How a Geelong netballer ended up covering the NBA finals

GEELONG’S sporting influence reached one of the biggest stages in the world earlier this month, with former Australian netball star Kelsey Browne finding herself courtside covering the NBA Finals.

From the netball courts at South Barwon to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, Browne’s relatively fresh media career took another remarkable turn as she became ESPN’s Australian reporter for the incredible series that saw the New York Knicks defeat the San Antonio Spurs for the 2026 Championship.

And it all started with an unexpected email from the famous sporting channel’s international team in Bristol, Connecticut.

“I think the most interesting part of the whole story, outside of doing the games, is that I got an email while I was in Perth in bed at 4am in the morning and (ESPN) asked me to come over,” Browne explained.

“I thought it was a prank because it’s probably the biggest achievement I’ve done and I think getting an email like that saying ‘come over and work on the NBA’ is a dream come true.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done and I do feel very grateful and lucky to be the person that was picked to go over there and do it.”

After finding her feet at ESPN’s head office and covering the Eastern Conference Finals between the Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Browne said that the stakes were immediately raised when she arrived in San Antonio for game one of the Finals.

“That was the one that really blew my mind,” she said.

“Every press conference had over 100, 200 people in there, just the hype around the league and being around the players and the access that you got.

New York taking out their first NBA Championship in 53 years brought a plethora of celebrities to the front row, with longtime A-list super fans like Timothee Chalamet and Ben Stiller becoming regular faces Browne would rub shoulders with at every game.

“The celebrity side of things for me, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it wore off kind of quickly because there’s just so many of them around.

“That’s how I started to get my excitement under wraps because you’re spending so much time with the players and the media and the coaches that they end up starting to know your faces and you end up being this travelling group.

 

 

“At times I was like, what am I doing here? I’m just a little girl from Geelong, now spending time in the States and covering maybe the biggest sport in the world.”

Browne said the die-hard fan culture from both teams proved how meaningful sport is to so many people.

“Fifty-three years is a really long time for the New York Knicks fans and all of them were fans from the beginning, from being born,” she said. “So that was a really special experience just watching the passion.

“And for me, that was remembering why we love sport. We love feeling like we’re a part of something and jumping into what it feels to be a part of something bigger than you and that was the feeling around New York.”

Although she currently resides in Perth, Browne credited her home town of Geelong and widespread sporting experience in the region. Her father still lives in the area, as well as her sister Madison, who coaches Torquay’s A-grade netball side.

“We have such a rich sporting culture down in Geelong and that’s something I am very proud to be a part of and keep coming back to,” she said.

“Sport means so much to me. My parents put us into so many different sports in Geelong when we were younger and now I’m commentating basketball, Madi’s coaching netball, Dad was a footballer.

“I can’t run away from the fact that it is just such a huge part of my identity now and I love that and I love what sport can give us.

“To be standing on a stage like that, having come from where I’ve come from, it’s not lost on me that it’s a pretty big achievement.”

Incredibly, Browne worked with fellow Geelong local Kane Pitman throughout her time in America, who has been in the NBA landscape there for more than eight years. She said that feat alone proved that hard work can create unimaginable opportunities.

“How crazy that out of four on-air talent, two of them were from Geelong!” she said. “I have to give a shout-out to Kane because he’s over there doing incredible things.

“Hard work can go a very long way – I haven’t been the most talented person in any role that I’ve done.

“If I was to say to any young girls out there, if you think something’s unachievable, it’s not. I can’t believe that I’m doing what I’m doing and I put that down to hard work and staying committed to things.”