As the basketball season continues, Sarah Kustok is voyaging around the country for months on end contributing to a wide array of broadcast properties. This coming Monday, she will be on hand at Prudential Center in Newark to call the Coretta Scott King Classic on FOX alongside play-by-play announcer Dave Sims. In order to arrive for the women’s college basketball doubleheader on time, she will be taking a redeye flight from Oklahoma City after the matchup between the Brooklyn Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Yet traveling on the road is nothing anomalous for Kustok, who provides analysis on basketball games at the collegiate and professional levels. Being on the air is something she considers a privilege, and she possesses mindfulness that guides her quotidian routine surrounding her packed calendar. Even though the schedule gauntlet can seem exhausting from an outside perspective, Kustok remains exhilarated through her love and passion for her occupation and seeks to execute her role with aplomb.
“There is not a second that passes – and I really mean this – that I do not think about how grateful I am to call this work because it is not work,” Kustok said. “It is what I love most, and it’s the people I’m around, it’s the stories I get to tell, it’s watching individuals chase down their dreams, and so I am chasing down a feeling of that type of energy of what I get to do.”
Kustok has been able to thrive in a multifarious media ecosystem as live sports broadcasts prove invaluable to linear television amid the expansion of digital media verticals. Whereas her analysis on YES Network has elements of familiarity since she follows the Nets organization and calls most of its games, college basketball contests render more ambiguity and an occasional learning curve surrounding players and coaches. Aside from reviewing statistics and game film, Kustok also converses with personnel to glean insights and other background to better inform her commentary.
“Through the course of our schedule, sometimes you get more or less time with the teams or what you’re watching or just kind of how that works and ebbs and flows,” Kustok said, “but I think you’re always trying to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in these leagues.”
Consumption of regular-season games in women’s college basketball proliferated on FOX and FS1, accruing a 66% year-over-year increase with an average of 436,000 viewers. The company also earned the most-watched women’s regular-season game on any network with 3.39 million viewers when Iowa guard Caitlin Clark became the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader. The momentum has continued throughout this season, with FOX averaging 513,000 viewers for the Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic doubleheader last month.
“You see the interest, you see the buy-in, you see the enthusiasm, and again, that’s where I’ll flicker back to FOX Sports,” Kustok said. “You show these games, you show these individuals and the attention continues to grow, and so I think that’s what it’s all about.”
Kustok recognizes the growth of women’s sports and aspires to highlight the talent and personalities of the athletes. As the former captain of the DePaul University women’s basketball team, she attributes her experience as teaching her how to adapt and handle any situation with both poise and composure. Heading into the doubleheader on Monday, she is keeping track of the participating teams while balancing her obligations with Nets telecasts all while on the road.
“When you’re getting set for a game, I think that’s where you’ll lock in a little bit more of watching their last game but still looking at the numbers,” Kustok said. “The same type of prep I do for my boards – going and watching a practice or shootaround and getting a chance to talk to the coaches, talk to the players – I think a lot of that translates and is similar.”
Regardless of the league, Kustok always remembers that there are things she can learn about basketball from viewers, fans, coaches and players. When she is delivering analysis to the audience, she seeks to convey her evaluations with clarity and precision in vernacular that is discerned by all. On top of that, she exhibits personality and character while occasionally utilizing her playing skills, such as when she saved YES Network broadcaster Ian Eagle from a basketball coming in his general vicinity.
“It’s as simplified as play-by-play is going to say, ‘What?,’ and I’m going to say, ‘Why?,’” Kustok said, “and so I want to do my best throughout the course of a game to try and explain, ‘Why are we seeing these things happen? Why are we seeing the score discrepancy the way it is? Why are we seeing a team get a ton of three-point looks?’”
Kustok departed the Chicago metropolitan area in 2012 to join YES Network as the courtside reporter for Nets broadcasts, the incipience of its relocation in Brooklyn, N.Y. For the first few seasons, she was living in someone else’s apartment out of a suitcase and had her belongings stored at an office. Nonetheless, the chance to be associated with an NBA team and cover the games was invaluable, especially at a seminal point in the history of the organization replete with enthusiasm.
“It was one of those typical New York stories – but the energy, the diversity, the culture, so many things about the city, and the love of sports, similar to Chicago, I couldn’t get enough of,” Kustok said. “And so it was a tremendous time, I think, with that move, and again, just kind of being entrenched with the NBA and reuniting with the league that I grew up watching [and] grew up caring about so much.”
When a scheduling conflict left YES Network searching for an analyst to fill in, the company offered Kustok the opportunity since she prepared commensurate to the role. The one-game assignment elicited national headlines, and she remembers feeling energized and developing a penchant for the job. Two years later, Kustok was making history as the first full-time solo female analyst for an NBA team in league history, a fortuitous circumstance she did not initially perceive as being possible.
“It was a dream come true, and I think for a lot of reasons, it was one of those situations that if you would’ve asked me three years prior to that [or] five years prior to that, I never would’ve imagined that this would be an opportunity,” Kustok said. “At the time, Doris Burke [and] Ann Meyers Drysdale, that was kind of it, and they felt like more just they were so incredible, and I still, every time I see them, thank them for laying the foundation, paving the way to have those type of opportunities.”
Kustok seeks to denote observations that are scholastic and entertaining, and she is frequently considering how to satisfy both concentrations. At the same time, viewers need to maintain awareness of the time and score, descriptions of which take place amid a descant that is premised on camaraderie and revelry. Kustok recognizes that people care about the nuances of the game, and she remains mindful of witnessing the action develop in its natural cadence and providing a soundtrack apropos to the situation.
“I think every game has a life of its own, and it lends itself to sometimes games are a little tighter in the way that you are relying more on the insight and the analysis and the education and breaking down things, and then there’s some games that give way to maybe having a little bit more fun or adding more color and stories than others,” Kustok said. “There’s never a perfect formula. Again, that’s what makes each broadcaster their own, but I think you learn what works for you.”
Aside from working on live game broadcasts, Kustok has also starred on We Need to Talk, the CBS Sports studio program featuring women discussing issues about all sports. The show recently celebrated its 10th year on the air with a reunion episode featuring current and former contributors. Kustok is honored to work alongside a deep roster of industry luminaries, including Lesley Visser, Andrea Kremer and Swin Cash, and she values the conversations and perspectives everyone brings to the show.
“When anything happens in the world of sports, and whether that’s just about the performance or whether that’s issues outside of it, I think it allows us a platform to be able to share our opinions,” Kustok said. “That, to me, I think it is just – for me in the work that I do on a day-to-day basis – a very unique opportunity and one that I cherish.”
In addition to her Nets and college basketball responsibilities, Kustok will be on the call throughout the debut season of Unrivaled Basketball on TNT Sports, a three-on-three league created by WNBA stars Naphessa Collier and Breanna Stewart. Adding this new responsibility further augments her workload, but it aligns with her ambition to surmount difficulties while also being a good person. Kustok looks to ensure people are heard and seen, and it brings her joy to make a positive impact on others and change the proverbial temperature in a room. Moving forward in the industry, she hopes to contribute to everyone achieving success and fueling growth.
“I want to see the WNBA keep growing in ways that they are because they deserve it,” Kustok said. “I want to see the NBA keep growing in ways that they’re already where they’re at, but I watch these players in the moments that are not under the bright lights – the ones [in] the offseason and when they’re showing up for shootarounds or in the gym themselves – and so I want to see growth for all of that. And again, for me personally, I want to be challenged and I want to be happy, and where I’m at right now, I have both those things, so I count my lucky stars every day.”
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