Billy Packer – CBS
Salary: $500,000 per year
Retired basketball analyst, Billy Packer, spent over 30 years as a college basketball color analyst. He has been the subject of numerous controversies and was considered out of touch with the game by many fans. Their biggest criticism towards Packer was his overly harsh manner of broadcasting, supposedly judging the young college player the same way you’d judge a professional NBA player.
To some degree, Packer was seen by many as a film’s antagonist. His many controversies ranged from calling Hoya’s guar Allen Iverson a “tough monkey” to suggesting the Kansas Jayhawks rigged their games through poor lighting. One of his most bizarre publicity-stunned adventures involved Packer hiring a psychic to help find O.J. Simpson’s murder weapon. The notorious broadcaster is also the author of “Hoops, Why We Win”, “The Golden Game” and a few others.
Kevin Harlan - CBS, TNT
Salary: $400,000 per year
We all know Kevin Harlan as the full-time voice of Monday Night Football and for his Super Bowl commentary. Harlan is currently the play-by-play caller for CBS Sports of both NFL and NCAA Men's Basketball tournaments. With over 37 years of experience with broadcasting, this veteran play-by-play commentator is known by almost anyone who watches sports on CBS or TNT.
Harlan began his broadcasting career during high-school, calling play-by-play for their basketball, football, and ice-hockey games. He was quickly picked up by the NBA's Kansas City Kings at age 22 and has since joined various networks and it doesn’t look like he’s stopping! In 2017, Harlan was chosen by the NSMA as the National Sportscaster of the Year. Harlan is married with 4 kids. Olivia Harlan, his daughter, is married to popular NBA player Sam Dekker and also works for ESPN as a sideline reporter. Harlan is also the VP of the Made to Flourish charity, which empowers pastors.
Joe Buck - Fox Sports
Salary: $6 million per year
Joe Buck comes from a lineage of sportscasters, with his dad being the legendary Jack Buck, who was one of the best known MLB announcers back in the '50s. Joe's career started at the end of the '90s and bloomed from there as he became the youngest NFL announcer of all time at the early age of 25. Since then, Buck has announced over 40 World Series and All-Star games, making him the most active play-by-play announcer on TV.
Buck's career has been filled with a lot of controversies and drama, such as him being heavily criticized for allegedly having a bias towards specific teams, as-well-as developing a nasty vocal cord paralysis that hurt his ability to speak loudly due to a complicated hair transplant procedure. The sportscaster from Florida is married to ESPN reporter Michelle Beisner and has two beautiful twin boys.
Rebecca Lobo - ESPN
Salary: $60,000 per year
At 6'4", Rebecca Lobo is one incredibly tall woman! Lobo is one of the original players from the WNBA and debuted with the New York Liberty. She continued playing with the team before moving to the Houston Comets and retiring the following year. Her career was cut short by an anterior ligament tear that forced her career to its premature end. She has since become a reporter and color analyst for ESPN, mostly focusing on WNBA and women's college basketball games.
The popular NBA player was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 as well as the basketball hall of fame. In 2003, Lobo married sportswriter Steve Rushin and has since given birth to 4 children. Lobo helped her mother write a book called "The Home Team" that details the struggles that her mom had endured in battling breast cancer. The mom and daughter duo have since founded the RuthAnn and Rebecca Lobo Scholarship which offer Hispanic students financial aid. In 2017, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Lobo dominated the courts as a college player before turning pro, with one of her crowning achievements being her team's 35-0 win in the 1995 national championship.
Dick Enberg - NBC, CBS, ESPN
Salary: $6 million per year
The Hall of Fame broadcaster, famous for his "Oh my!" calls has been one of America's most loved and admired sports broadcasters. His career spanned out through about 60 years in which he worked with numerous networks such as NBC, CBS, and ESPN. Enberg's incredible track record included 10 Super Bowls and 28 Wimbledons. He was highly celebrated and racked up a very impressive list of honors including 3 Hall of Fame awards, 13 Sports Emmy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Emmy and even his own star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Outside of sports, Enberg has appeared in a handful of films as an announcer or himself, mostly throughout the '70s. He is the father of 6 kids who also went on to accomplish great things in their personal lives. The legendary sportscaster retired from broadcasting in 2016 and sadly passed away in 2017 at age 82 in his La Jolla, California residence.