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Doris Burke Shows Off Handles, Reminds NBA Fans She Wasn’t Always A Sideline Reporter

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 09:50 PST, Apr 10, 2016

Doris Burke proved that she has some serious ball handling skills on Saturday night — and the footage has gone viral!

The 50-year-old sideline reporter for NBA on ABC and NBA on ESPN was simply heading back to her post Saturday night in Tennessee as the Memphis Grizzlies went head-to-head against the Golden State Warriors.

As she walked toward her post, a basketball apparently bounced in her direction. She naturally grabbed the ball without hesitation and started dribbling it as she continued walking toward her post. Little did Doris know that her interaction with that basketball was being caught on camera — especially when she tossed the ball behind her back and continued dribbling the ball with one hand.

What makes this video so impressive? Why has the footage led to Doris Burke being one of the biggest headlines that came from that Warriors vs Grizzlies basketball game?

Doris Burke
(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Until that moment, many NBA fans and critics may have forgotten that Doris Burke wasn’t always sitting on the sideline talking about the basketball game. Long before she became a sideline reporter, Doris was a college basketball star.

Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, Doris Burke started playing basketball when she was just in the second grade. Years later, Burke was a young point guard for the Manasquan High School basketball team. She was even recruited by a number of different eastern college. The next chapter of Doris’ basketball journey placed her in college playing for Providence College in Rhode Island.

As a point guard for the Providence Friars women’s basketball team, the Hartford Courant reported that Doris Burke (then Doris Sable) was the Big East Conference leader in assists. As a college senior, Doris was named the Co-Female Athlete of the Year by Providence College in 1987.

According to the Boston Globe, Doris Burke was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Providence College back in 1999 — becoming the fifth woman in the history of the school to receive that prestigious honor. In addition to her love for basketball, Burke also took full advantage of her college education at Providence — earning her bachelor’s degree in health service administration and social work years before obtaining a master’s degree in education.

In an interview with the Boston Globe back in early 2012, Doris Burke admitted that she was at least a little bit intimidated when it came to working as a sideline reporter at NBA games.

“Yes. When I do the NBA, part of me is very careful with my verbiage. There’s no way for me to understand what it’s like to play or coach at that level. There’s no way for me to understand what it’s like for my job to be on the line… Basketball is something I’ve been playing since the second grade.”

Within the same Boston Globe article, perhaps its writer Bob Ryan paid Doris Burke the biggest compliment, which spoke volumes about her knowledge, experience and overall skill.

“ESPN employs only one person with the sufficient knowledge, credibility and performance skills to be a basketball analyst for the men’s college game, the women’s college game, the NBA and, in years past, the WNBA. That person is Doris Burke.”

Thanks to the beauty of viral videos, most fans and critics that were not aware of Doris Burke’s ability to handle a basketball very well on the court are likely aware of it now. What makes what Doris did in that particular video even more impressive is that she did it in heels and did it all with one hand while holding her papers in the other hand.

[Image Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images]

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