR in New York City.
Adande's assignments at the Los Angeles Times included the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
, the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Final Four
Final four
Final Four isa sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments. The term usually refers to the four teams who compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final round...
, the NBA, Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
and World Cup 2006
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
.
In 2007, the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
, parent company to the Los Angeles Times, sought to cut costs at the newspaper by offering a voluntary buyout package to the newspaper's employees. Adande was one of those who accepted the buyout, and he published his final column (titled "He's outta here") for the newspaper on May 31, 2007. When he announced he was leaving during the June 1, 2007 episode of Around the Horn
Around the Horn
Around the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
the other panelists applauded him, among them Kevin Blackistone
Kevin Blackistone
Kevin B. Blackistone is a columnist for Fanhouse.com, also a frequent panelist for ESPN's Around the Horn and on Sundays for Comcast's Redskins Postgame Live. On radio, he appears as a frequent guest cohost on the Sports Reporters on DC's ESPN980.-Career:He was born in Washington, D.C...
(who accepted a similar buyout in 2006 from the Dallas Morning News and appears on ATH regularly from a Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
studio) who joked, "Aren't there enough people here without a job?"
Around the Horn
As a panelist for Around the HornAround the Horn
Around the Horn is a daily, half-hour sports roundtable on ESPN filmed in Washington, D.C. It airs at 5:00 pm ET, as part of a sports talk hour with Pardon the Interruption. The show is currently hosted by Tony Reali.-History:Around the Horn premiered on November 4, 2002, hosted by Max Kellerman...
, Adande is sometimes known as "Top Cat Killer" for his numerous Showdown victories over Tim Cowlishaw
Tim Cowlishaw
William Timothy Cowlishaw is an American sportswriter for The Dallas Morning News, a regular panelist on the ESPN sports talk show Around the Horn and formerly the lead reporter for the ESPN2 racing show NASCAR Now.Cowlishaw joined the Dallas Morning News in 1989...
of The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
. (Cowlishaw is sometimes nicknamed "Top Cat" based on his initials.) Adande is also known for the "J.A. Adande Lounge" which he usually mentions during his "Face Time" (which is the 20 to 30 second speech the winner gets after a victory on the show). His birthday was revealed to be October 25 on the episode of that date in 2006 (he won the episode). Another notable Adande feature is his impersonation of NFL analyst (and former quarterback) Ron Jaworski
Ron Jaworski
Ronald Vincent "Ron" Jaworski is a former American football quarterback and currently an NFL analyst on ESPN. He is also CEO of Ron Jaworski Golf Management, Inc., based out of Blackwood, New Jersey, and manages golf courses in southern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania, and West Virginia...
(Jaws). During the NFL season, when the panelists make their weekend predictions, Adande dons his Ron Jaworski jersey and talks in a deepened voice, similar to Jaworski's.
Since leaving the Times, Adande has continued to appear as a panelist on Around the Horn. As of November 21, 2011, he has won on the show 206 times in 756 appearances.
Pardon the Interruption
Adande has appeared as a "Five Good Minutes" guest on Pardon the InterruptionPardon the Interruption
Pardon the Interruption is a sports television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels, TSN, ESPN America, XM, and Sirius satellite radio services, and as a downloadable podcast. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories...
and debuted as a substitute host on July 2, 2007 with Dan Le Batard
Dan Le Batard
Dan Le Batard is a Cuban-American newspaper sportswriter, radio host, and television reporter based out of Miami, Florida. Le Batard graduated from the University of Miami in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and politics. During his college career, he was a sportswriter for the...
. On August 3, 2007, Adande performed the rare task of being a panelist on "Around the Horn" and a guest host on "Pardon the Interruption" in the same day.
On May 7, 2010 J.A. Adande appeared as a fill in for Tony Kornheiser who was according to Mike Wilbon, "out golfing."
ESPN
Adande joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007. The panel at Around the Horn all congratulated him on the job and played a joke "Buy or Sell" segment about Adande's comments about joining ESPN. He is also now an NBA analyst on ESPN's hit show, SportscenterSportsCenter
SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
.