Throughout a Coaches vs. Most cancers event in Lefkoe’s first faculty basketball season with Bleacher Report, he hosted a pregame present, and among the crew within the manufacturing truck who labored on Contained in the NBA complimented his efficiency. From there, he’d obtain alternatives to host a present with former NFL quarterback Chris Simms, after which an opportunity to co-host The Match golf problem between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in 2018 led to a palpable on-screen chemistry with co-host Charles Barkley.

After that got here a chat with former TNT Sports activities president David Levy and an invite to co-host Contained in the NBA on Tuesdays in 2020. 

He’s credited Contained in the NBA’s improvisational strategy—which let him provide you with intros for Parker and Dwyane Wade on Day 1, fist-bump co-host Shaquille O’Neal, and soak up O’Neal’s jokes concerning the “bullet gap” flowers on his jacket—as key to his preliminary success.

Since settling in, he nonetheless favors riffing to working off of the teleprompter, however is in fixed contact with producers throughout the week and, after observing co-host Ernie Johnson, specializing in tales of the day, statistics, graphics, video property, and the “candy spots” of his analysts—understanding Parker’s defensive acumen, O’Neal’s celebrity psychology.

As he returns for the latest incarnation of Contained in the NBA, new protection of Roland-Garros, and his The Large Podcast with O’Neal, Lefkoe noticed that TNT Sports activities executives “aren’t rooted in ego and simply need to make good, enjoyable content material.” Watching colleagues on different TNT Sports activities exhibits specific themselves, and seeing the division’s deal with him and his colleagues as folks—whether or not he’s filling in so Johnson can go to a commencement or he’s taken off the schedule to go to his one-year-old’s birthday celebration—Lefkoe doesn’t get the sense that the grass (or clay, or hardwood) is essentially better-tended in different corners of the business.

“I’ve been working with Shaq and Candace now for 5 years, and once we’re up there, all of the worry is gone, all of the love is there,” Lefkoe stated. “Now it’s slightly little bit of, ‘How a lot enjoyable can now we have? How loopy can we get? And what number of references can we point out whereas we’re up there?’”

Lauren Jbara, Unmatched/NBA on TNT/NHL on TNT/MLB on TBS

Ten years in the past, Lauren Jbara was working for the State Champs Sports Network in Michigan, interviewing a highschool pitcher after a no-hitter, when the Gatorade bathtub his teammates ready for him missed virtually solely and landed squarely on Jbara. The on-air character informed ADWEEK that, at MLB on TBS—considered one of Jbara’s a number of houses at TNT Sports activities—commentator Brian Anderson “nonetheless makes enjoyable of me for it.”

“I requested him one query. I’m like, ‘How’d that really feel?’ and he’s like, ‘Nice,’ and I am going, ‘Like it,’ and he simply walks away,” Jbara stated of the highschool Gatorade incident. “So it’s simply actually cool to see, full circle, having the ability to do MLB Postseason this 12 months. I used to be like, ‘Wow, now we have come a good distance within the final 10 years.’”

A graduate of the College of Michigan, stints as an area host for the Detroit Pink Wings and reporter for the Detroit Pistons and Oakland College ultimately led Jbara to Denver to function a number and reporter for the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and Main League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids. In 2021, she joined Bally Sports activities South in Atlanta to increase her repertoire with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and MLB’s Atlanta Braves—but in addition to be nearer to TNT.