Rosalyn Fatima Gold-Onwude (; born April 28, 1987) is an American-Nigerian sports broadcaster. A native of New York City, Gold-Onwude played
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
at
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
and played on the
Nigeria national team.
Gold-Onwude covers NBA basketball 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%). The ...
's TV, digital, and radio platforms and is a fill-in host of
First Take with
Stephen A. Smith
Stephen Anthony Smith (born ) is an American sports television personality, sports radio host, and sports journalist. He is a commentator on ESPN's ''First Take'', where he appears with Molly Qerim. He also makes frequent appearances as an N ...
each week. Since 2012 Gold-Onwude has covered March Madness, the NCAA tournament and Pac-12 Men's and Women's college hoops in both the analyst and reporter role for
Pac-12 Networks
The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquarter ...
. Most recently Gold-Onwude has joined forces with
Kevin Durant
Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for t ...
's and
Rich Kleiman
Rich Kleiman (born November 27, 1976) is an American entrepreneur. A native New Yorker, he is Kevin Durant’s longtime agent and later business partner with Durant in 35V (Thirty Five Ventures). Founded in 2016, 35V incorporates Kleiman and Duran ...
's 35 Ventures as one of the faces of "The Boardroom". Gold-Onwude was also the host of a sports debate show called "Don't at Me" presented by
The Players' Tribune
''The Players' Tribune'' is a new media platform that produces daily sports conversation and publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. The platform was founded by former professional Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter in ...
and streaming live
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
Early life
Gold-Onwude was born in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York City, to Russian-Jewish mother Pat Gold and Nigerian father Austin Onwude.
She played high school basketball at Archbishop Molloy High School in
Briarwood, New York. The team won two state titles in 2003 and 2004, but a knee injury finished her senior season early. Despite the injury, she graduated from Molloy as a highly decorated player and became the first female athlete in the program's history to play Division I basketball after accepting a scholarship to Stanford University.
Gold-Onwude became Molloy's second all-time leading scorer and the all-time leader in steals and assists despite another knee injury. In 2011, Gold-Onwude became the first Molloy alumna to be inducted into the GCHSAA Hall of Fame.
College career
Gold-Onwude played basketball while earning her bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in sociology at Stanford University.
As a member of the Stanford women's basketball team from 2005 to 2010, Gold-Onwude played in three Final Fours and two national championship games helping the Cardinal win four conference titles, as starting guard.
In her final season she was named the 2010 Pac-10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, ending her Stanford career as the school's all-time leader in games played.
National team career
Gold-Onwude represented the
Nigeria women's national team at the
2011 FIBA Africa Championship for Women where she averaged 8.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2 assists.
Broadcasting
From 2017 to 2019, Gold-Onwude worked for
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...
in her first national role, covering the NBA regular season, playoffs, All Star Weekend and NBA Summer League games 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
NBATV
NBA TV is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit. Dedicated to basketball, the network features exhibition, regular ...
. Before joining Turner Sports, Gold-Onwude served as the sideline reporter for the
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 ...
on
NBC Sports Bay Area, covering the Warriors' run to three straight
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...
and two championships from 2014 to 2017. Gold-Onwude was the color commentator for the WNBA's
NY Liberty from 2011 to 2017 for
MSG Networks
The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provide ...
. Additionally, she joined NBC's coverage of the
2016 Rio Olympics as a sideline reporter for Men's Basketball.
Gold-Onwude has worked as an analyst for the NBA on ESPN Radio since 2022.
Personal life
Gold-Onwude has spoken out about her passion for mentoring young girls, raising awareness for mental health issues and empowering women in business.
She has participated in the NBA's Basketball Without Borders Program and NBA Africa Game.
In December 2018 she returned to Nigeria to work with the Hope 4 Girls Camp, a girls only basketball camp.
References
External links
*
Stanford bio(archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold-Onwude, Rosalyn
1987 births
Living people
African-American Jews
Basketball players from New York City
African Games bronze medalists for Nigeria
African Games medalists in basketball
American people of Nigerian descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Archbishop Molloy High School alumni
College basketball announcers in the United States
Competitors at the 2011 All-Africa Games
ESPN people
Jewish American sportspeople
Nigerian women's basketball players
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from Queens, New York
Stanford Cardinal women's basketball players
Women's college basketball announcers in the United States
Women's National Basketball Association announcers
Women's National Basketball Association media
Women sports announcers