Malika Andrews is the face of ESPN’s NBA coverage. As the host of NBA Today and NBA Countdown, she leads the network’s flagship basketball programming night after night — a remarkable position for a journalist who only joined ESPN in 2018 and had never worked in television before that. Her rise from college newspaper editor to one of the most recognisable figures in American sports media took less than a decade, and it happened on the strength of old-fashioned reporting: she was in the building, she knew the story, and she asked the question nobody else would.
If you searched for “Malika Andrews biography”, you will have noticed the other thing every celebrity profile tries to tell you: her net worth. Here is the honest answer up front — no authoritative source has ever published a verified figure, and the numbers floating around online are guesses without sources. This article covers everything that is verifiable: her age and background, her education, the print-journalism path that took her to ESPN, her marriage to fellow ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin, and what she actually earns her living doing.
Who Is Malika Andrews?
Malika Andrews is an American sports journalist and television host, best known as the host of ESPN’s NBA Today and NBA Countdown. She joined ESPN in October 2018 as an online NBA writer and, within two years, became the network’s youngest sideline reporter for an NBA broadcast during the 2020 NBA Bubble — the moment that turned a promising print reporter into a national television personality.
Her career since has been a string of firsts. She was the first woman to host the NBA Draft, the youngest broadcaster to present the NBA Finals trophy, and the host ESPN turned to for its biggest nights: the NBA Finals, the draft lottery and the draft itself. Along the way she collected a Sports Emmy, a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and the National Association of Black Journalists’ Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year award. A detailed account of her life and career is maintained on Wikipedia.
Malika Andrews Age and Birthday
Malika Andrews was born Malika Rose Andrews on 27 January 1995 in Oakland, California, which makes her 31 years old as of 2026 — she turned 31 in January 2026. She is an Aquarius.
A small note for fact-checkers: a handful of biography sites list her birthday as 28 January, but every authoritative source — from her Wikipedia entry to ESPN’s own materials — gives 27 January 1995. When the primary sources agree this clearly, the outlier is the error.
Where Is Malika Andrews From?
Andrews is from Oakland, California, where she was born and raised. She is the daughter of Mike Andrews, a personal trainer, and Caren Andrews, an art teacher — a non-sports household in which basketball was a passion, not a profession. She grew up as a devoted fan of the Golden State Warriors, a team that struggled through much of her childhood, which she has said taught her to love the game without needing a winner to root for.
She is of Jewish descent through her mother and had a bat mitzvah in 2008. Her adolescence was difficult in ways she has discussed openly: after leaving Head-Royce School in eighth grade, she spent time at a year-round therapeutic boarding school in Utah while dealing with depression, anxiety and an eating disorder, graduating at 17 in 2012. She has spoken about that period with unusual candour for a public figure, framing it as formative rather than defining.
Where Did Malika Andrews Go to College?
Andrews attended the University of Portland, where she earned a communications degree in 2017. Before college she spent a year working at her maternal grandfather’s civil rights law firm — a detour that ended when journalism pulled her in.
At Portland she threw herself into The Beacon, the student newspaper, rising from sports writer to sports editor to editor-in-chief. It was there she learned the lesson that would define her career: reporting changes things. When she covered a player who suffered a brain bleed after crashing into an unpadded wall, the university put up padding to prevent further injuries. That story earned her a scholarship from the National Association of Black Journalists, and she also trained with the Sports Journalism Institute. She graduated with honours — and with a portfolio that had already caught the eye of the biggest names in basketball writing.
How Malika Andrews Got Her Start in Journalism
Andrews’ professional path ran through print, not television — a background that still shapes her on-air style. At the 2017 NBA Summer League, she introduced herself to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who had already read her work in The Beacon. She interned at The Denver Post, then earned a James Reston Reporting Fellowship in the sports department of The New York Times — one of the most competitive fellowships in American journalism.
From there she spent a year as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covering the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks, before ESPN hired her in October 2018 as an online NBA writer. Her early assignments had her covering the Bulls and Bucks again, then the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets after she moved to New York. In May 2019, she made national headlines when Giannis Antetokounmpo walked out of a press conference, upset about an article she had written suggesting he might leave Milwaukee if the Bucks did not improve — a moment that showed, early on, that her reporting landed hard enough to move superstars.
Malika Andrews at ESPN: The NBA Bubble Breakthrough
The 2020 COVID-19 shutdown of the NBA could have stalled a young reporter’s career. Instead it made Andrews famous. She was one of the first reporters to enter the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando for the completion of the 2019–20 season inside the NBA Bubble — and she stayed for the duration, filing daily reports from inside one of the strangest experiments in sports history.
Her work there was sharp, humane and fearless: she delivered a widely praised on-air monologue on the Breonna Taylor ruling and handled breaking news with a steadiness that belied her age. During the Bubble she debuted as ESPN’s youngest sideline reporter for an NBA broadcast, and she led the network’s virtual 2020 NBA Draft telecast, conducting interviews with the top draftees. When the season ended, ESPN knew what it had. Veteran ESPN reporter Holly Rowe had long defined the network’s sideline standard; Andrews was now being groomed to define its studio future.
NBA Today and NBA Countdown: Her Role as Host
In 2021, ESPN named Andrews the host of NBA Today, the daily studio show that replaced The Jump. That same summer she took over from Rachel Nichols as ABC’s sideline reporter for the NBA Finals. In September 2023 she added the network’s biggest chair: host of NBA Countdown and the face of ESPN’s NBA Finals coverage, succeeding Mike Greenberg.
Her hosting portfolio now spans the sport’s marquee events. On 23 June 2022 she became the first woman to host the NBA Draft — a role she has continued — and at 26 she was the youngest broadcaster ever to host the NBA Finals trophy presentation ceremony. She also appears across ESPN’s NBA ecosystem, from SportsCenter to Get Up, and has expanded into the WNBA and tennis, including the Australian Open. In September 2025 she signed a new multi-year extension with ESPN that broadened her responsibilities across sideline reporting, playoff coverage and the draft, as reported by Sports Media Watch. it has been reported (via Front Office Sports) that she is the leading candidate to succeed Elle Duncan as ESPN’s lead WNBA studio host — a move that would make her the central studio voice of women’s professional basketball as well.
Malika Andrews’ Awards and Honours
The industry noticed fast. In 2021 Andrews was nominated for a Sports Emmy in the Emerging On-Air Talent category and named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in the sports industry. In May 2022 she won the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Personality/Emerging On-Air Talent, beating a field that included former NFL stars turned broadcasters. She has also received the National Association of Black Journalists’ Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year award and recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
Her profile has grown beyond sports television. She appeared in the 2022 short film Playoffs on NBA Lane alongside Marv Albert, and in December 2025 she filled in for a week as a co-anchor on Good Morning America — a sign that the wider Disney/ABC apparatus sees her as a cross-platform talent, not just a basketball host. She belongs to a generation of ESPN voices reshaping sports media, alongside fellow broadcaster Michelle Smallmon, whose own path from production to the national stage VoxScroll has profiled.
Her Sister Kendra Andrews Is an ESPN Reporter Too
Sports journalism runs in the family. Andrews’ younger sister, Kendra Andrews (born June 1997), is also an NBA reporter — and also at ESPN. Kendra covered the Golden State Warriors for NBC Sports Bay Area before ESPN hired her in December 2021 to cover the same team, putting both sisters on the same network covering the same league, sometimes appearing in the same broadcasts.
Their on-air chemistry has produced genuine viral moments: in May 2022, Malika noticed mid-broadcast that Kendra was wearing her watch and quipped, “But is that my watch?” — a clip that travelled widely and showed audiences the easy rapport between the two. Growing up, the sisters raced around the dinner table on a self-imposed 24-second shot clock. The shot clock, it turns out, was practice.
Is Malika Andrews Married? Her Husband Dave McMenamin
Yes. Malika Andrews married fellow ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin on 24 August 2024 — deliberately chosen as 8.24.24, a date honouring Kobe Bryant’s two jersey numbers on what fans call Kobe Bryant Day (Mamba Day). The ceremony took place at Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, California, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, and was covered in detail by Sports Illustrated.
The basketball touches were everywhere: McMenamin changed into Nike Kobe 6 Protro “Mambacita” sneakers for the reception, the seating chart was designed like an NBA tournament bracket, and the reception featured a working basketball hoop. Andrews wore a Grace Kelly-inspired custom lace gown, and her bouquet was wrapped in her late grandmother’s handkerchief.
The couple’s story began at work. They met in 2017 at Madison Square Garden during a Knicks–Cavaliers game — Andrews was a New York Times fellow there to interview LeBron James; McMenamin, who has covered James since 2014, was on the beat. They were engaged on Thanksgiving Day 2022 after five years together. McMenamin joined ESPN in 2009 and primarily covers the Los Angeles Lakers; he played college basketball at the University of Limerick in Ireland, was a student manager on Syracuse’s 2003 national championship team, and co-authored the New York Times bestseller Return of the King about LeBron James and the Cavaliers with ESPN colleague Brian Windhorst — more on his background here.
What Is Malika Andrews’ Net Worth? The Honest Answer
Here is the honest answer: no authoritative source has reported a verified net worth figure for Malika Andrews. No major publication, financial outlet or ESPN disclosure has ever published a credible number, and Andrews herself has never discussed her wealth publicly.
What you will find instead is the usual scatter of guesses from low-authority celebrity blogs — one farm puts her at around $800,000 without naming a source or methodology, while others claim figures several times higher. These numbers contradict each other, cite nothing and explain nothing; they are content-farm output, not reporting. VoxScroll’s standing editorial policy is simple — we report a figure only when a credible source verifies it, and otherwise we say so. It is the same standard applied across the site, including in profiles of fellow broadcasters such as Rosanna Scotto and ESPN radio host Evan Cohen.
What is verifiable is how she earns her living: a multi-year ESPN contract covering two flagship hosting roles (NBA Today, NBA Countdown), plus sideline reporting, draft and playoff coverage, and expanding WNBA duties. National television hosts at her level are well compensated, but without a reported figure, any number attached to her name is speculation. The title of this article promises no figure — because there isn’t one to promise.
Where Does Malika Andrews Live Now?
Andrews lived in New York City during the early years of her ESPN career — she confirmed she was living with her boyfriend there at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In 2021 she moved to Los Angeles, where NBA Today is based, and she has been LA-based ever since, alongside her husband Dave McMenamin, who covers the Lakers. Her roots remain in the Bay Area, where she grew up and where she chose to marry.
Malika Andrews at a Glance
| Full name | Malika Rose Andrews McMenamin |
| Occupation | Sports journalist, television host |
| Famous for | Host of ESPN’s NBA Today and NBA Countdown |
| Birthday | 27 January 1995 |
| Age | 31 (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace | Oakland, California |
| Education | University of Portland (communications, 2017) |
| Husband | Dave McMenamin (married 24 August 2024) |
| Sister | Kendra Andrews (ESPN NBA reporter) |
| Employer | ESPN (since October 2018) |
| Awards | Sports Emmy 2022 (Emerging On-Air Talent); Forbes 30 Under 30 (2021) |
| Home | Los Angeles, California |
| Net worth | No verified figure; online estimates are unconfirmed guesses |
Frequently Asked Questions About Malika Andrews
Who is Malika Andrews?
Malika Andrews is an American sports journalist and television host, best known as the host of ESPN’s NBA Today and NBA Countdown. She joined ESPN in October 2018 as an online NBA writer and became the network’s youngest sideline reporter during the 2020 NBA Bubble.
How old is Malika Andrews?
Malika Andrews was born on 27 January 1995, making her 31 years old as of 2026. She turned 31 in January 2026.
Where is Malika Andrews from?
She is from Oakland, California, where she was born and raised. She grew up as a fan of the Golden State Warriors and is of Jewish descent through her mother.
Where did Malika Andrews go to college?
She attended the University of Portland, graduating in 2017 with a degree in communications. She rose from sports writer to editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Beacon.
How did Malika Andrews get into ESPN?
She came up through print journalism: an internship at The Denver Post, a James Reston Reporting Fellowship at The New York Times, and a year at the Chicago Tribune covering the Bulls and Bucks. ESPN hired her as an online NBA writer in October 2018.
What shows does Malika Andrews host?
She hosts ESPN’s daily NBA Today and NBA Countdown, the network’s NBA Finals coverage. She was also the first woman to host the NBA Draft (2022) and has hosted WNBA coverage for ESPN.
Is Malika Andrews married? Who is her husband?
Yes. She married fellow ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin on 24 August 2024 at Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, California — deliberately chosen as 8.24.24 to honour Kobe Bryant’s jersey numbers. They met in 2017 while covering a Knicks–Cavaliers game.
Is Kendra Andrews related to Malika Andrews?
Yes. Kendra Andrews is Malika’s younger sister. She is also an NBA reporter at ESPN, where she covers the Golden State Warriors after previously reporting on the team for NBC Sports Bay Area.
What is Malika Andrews’ net worth?
No verified figure exists. No authoritative source has reported her net worth, and the estimates published by celebrity blogs are unconfirmed guesses without sources or methodology.
Where does Malika Andrews live now?
She lives in Los Angeles, California, where NBA Today is based. She moved there in 2021 from New York City.
Ali Hussnain is a digital content writer at VoxScroll. He covers celebrity biographies, social media personalities, entertainment news, and trending online topics. His writing focuses on clear information, reliable sources, and reader-friendly content.