ESPN’s Debbie Antonelli on pursuing a career, raising a child with Down syndrome

Debbie Antonelli, our next interview subject for “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” has broadcast college and pro basketball games for the past 35 years. She was inducted into the women’s basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

She is deeply rooted in the Carolinas, having grown up in Cary and played college basketball under the legendary Kay Yow at N.C. State in the 1980s. She now lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C., with her family.

In addition to her heavy travel schedule calling both women’s and men’s basketball games, Antonelli is also a wife and the mother to three boys. Her middle son is Frankie, who has Down syndrome and recently graduated from Clemson’s LIFE program.

Her charity work includes an annual free-throw marathon where she makes 100 free throws every hour for 24 straight hours in her driveway. By doing that and soliciting contributions for each free throw made, the 58-year-old Antonelli has raised close to a million dollars for the Special Olympics with “24 Hours of Nothing But Net.”

This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. A fuller version of this interview is available as a free podcast by searching “Sports Legends of the Carolinas.”

Scott Fowler: What is a typical month like for Debbie Antonelli during basketball season?

Debbie Antonelli: I don’t like to count how much I was gone during that time because I don’t want to lose my “Mother of the Year” status. But this year, as a small sample, I think I was home 14 nights from Christmas until the end of the men’s Final Four (on April 3, 2023). That’s because we are empty-nesters now. Back when we did have kids at home, we always had somebody at the house every day after school.

SF: You and I have known each other since we were in our early 20s, when I was a beat reporter covering the University of Kentucky and you worked in marketing at UK. Your office back then in UK’s Memorial Coliseum was, well ...

DA: We were a couple of young pups out there. I was interning to fulfill my grad school requirements from Ohio University. And then I was the first director of marketing in the athletic department at Kentucky. It was such a different role and job back then and what that title would mean today but (athletic director) C.M. Newton hired me right before he hired Rick Pitino. I just recently shared that story with Coach Pitino, because I covered Iona in the men’s tournament this year.

My first office was underneath the bleachers and literally, after a game, Coke would seep through the bleachers onto our office floor and desks. We had to cover everything every night if there was an event in there.

SF: At that time, were you thinking your career path ultimately would be to become an athletic director?

DA: That’s exactly it. I came out of grad school from Ohio University with my master’s in sports administration. I wanted to be an AD. But then in my first year at Kentucky, the local cable company came in to meet with us and said, “We think we can produce sports, but we’re not sure?” And we said, “Well, can you do a women’s basketball game?” And (then-assistant AD) Gene DeFilippo said, “Do you want to do the broadcast?” I was 23 at the time. I was like, “Well, yeah. I’d like to try.” It fulfilled my love for the game and pacified my passion for basketball.

SF: Eventually, you would go into broadcasting full-time. But isn’t it true sometimes early on you would broadcast a game for free? Or for $50?

DA: Yes. And I did freelance for a long time. But we figured it out. My husband is great. And we just figured it out. I have great energy. I just finished my 35th college basketball season on the air and the first 28 were without security, because I didn’t have a full-time position with any network. I worked for all the networks with no minimum number of games. So you know if the coaches went to a spring meeting and they said, “You know what, we really don’t like Debbie Antonelli on the air anymore,” I could have been out. Now I have some security, with ESPN.

SF: Your middle son, Frankie, has Down Syndrome. Tell us about that journey for your family.

DA: When Frankie was born, my husband and I did not know that he had Down syndrome. I remember the doctor coming in and telling me that he was showing signs and symbols of having Down syndrome. I knew exactly what that was and I think I went into shock honestly. It was very scary. You feel like your future passes in front of you. You don’t realize at the time what an incredible gift and that God has chosen us. My mother said to me all the time, for a long time, “You didn’t get Frankie for something you did wrong. You have Frankie for something you did right.”

There was some depression and there was some pitiful moments. I’m not going to shy away from those now. But Frankie is thriving right now. He’s a college graduate from Clemson’s LIFE program. It’s absolutely amazing when you go 25 years back to where we were. At that point, the doctor asked me about an institution (for Frankie). That sends chills down my spine.

That certainly wasn’t anything we considered at all. But I did think that my career might be over. And I was concerned about my husband and our 2½-year-old. How were we going to do this?

SF: Your old college coach Kay Yow was instrumental for you at the beginning. Describe what happened.

DA: I had returned to work and was working the 1998 women’s Final Four. N.C. State had made it for the first time, and all of us who played under Coach Yow were so thrilled. Then they played in the Final Four against Louisiana Tech and got demolished. It was heartbreaking.

The next day, Kay Yow and I were sitting on press row at an all-star game. It was total fate that she sat next to me. She asked me how I was doing and I said, “You know, I’m doing fine.”

And she said, “No, really. How are you doing?”

And it was that deeper question that brought all the emotion forward. The conversation lasted the whole game. It started like this. She said: “I bet finding out you have a child with special needs is like finding out that you have cancer (which Yow battled for years). It’s not something you were prepared for. You don’t have the answers. You don’t know why.”

And then she goes through these incredible steps, saying: “First you nurse the hurt. You’re sorry. Then you curse the hurt, you’re mad. Then you rehearse — that’s where the empathy comes. And then you reverse the hurt. You make a choice that you know I’m going to put a game plan together and I’m going to decide that I’m going to beat cancer.”

And for me, I’m going to be the best mom of a child with special needs. I’m going to be Frankie’s best mom. That was an incredible turning point for me.

SF: Still, there was that hard, day-to-day work for you, your husband Frank and Frankie and his two brothers. What did that look like? How difficult was it sometimes to get the teachers teaching Frankie to buy into what you wanted?

DA: Well, every child deserves an education. And when you have a child with special needs it is an incredibly challenging world to navigate, when you don’t understand it. When we would come together for IEP (Individualized Education Program) meetings, I could only take so much of: “He can’t, he won’t, he doesn’t, he’s not going to.” And I’d be like, “You do not know my child, and you do not understand the things that I see and believe and hope for him.”

And when we were in elementary school, the biggest piece of criteria for me for a teacher was willingness. You didn’t have to have a lot of acronyms in front of your name or after your name. You didn’t have to have special education, perfect training or be a master in something. To me it was, “Are you a good person? Are you willing to try?”

SF: What is “24 Hours of Nothing But Net” about?

DA: This is a crazy, crazy idea. I wanted to figure out a way that I could combine a couple of my passions — shooting a basketball and the Special Olympics.

My inspiration is my son Frankie and what Special Olympics has meant, both to our family and families like mine. So I tried to come up with an idea, and what I came up with was “24 Hours of Nothing But Net.” It’s a 24-hour, free-throw shooting marathon, and 2023 is Year Five.

In my driveway, I make 100 free throws on the top of the hour. So at the end of 24 hours, I’ve made 2400 free throws. This is an incredible fitness test, physically and mentally, and emotionally. I do get AARP mail, but I’m out there sweating it out in my driveway, because it’s really not about the free throws.

It’s a vehicle to share the stories on our 24-hour livestream of Special Olympic athletes, about coaches and actors and entertainers and people that want to share a similar message about trying to help somebody who needs a little more help.

And that’s what Special Olympics is. It’s a great landing spot for families like mine because it helps organize and give athletes a chance to compete and it teaches healthy lifestyles and it gives them a chance to socialize and get together and the competition is real. My son is a really good athlete and without Special Olympics, he wouldn’t be able to participate in sports at a level that he can participate in.

SF: Is anybody rebounding the ball for you during these 24 hours?

DA: When I turned 50, for my birthday, I wanted a Dr. Dish shooting machine. Most women want diamonds, pearls or a trip. And my husband said, “You want what?”

I said, “Yes, I’m going to use this machine to train because I still do camps and clinics and I’m gonna take it with me and I’m gonna help kids learn how to shoot.” Little did I know that they would become a great partner of mine. In this effort to raise money for Special Olympics, I use that machine to train myself.

SF: How much have you raised?

DA: It’s been incredible. In the first four years we raised over $635,000 and I am getting close to one million (after Year 5). If people just give a penny for every free throw I make, that’s $24. And what we’ve gotten is mostly all grassroots — it’s a lot of $50s and $100s from people that I know.

I’m using my own platform to try to grow the awareness and to raise some money.

Coach Yow used to talk to us about rewards and awards.

An award is something that can sit on the shelf and you can look at it. But the reward of doing this for people that I know and families like mine — it’s uplifting for everyone, and it’s a big party now.

I mean people are hanging out with lawn chairs, the Special Olympics torch burns in my yard for 24 hours. The Mount Pleasant police run the torch into my yard. We light the torch and it is a neighborhood event. It takes me about 15 minutes each hour to make 100, and then 45 minutes of other livestream programming. It’s been absolutely one of the best things I’ve ever done, and I wish I’d started it 10 years earlier.

So as long as I can shoot it well, because I don’t think anybody wants to turn in tune in and watch me shoot a bunch of bricks, I’m going to keep doing it.

SF: What’s your free-throw percentage?

DA: Well, the first four years, it averaged 93% (This year, at 4 a.m., Antonelli made 100 straight free throws during the fundraiser, and she shot 95% overall in Year 5). It’s not easy. It’s getting harder and harder to get ready for the fundraiser. But it’s definitely worth it and and I’m so proud of the team that we’ve built around it to be able to do it. And I have eight other states that are doing it with me. So I hope this becomes like the Polar Bear Plunge one day.

For much more from this interview as well as other “Sports Legends” guests like Steph Curry, Roy Williams, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Dawn Staley, check out the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast. The “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” coffee table book debuts in November and is available to pre-order at a 20% discount at SportsLegendsBook.com.