Lakers News: LA Broadcaster Making History Tonight In Jazz Game

What a moment!

An injury absence to one of your Los Angeles Lakers’ sideline stars is paving the way for history.

By filling in tonight for commentator Stu Lantz (out following a medical procedure), longtime Spectrum SportsNet in-studio analyst Allie Clifton is blazing a major trail with tonight’s call against the Utah Jazz.

Clifton will be the first female play-by-play commentator, ever, during a Lakers game, as Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times reveals.

Big deal alert. @RealAClifton will make history by becoming the first woman to be on the call of a Lakers game in team history. She’ll be filling in for Stu Lantz as the color analyst on @SpectrumSN. pic.twitter.com/H4syjZVkF1

— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) February 15, 2024

A former player for the University of Toledo Rockets from 2006-10, the 36-year-old Clifton has been documenting Los Angeles superstar forward LeBron James since 2014, as she had been on Fox Sports Ohio’s broadcast crew as a sideline reporter for the Cleveland Cavaliers starting in 2012 (James ditched the aging Miami Heat for the then-up-and-coming Cavs in the summer of 2014). 

When James joined Los Angeles as a free agent in the summer of 2018, Clifton opted to head west, too, joining the Spectrum SportsNet family. Ironically, James won’t be on the hardwood tonight for Clifton’s debut as an in-game analyst, as he’s sitting out on the second night of a back-to-back pair of bouts, with the glorified scrimmage that is the modern All-Star game “looming” on Sunday.

We’re kind of stunned it’s taken this long for someone to shatter this particular glass ceiling, and are excited to hear what Clifton can do!