Fall 2024

NBA reporter, host Kristen Ledlow finds strength in Christ during coronavirus pandemic

When the NBA made an unprecedented decision to suspend its regular season on March 11, NBA players were stunned. Yet the lives of all those who covered the game were suddenly thrust into uncertainty as well.

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Kristen Ledlow, a sideline reporter with the NBA on TNT and a studio host with NBA TV, joined a video chat this week with Athletes in Action to share her thoughts and experiences since the league was put on pause.

“When the call was made to suspend the NBA season, I was actually in the car on the way to the airport to go to Milwaukee to cover a Bucks game on TNT,” she said.

Ledlow said her broadcasting teams had long discussions about how to keep creating content, and whether they even should.

“There are so many people right now facing their darkest, most devastating days fighting for jobs, their future, their health, for their lives and the lives of the people they love,” she said.

Ledlow shared that on a personal note, the extended period of social isolation has helped her to slow down, to be more intentional with relationships in her life and to examine where she places her trust.

“When the foundation of what we were standing on is entirely shaken, we’re forced to acknowledge whether or not that foundation was secure,” she said. “And before these days and during these days and after these days, the entirety of who I am is founded in who Jesus is and was and continues to be.”

Ledlow was a guest on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2018 and discussed the importance of Christian community in her life, which she has found even more precious now.

“In the lowest moments of my life, [the church community has] given me someone that I could call. In the highest moments – celebratory moments of my life and career – it’s given me community to celebrate alongside,” she said. “They’ve given me accountability, they’ve given me encouragement, they’ve continued to help me align my mind and heart with Truth.”

In the Athletes in Action video, Ledlow said the grace and freedom that God grants to His children will always be sufficient, no matter the circumstances.

“Even in great darkness, especially in great darkness,” she said, “is when God’s presence sustains.”

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