There is a particular kind of heartbreak in watching a moment you spent years helping build, only to find yourself on the outside when it finally arrives. ESPN’s Holly Rowe knows that feeling.
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When the WNBA reached its first-ever Finals Game 7 on October 31, Rowe was not at the arena. The day before the game, she spoke with Suzy Shuster about what it felt like to miss the occasion.
“This is my first finals that I have not been working in like 22 years, so I’ve really devoted a lot of my life to the WNBA,” Holly Rowe said on October 30. “It is nice for people to recognize that and appreciate the work that you’ve put in.”
She was grateful for the recognition, particularly after USA Network publicly acknowledged her work. But the tribute could not quite soften the disappointment of being away from the court when she was preparing to cover the Georgia vs Florida CFB game for ABC.
“I wish I could swap those assignments,” she admitted as emotion visibly welled up in her eyes. “But it’s going to be incredible.”
The WNBA marked its 30th season in 2026, and the Finals between Golden State and Atlanta went to a deciding seventh game for the first time.
She has been around long enough to see the WNBA grow from a young league into one with stars recognized well beyond basketball. Much of her work has been spent talking to those players, reporting from the sidelines and telling viewers what they might not see during the game.
This was not simply another assignment on her calendar. It was a milestone for a competition she had helped cover for a generation.
The game was played at Chase Center in San Francisco. Golden State and Atlanta had split the first six games, with neither side able to put the other away. The Valkyries had won Games 1, 4, and 5, while the Dream responded in Games 2, 3, and 6 to force the deciding contest.
Rowe was watching rather than reporting.
In truth, covering both games was a logistical impossibility for her, and ESPN prioritised her for college football. Georgia and Florida kicked off at 3:30 p.m. ET at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The WNBA Finals Game 7 was scheduled for 8 p.m. ET in San Francisco, a five-hour flight away even before accounting for travel to the airport.
“Meghan McKeown is on the sidelines. She’s crushing it,” Holly Rowe said. “I’m so proud of her. But it is hard; you feel disconnected in a way. You’ve poured so much love and sweat equity into this product.”
The contest itself gave Rowe plenty to wish she had witnessed from courtside. Golden State beat Atlanta 68-63, winning the series 4-3 and claiming the championship in only the franchise’s second season.
The result gave the Valkyries its first title and made them the fastest franchise in WNBA history to win a championship. There was no shortage of history to cover that night, too.
For starters, Angel Reese set the record for most rebounds in a WNBA Finals series, finishing with 90 and passing Sylvia Fowles’ previous mark of 75. Rowe’s attachment to the WNBA is not difficult to understand when looking at the work she has done across women’s sports.
She joined ESPN full-time in 1998 and has been covering the WNBA alongside major events. ESPN has also recognised her as one of its most versatile reporters, with work across college football, basketball, volleyball and other sports.
Her connection with women’s basketball has also been recognised outside the network. Rowe received the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg National Media Award in 2022 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Electronic Media Award in 2023.
The WNBA’s 30th season had given her another reason to reflect on that career. ESPN’s coverage of the 2026 regular season averaged 1.37 million viewers across 29 games, its most-watched WNBA regular season, up 17% from the previous year.
Rowe was part of the network’s lead broadcast group with play-by-play commentator Ryan Ruocco and analyst Rebecca Lobo. There is also a personal side to her career that makes her attachment to the job especially significant.
Rowe has spoken openly about her battle with Stage IV metastatic melanoma, diagnosed in 2015. She continued working through treatment and has since used her platform to advocate for cancer research and prevention.
In all, her career has never been limited to one sport, and she has built a reputation for being able to move between assignments. But versatility does not mean every assignment feels interchangeable.
So, there she was this past Saturday, working on the sideline with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, keeping college football viewers informed about injuries and what was happening away from the play.
As usual, when Georgia wrapped up its 27-8 win over Florida, she met Kirby Smart on the field for the postgame interview. Despite missing the Finals, she remains under a multi-year contract with ESPN and is expected to continue covering the WNBA in 2027.