Dave Benz is an American broadcaster who formerly served as the television play-by-play announcer for the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA).

Broadcasting career

Comcast SportsNet

Benz hosted several programs for the

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 ...

, such as ''49ers Postgame Live'', ''49ers Central'', and ''49ers Press Conference''. He hosted pregame/postgame shows for the Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics, and the

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertainm ...

and was an anchor for ''SportsNet Central''. He also did play-by-play for college basketball, reported for ''Sportsnet Reporters'', and was the voice of the

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 ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

KNBR-AM

He has also worked for KNBR-AM as a fill-in host for ''The Gary Radnich Show'', ''The Damon Bruce Show'', and ''Sportsphone 680''.

WTTG-TV

Benz was also employed by

WTTG-TV WTTG (channel 5) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet WDCA (channel 20). WTTG and WDCA share ...

as a sports anchor/reporter and hosted pregame/halftime/postgame shows for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

The Mountain

Benz also called college basketball games for the

MountainWest Sports Network The MountainWest Sports Network, also known as The Mtn. (stylized as the mtn.), was an American college sports television channel. Launched on September 1, 2006, it was dedicated to the Mountain West Conference (MWC), including studio programs fo ...

KLZ-560 AM

Dave also was a talk show host for KLZ-560 AM and was the host of a four-hour talk show host, ''Sportstown''.

Fox Sports/Fox Sports Net/Bally Sports

While working for the

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

family, hosted several shows for

Fox Sports Rocky Mountain AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain is an American regional sports network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit as part of the AT&T SportsNet brand of networks, and is an affiliate of Bally Sports. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, ...

such as ''AFL Weekly'', ''Broncos Preview'', ''Rockies All Access'', ''Rockies Roundup'', ''Crush Weekly'', ''Insider Edition'', and ''The Buffalo Stampede''. He did play-by-play for Colorado Rockies spring training, hosted pregame/postgame shows for various sports such as college football and basketball, play-by-play commentator for the

Colorado Crush The Colorado Crush were an arena football team based in Denver, Colorado. They began play as a 2003 Arena Football League expansion team. The Crush played in the Central Division of the American Conference until the Arena Football League suspen ...

, Colorado State Tigers men's basketball, and

Colorado Buffalos The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffalo ...

men's and women's basketball and

Denver Pioneers men's basketball The Denver Pioneers men's basketball team represents the University of Denver and competes in the NCAA Division I men's college basketball in Denver, Colorado. They are led by head coach Jeff Wulbrun and are members of the Summit League. They pl ...

, sideline reporting for the

and the

; football and men's basketball. He also did some sideline reporting for the

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under t ...

. He was the host of ''Mavericks Live'', a pregame/postgame show host for the Dallas Mavericks and performed the same role for the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home ...

. He also hosted ''Florida Sports Report'' and ''Southwest Sports Report''.

Other work

He worked as sports anchor and sports reporter at

WTTV-TV WTTV (channel 4), licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and WTTK (channel 29), licensed to Kokomo, Indiana, are television stations affiliated with CBS and serving the Indianapolis area. They are owned by Nexstar Media Group alongsid ...

and

WXIN-TV WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington-licensed CBS affiliate WTTV, channel 4 (and its Kokomo-licensed satel ...

as well as a sports director for

WUTR-TV WUTR (channel 20) is a television station in Utica, New York, United States, serving the Mohawk Valley as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Nexst ...

. He was the pregame/postgame host for the Colorado Rockies Radio Network and hosted shows ''Softball 360'', ''SledHead 24/7'', and ''Autoweek''. He was also the pregame/halftime/postgame host for the Green Bay Packers Radio Network. His other play-by-play experiences came from the

Green Bay Bombers The Green Bay Bombers was an indoor football team that played in the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) in 1998, and in the Indoor Football League (IFL) in 1999 and 2000. The Bombers franchise was owned by Keary Ecklund. The team office w ...

and the Wisconsin Blast. The

hired Benz to replace

Tom Hanneman Tom Hanneman (June 29, 1952 – December 17, 2020) was an American play-by-play television announcer for the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and had been with the franchise since its inception in ...

as the voice of the Timberwolves. He was let go by the Timberwolves in May 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benz, Dave Television anchors from Washington, D.C. Television anchors from Indianapolis Colorado Rockies announcers Golden State Warriors announcers San Jose Sharks announcers Oakland Athletics announcers Green Bay Packers announcers Living people American television sports announcers American television sports anchors American radio sports announcers American talk radio hosts National Basketball Association broadcasters Major League Baseball broadcasters Arena football announcers Women's college basketball announcers in the United States National Hockey League broadcasters National Football League announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Minnesota Timberwolves announcers College football announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Year of birth missing (living people)