J.A. Adande (; born October 25, 1970) is an American sportswriter, commentator and educator, who currently serves as the Director of Sports Journalism at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Career

Adande began his career as a sports columnist for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. 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 was an NBA analyst on '' SportsCenter''. He was a regular panelist on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

's ''

Around The Horn ''Around the Horn'' (''ATH'') is an American sports roundtable discussion show, conducted in the style of a panel game, produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002, as a replacement for ''Unscripted with Chris Connelly'', and has ...

'', starting in 2007, and after a period away, returned as a panelist in January 2018. He was formerly an American sports columnist and sideline reporter who covered 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 ...

for

, and was also a regular guest host on ESPN's ''

Pardon the Interruption ''Pardon the Interruption'' (abbreviated ''PTI'') is an American sports talk television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stor ...

'' television shows. Adande is a member of the

National Association of Black Journalists The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is an organization of African-American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C., by 44 journalists, the NABJ's stated purpose is to provide quality p ...

, and also served as an adjunct professor at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

's Annenberg School of Journalism. Adande announced via Twitter in August 2017 that he was relocating to Chicago and becoming director of the new sports journalism program at Northwestern University, as well as a faculty member of the

Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the Unite ...

. During his time at ESPN, Adande covered the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, Wimbledon, the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, and the NBA Finals.

Personal life

He was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, the son of Desire and Elizabeth (Oberstein) Adande. His grandfather, Gerson "Gus" Oberstein (1914-2003), was a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist who had played with jazzmen Joe Roland and

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

, and later with the

Berkeley Symphony Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer t ...

. Adande earned a BA in journalism from

in 1992. He was sports editor of

The Daily Northwestern ''The Daily Northwestern'' is the student newspaper at Northwestern University which is published in print on Mondays and Thursdays and online daily during the academic year. Founded in 1881, and printed in Evanston, Illinois, it is staffed primar ...

, the student newspaper.

References

External links

J.A. Adande's Around the Horn biography

J.A. Adande's Los Angeles Times biography

J.A. Adande's final LA Times column.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adande, J.A. 1970 births Living people University of Southern California staff Medill School of Journalism alumni Los Angeles Times people Crossroads School alumni Sportswriters from California