Steve Buckhantz (born June 19, 1955) is a television

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, most recently for the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast D ...

Biography

Buckhantz began his television announcing career as Sports Director at

WTTG 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 ...

, the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

-owned station in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

as well as NFL games for Fox. A District native, he grew up in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...

, where his father owned a construction company. He attended

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

Harrisonburg, Virginia Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is also the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. At the 2 ...

. One of his earlier jobs in sports was with

WSB-TV WSB-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to rad ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, where he covered the Braves and the Hawks and eventually became the night-time sports anchor. Buckhantz currently resides in Washington, D.C. He married Shelley Lawrence on May 8, 2011. Shelley has two children from a previous marriage, Jake and Olivia Lawrence. Buckhantz has spent 23 years as the Wizards' play-by-play announcer, alongside

Phil Chenier Philip Chenier (born October 30, 1950) is an American former professional basketball player who was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for ten seasons. He was also a television sports broadcaster for the NBA's Washingto ...

and later,

Kara Lawson Kara Marie Lawson (born February 14, 1981) is the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team. She is a former American professional women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and a basketball t ...

, on

NBC Sports Washington NBC Sports Washington is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the channel broadcasts regio ...

(formerly HTS from 1984-2001 and Comcast SportsNet from 2001-2017) until his departure after the 2018-19 NBA season.

Style

Buckhantz has garnered a reputation for his emphatic expressions, such as "''Dagger''", "''Blocked by

layer Layer or layered may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Layers'' (Kungs album) * ''Layers'' (Les McCann album) * ''Layers'' (Royce da 5'9" album) *"Layers", the title track of Royce da 5'9"'s sixth studio album * Layer, a female Maveri ...

''", "''Backbreaker''", "''How good is he, Phil?''", "''How do you like that?''", "''Tough shot!''", "''It's good if it goes!....And it nearly did!''", "''Score the field goal, he'll go to the line!''", "''For the win!''", "''The refs have swallowed/put away their whistles!''", "''That's gotta be five seconds!''", "''That's hard to believe''", "''And layer/coachis Livid!/Incensed''", "''Oh My!''", "''Follows it up twice!''", “Foul, no call”, and "''NO, it's not possible!''" His catchphrases have seeped into the lexicon of Washington, D.C. area sports fans, who revel in using them to describe a myriad of non-sports related events (ex. males observing a friend attempting to ask a woman for her phone number exclaim "''Dagger!''" or "''Backbreaker!''" when she can be seen rejecting the friend's advances) as well as debating the subtle and compelling distinction between a "''Backbreaker''" (a made basket at a critical juncture in a game that breaks any chance that the opposing team will win) and a "''Dagger''" (a made basket at a critical juncture in a game that stabs like a dagger at the opposing team's chance of victory).

30 for 30

In 2009, Buckhantz was featured in the ESPN

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

film ''Without Bias'' about the days leading up to the

Len Bias Leonard Kevin Bias (November 18, 1963June 19, 1986) was an American college basketball player who attended the University of Maryland. During his four years playing for Maryland, he was named a first-team All-American. Two days after being selec ...

death in the summer of 1986 after being chosen number 2 overall by the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

after a stellar career at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. He was featured as a reporter for

as the sports director at the time of Bias' death in 1986.

References

External links

Wizards Broadcasters:Steve Buckhantz
www.nba.com
Steve Buckhantz:Commentaries on NBC Washington
www.nbcwashington.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckhantz, Steve 1955 births Living people American television sports announcers James Madison University alumni Mid-Atlantic Sports Network National Football League announcers People from Arlington County, Virginia Washington Wizards announcers