NBC Sports’ newest voice is already adding more duties to his portfolio.
Lead NBC Major League Baseball voice Jason Benetti will call Tuesday’s first round NBA playoff game between the Celtics and the as-yet-unknown Eastern Conference #7 seed, it was announced Wednesday, working alongside analyst Robbie Hummel and sideline reporter Jordan Cornette.
It will be his first national NBA assignment since Game 1 of a Trail Blazers-Nuggets playoff series in 2021, which he called remotely for ESPN.
The game fits into his schedule as voice of the Detroit Tigers, who will play in Boston the previous day.
Benetti is just weeks into his tenure as NBC’s lead Major League Baseball voice and it had not immediately been clear how many other properties he would be slated to work for his new employer. While identified most with baseball, he has called a variety of sports throughout his career — including college football, college basketball and even the occasional NFL game for his previous employer Fox Sports. His NBA work has been primarily limited to RSN games in Chicago during his tenure as the voice of the White Sox.
The NBA playoff assignment is just the latest in a busy, multi-network stretch for Benetti, who started the year with Fox Sports. Between the end of his Fox Sports tenure in February and the beginning of his NBC Sports tenure in March, he squeezed in the opening day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for CBS and TNT Sports as a fill-in for an ill Brian Anderson.
All of the other announcers listed for the first three days of NBCUniversal playoff coverage have worked games throughout the season, with Mike Tirico, Noah Eagle, Michael Grady, Terry Gannon and Mark Followill all scheduled to call at least one game.
It is not clear how many other playoff games Benetti will call during the postseason, but NBC has up to 34 game windows across the first two rounds.