How a Blind Basketball Commentator Does His Job

There’s a long history of sports broadcasters doing their jobs well and conveying the essence of a game without having a lot of information in front of them. Perhaps the apex of this came in the first half of the 20th century, when some commentators (including at least one future president) reconstructed games using minimal information provided remotely. This decade, another broadcaster is taking on a big challenge: providing commentary on basketball games despite being blind.

Writing at NJ.com, Nyah Marshall talked with broadcaster Allan Wylie — a student at Rowan University who’s covered several games for the G-League’s Delaware Blue Coats — about how he does his job. It turns out that you can learn a lot by listening; as he explained, a combination of noise from the court and cheers (or silence) from the crowd can be tremendously useful in setting the stage for listeners.

“I try to listen to the crowd, the play-by-play announcer, the ball on the court — anything I can really hear,” Wylie told NJ.com.

Listening is one part of Wylie’s work, but as Marshall’s interviews with his colleagues and the head of his program show, heavy research into the teams playing and working closely with his broadcast partner have also made for comprehensive and entertaining dispatches from Blue Coats games. Basketball isn’t the only sport Wylie has chronicled, either — he’s also done color commentary for the Lake County Captains, a club in the Cleveland Guardians’ farm system.

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It’s an impressive accomplishment, but Wylie isn’t alone in this. In 2020, CTV News reported on Jason Lamont, an announcer for multiple hockey teams in Seaforth, Ontario. And as of 2022, Illinois’s Bryce Weiler had provided commentary in a wide range of sports, according to a Fox 2 Now report. It’s all a good reminder of the wide range of skills required to be a memorable broadcaster, no matter the sport.