Robert James Fitzgerald (born 1966) is an American sports broadcaster who is currently the TV

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

announcer for the NBA's

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

NBC Sports Bay Area NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the San Francisco Giants, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquart ...

and was a co-host of the radio talk show ''Fitz and Brooks'' on

KNBR KNBR may refer to: * KNBR (AM), a radio station (680 AM) licensed to serve San Francisco, California, United States * KNBR-FM KNBR-FM (104.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, serving the greater San ...

with Rod Brooks.

Biography

Education

Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Fitzgerald moved to

Foster City Foster City is a city located in San Mateo County, California. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley ...

at age six in 1972. Fitzgerald graduated from Serra High School in nearby San Mateo and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. Fitzgerald also earned a master's degree in sports management from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. While at Notre Dame, he worked as a play-by-play broadcaster for Fighting Irish football and basketball on campus radio station WVFI.

KNBR

Fitzgerald gained notoriety on

as the host of the 8:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. sports talk show, “Sportsphone 68." Fitzgerald was a co-host of the ''Fitz and Brooks'' show from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on

680.

Golden State Warriors

Fitzgerald is currently in his 24th season as television play-by-play announcer for the

. In addition to announcing 71 Warriors games on NBC Sports Bay Area, Fitzgerald also continues to maintain an active role on the "Warriors Weekly Roundtable" and postgame radio shows throughout the basketball season. Since his arrival, the Warriors broadcast team, including color commentator Jim Barnett, has received 12 nominations and won two Emmys for "Best Live Sports Broadcast," the initial two for the organization. Fitzgerald has previously received six Emmy nominations for "Best On-Camera" and was awarded the Emmy for "Best On-Camera, Play-by-Play Sports" for Northern California in 2007 and 2014. Fitzgerald also spent six years as the play-by-play voice for Sega Sports and ESPN's NBA Basketball (now

NBA 2K ''NBA 2K'' is a series of basketball sports simulation video games developed by Visual Concepts and released annually since 1999. The premise of the series is to emulate the sport of basketball, and more specifically, the National Basketball A ...

) video game series.

Olympics broadcasts

Fitzgerald has over 20 years of experience broadcasting Olympic sports. He was the play-by-play basketball announcer covering the London

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

and called NBC Sports coverage of

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

at the Beijing

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. Fitzgerald was the radio broadcaster covering basketball at the Athens

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and also called swimming at the Atlanta

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

NFL broadcasts

Fitzgerald has called

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

games for the

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

and

Sports USA Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more th ...

radio networks. He currently handles

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

preseason broadcasts and served as the play-by-play voice for the Arena Football League's

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

, an organization which is now defunct.

NBA playoffs

Fitzgerald was selected to be a play-by-play announcer for

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

and NBA TV's first round coverage of the 2020 NBA playoffs; he worked with Jim Jackson.

Controversy

Fitzgerald and his broadcasting partner

Kelenna Azubuike Kelenna David Azubuike (born 16 December 1983) is a British-Nigerian-American former professional basketball player and currently the Golden State Warriors television analyst on NBC Sports Bay Area. Born in London, England and raised in Tulsa, ...

were criticized for mocking

Facundo Campazzo Facundo "Facu" Campazzo Avedano (born 23 March 1991) is an Argentine professional basketball player for Crvena zvezda of the Adriatic League and the EuroLeague. At a height of tall, he plays at the point guard position. He is also a member of ...

during a Warriors game against the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

on December 28, 2021. He was also criticized for unprofessionally discrediting Nuggets guard Austin Rivers' ability by questioning the origin of his contract.

References

External links

Golden State Warriors bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Bob 1966 births Living people American sports radio personalities American television sports announcers Arena football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Golden State Warriors announcers National Football League announcers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology alumni Olympic Games broadcasters People from Chicago People from San Mateo County, California Radio personalities from San Francisco Television personalities from San Francisco University of Notre Dame alumni Junípero Serra High School (San Mateo, California) alumni