ESPN reporter Holly Rowe is one of the most respected names in the sports media sector, but for a long time WNBA fans have a hard time forgetting his history of problematic interviews, especially on draft night.
Rowe is front and center ESPN coverage of the 2025 WNBA Draft, which begins at 7:30 p.m. ET Monday night at the Shed in New York.
ESPN promises that Rowe will “walk fans through key draft storylines and look ahead to the 2025 WNBA season,” in part by interviewing draft selections, headlined by the projected No. 1 overall pick. Paige Bueckers of the UConn Huskies.
Before the draft, women’s basketball fans familiar with Rowe’s work expressed concerns about what she might say on draft night, based on problematic comments from the past.
A social media user posted this: “Holly Rowe Draft Night Bingo“, generating over 150,000 views and 500 interactions on X from other fans who were preparing for the worst on draft night.
Although presumptive in nature, the NSFW bingo card brought attention to serious issues surrounding Rowe’s reporting, spanning from the 2023 WNBA Draft to this year’s March Madness.
A square referred to the possibility of a repeat of Rowe’s comments during a first-round NCAA Tournament game in Los Angeles in March. Rowe compared JuJu Watkins’ home games at USC’s Galen Center at the “BET Awards” was a racist statement that many people criticized. found offensive.
The bingo card also anticipated smaller errors, causing hypothetical call confusion. LSU forward Aneesah Morrow named after her former Tigers teammate Angel Reese.
This square referred to Rowe getting Indiana fever star Aliyah Boston’s name is wrong in interview after the 2022 NCAA championship game when Boston was at South Carolina. It was a bad sight during one of the most public moments of Boston’s career — she was receiving the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award — but Rowe apologized for the honest “brain cramp” mistake afterwards.
Rowe also has a reputation for asking deeply personal questions to recruits in front of massive audiences nationwide. ESPN’s television audience reached a peak at 3.09 million viewers during the 2024 WNBA Draft, when Caitlin Clark became No. 1 overall in the Fever.
In the 2023 WNBA Draft, Rowe provoked a violent reaction for direct questions to South Carolina’s Brea Beal about mental health, including asking follow-up questions after Beal began crying while talking about her struggles.
This has been flagged as a concern on the bingo card ahead of the 2025 edition, given that draft invitee Hailey Van Lith recently opened about his struggles with mental health issues.
Rowe has earned praise for accept comments after the turbulent experience of the 2023 draft and improve your interviews with Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso and Jacy Sheldon in 2024. While fans are hoping for more growth in 2025, skepticism persists ahead of the big night in New York.
About the author
Trending News Editor, Athlon Sports
Although his passion is football, Parker has also written regularly about the NFL, WNBA, NBA, college sports, Olympic sports and entertainment topics as a freelancer since graduating from Northwestern University in 2020. He specializes in researching unique angles on the most covered sports teams, such as Inter Miami CF, Kansas City Chiefs, Indiana Fever and Los Angeles Lakers.
