Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Chicago to Baltimore to Cincinnati to Indianapolis to Louisville to Memphis to Atlanta, her family followed the bouncing ball. And before she was Hannah Storm, she was Hannah Storen - and really, still is. A Texas radio station changed her on-air name.
The daughter of Marine-turned-hoops executive Mike Storen and the former Hannah Grasberger, a Roanoke native, Storm is one of sports television's rising stars. Storm will continue her usually incisive work as a game reporter when the NBA Finals begin today on NBC (9 p.m., WSLS Channel 10).
"I feel very much at home in a basketball arena," said Storm, who joined NBC 13 months ago after three years at CNN. "Since the first or second grade, if it wasn't a school night, I was at a basketball game. I go to games now and people come up to me and say, `I knew you when you were a little kid.' That's the kind of thing that's really nice."
Storm, 30, was 1 year old when her father left the service and went to work for the NBA's expansion Chicago Zephyrs. The club moved to Baltimore and so did the Storens. Storm's dad eventually became the American Basketball Association commissioner, and later was the president of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and formed the minor-league Global Basketball League.
He's been out of hoops recently, and Storm said she couldn't reveal "the project he's working on just yet." Then, the reporter in her got the best of her when she was pressed for details. Storm said he was working on "something in a foreign country." Perhaps a potential expansion franchise in Toronto?
She didn't deny it. That's because Storm understands the territory. It's obvious, from her work as host on the "NBA Showtime" studio segments during the regular season and the type of questions she asks at courtside during and after games, that she knows hoops.
Last week, Storm was in the New York Knicks' locker room before a game when forward Charles Smith started to explain some nuance of the game to her. Guard Doc Rivers interrupted, explained Storm's background to Smith and said, "She knows as much about basketball as we do."
That isn't to say Storm didn't experience the same prejudice other women have faced trying to get into what has been primarily a man's world, sportscasting. A 1983 University of Notre Dame graduate, Storm had difficulty even securing an agent when she told them she wanted to go into sportscasting.
"My father was pretty much out of basketball by the time I was a senior in high school, and I really didn't start covering the NBA until 1985," Storm said. "However, because of what I experienced growing up, there always has been a certain comfort level with sports for me that maybe some other women don't have.
"When you sit at the dinner table and hear about and talk about players, coaches and general managers, and then you've met some of those people, let's face it - it won't be as intimidating to you. I found I was very much at ease with people in sports in almost any situation, and me going into a career in sports made a lot of sense.
"However, being a woman in sports continues to be a challenge. You want to be recognized as a sportscaster, not as a woman. And out in the arena, dealing with people, there are those who still don't accept me for what I do. I've had problems with a trainer [during the New York-Chicago playoff series] and players at times, and with certain PR people it can be a bit of a struggle.
"You just deal with a lot of things to get what you need."
After graduation, Storm couldn't get a TV job, so she went to work for a Corpus Christi, Texas, radio station, where she was given a new "air" surname. She moved to Houston and into television as the host of the Rockets' studio show, then spent 11 months with the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., where she'll never forget "going into the pits for stock car racing."
Her months at NBC have been as varied as the zip codes of her youth. Her first assignment was last year's Wimbledon tennis championships, followed by the Barcelona Olympics, Notre Dame football pregame, NBA studio - and back to Wimbledon after the NBA Finals. What's next?
"I hope some time off," said Storm, who used to spend vacations visiting her mother's former home in Lynchburg.
Storm and fellow NBC and former CNN sportscaster Dan Hicks are engaged. He has NFL football play-by-play work in the fall. Storm will succeed Bob Costas as the primary NBA studio host next season. She said a wedding will fit in there somewhere.
At NBC, it's obvious the Storm forecast is sunny.
by CNB