Play-by-play announcer Mark Jones shifts his full concentration to the Sacramento Kings

The Abridged version:

• Mark Jones’ broadcasting trademark combines impressive vocabulary like “prestidigitation” with corny catchphrases like, “That guy is quicker than gossip.”
• As a TV play-by-play announcer, Jones works alongside analyst Kayte Christensen.
• Jones’ long career “speaks to who he is as a professional,” said Doris Burke, sports announcer and analyst, and longtime colleague.

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In the center of courtside media row, Sacramento Kings television play-by-play announcer Mark Jones engaged in a ritual pregame production meeting with analyst Kayte Christensen and their producer Jace Griggs before a preseason game for the NBA team. 

An LED screen over the court at the Golden 1 Center in Downtown Sacramento counted down the minutes until tip off. There was just under an hour until game time between the Kings and the Portland Trailblazers. 

The doors to the arena hadn’t been opened yet, the stands were still empty. Portland players skipped through footwork drills at one end of the court while Kings shot three pointers at the other. Technicians hovered over cameras setting up live feeds, waiting for the talent to show up.

Jones went through a quick sound check with an audio tech suggesting a couple adjustments. Looking over at Jones, the all-seeing usher protecting the media seating told me, “I like him a lot.” He nodded along to Kool And the Gang’s “Get Down On It,” blasting from the loudspeakers. “But sometimes he uses big words and I have to go look ’em up!” 

Jones’s broadcasting trademark has been his “high to low” style where words like “plethora,” “effrontery,” “prestidigitation” and “cornucopia” are used along with corny, yet cool, catchphrases like “That guy is quicker than gossip.” “Blended him. Put him in the mixer — purée!” “He put Gordon on his knees like it was pre-game chapel.” “Westbrook was in his chest like bronchitis.” He makes hip hop references quoting his Canadian friend, Drake: “Can you do somethin’ for me?”

“My grandpa being an English teacher and my dad being fluent in Spanish and Latin, I used to get beat up by the dictionary at the dinner table all the time between the two of them,” Jones said. “That explains my broadcasting.” 

The 65-year-old Jones is entering his seventh season as the TV play-by-play announcer for the Kings. And after deciding to retire from a long career with ESPN, he is ready to devote his full energy to the local team when they start their regular season Wednesday.

Giving the Kings his full focus

Before the recent preseason game, Jones bounced across the court to a group of older men sitting in the front row. They could be a J. Crew ad with their lush hoodies, puffer vests, sculpted white beards and goatees. Jones waved his arm telling a story and they threw back their heads laughing, pointing at him.

Then he spun away jogging up a tunnel with his light blue suit and matching Louis Vuitton sneakers disappearing into the darkness.

Earlier Jones remembered approaching Bryant Gumbel in the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse as a fresh young local talent telling the legendary broadcaster he wanted his job some day. “He looked me dead in the eye and he said, ‘Young man, I watched your sportscast last night. I think you’re ready right now.’ And it floored me.’” 

Jones found himself an agent and a couple months later was looking at an offer from ABC Sports/ESPN.

Arenas like Golden 1 have been Jones’ office cubicle for his professional life. There have been stadiums and hockey rinks too. Like most up and coming broadcasters, Jones worked a variety of sports during his journeyman days. For “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” he called college football, men’s and women’s college basketball, the WNBA and NHL. He hosted a weekly NBA show, “The NBA Today” and moved into play-by-play with game analysts like the late Bill Walton, Hubie Brown and eventually longtime professional partner, sports announcer and analyst Doris Burke. 

Jones has worked hundreds of NBA playoff games and even the 2022 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics when the network’s lead announcer Mike Breen had COVID. 

In November 2020 the Kings named Jones their new primary TV play-by-play announcer. Still ESPN seemed to love him and even though they periodically purged on the air talent, in March 2022 they gave Jones a multi-year extension. But this April, he announced he was leaving ESPN to concentrate on the Kings. 

“My innate instincts told me that it was time to do something different and something new,” Jones said. “The main thing keeping me at ESPN the last several years was the NBA.”

The NBA has always been his main thing.

Now it’s his only thing.

“I said yes to the Sacramento Kings and it opened up an entirely new prism to view the NBA through,” Jones said. 

A changing sports broadcast industry

For his role with the Kings, Jones flies on the team charter, stays at the team hotel, eats meals with the team and attends private team functions. 

“It gives me an even better opportunity to tell great stories about players who don’t always get humanized the way they should by our media,” Jones said.

“I take great pride in being able to tell those stories accurately with the right touch,” he added. “Especially in a league that is 77% Black/African American, I feel sometimes nuance is lost when telling our stories, so it gives me a great opportunity.”

Burke, his longtime colleague and good friend, reflected on the vicissitudes of their industry when asked about Jones leaving ESPN after more than three decades. 

“It is a very changeable profession,” Burke said. “What is hot one minute, can be blasé in the next. Sometimes it can feel to us like there’s always just a search for what’s the next thing.” 

Burke also has the perspective of viewing the larger picture of Jones’ arc, with a 36-year career at the national level, as a remarkable journey.

“That longevity speaks to who he is as a professional,” Burke said. “That’s not knowing every obstacle that was placed in his path or every frustration he must have felt at times in his career because I know they were there.”

Jones acknowledged the industry has changed significantly since he started. He didn’t say it influenced his decision but there is a level of autonomy here he wouldn’t have on network assignments. 

“I don’t know where this whole industry is going, it’s just so different from the one I became a part of,” Jones said. “I grew up on Jack Whittaker with his classic essays during ‘Wide World of Sports’ and guys who were extremely literate and eloquent. Now we’ve just got a bunch of screamers on TV.”

With Sacramento, Jones can unfold all that he’s seen and knows, and who he is, into his season of broadcasts.

“We document the game in an entertaining and informative fashion,” Jones said. “I try to strike a balance between explaining what is paramount for the Kings on any given night in 82 different stories, 82 different games along the course of the NBA regular season, what the main storyline is that night and to call the game in an entertaining way.”

Jones is well aware of what he does and how it can come off. “I don’t want fans to remember my cute one-liners like, ‘He was in his face like acne on defense’ and forget about the fact that I just explained tactically that the Kings are running a play called ‘Head Tap,’ where you might see (coach) Doug Christie tap the top of his head and they’re gonna get the ball to (center) Dylan Cardwell on the left side on the low block.”

Burke wasn’t surprised Jones left the fold at ESPN. “What you have to understand about Mark Jones is local announcers get access to a team that national broadcasters don’t typically get,” Burke said.

“With Sacramento he can pull a little bit in the King’s direction. He’s hoping for them to do well. That’s different than a national announcer,” Burke said.

‘A really, really great teammate

Jones has a relentless “no off-season” ethos. He loves watching players play and wherever he goes he’ll find out where “the run” is, referencing how he watches players in private informal games around the country during his downtime.

“There’s nobody in the league in my chair — I don’t mean to sound immodest — there’s not a play-by-play announcer in the country that spends as much time in the gyms in the summertime,” Jones said. 

He names gyms pros play at in Miami where he lives and Los Angeles, which he regularly visits. (He and his wife also rent a condo in Midtown.) Sitting in those stands, he meets players’ parents, wives, girlfriends — it’s the “human level” Jones wants to reach.

“I’ve been able to layer my work and get even deeper down the rabbit hole on a bunch of stuff that is gonna make me a better storyteller, understand and explain tactics with my analyst, Kayte Christensen, even better,” Jones said. 

Christensen was the sideline reporter when Jones was first hired to work with then-analyst Doug Christie. When Christie left for the bench, Jones promoted her for the analyst chair. 

“Mark was the first person to call NBC and the Kings and say, ‘You guys should really look at Kayte,’” Christensen said. “You need allies. He’s a really, really great teammate.” 

What Christensen appreciates most is the space Jones gives her as an analyst.

“He’s got great calls,” she said. “He’s entertaining, but I love working with him because he loves the game and he allows me to talk about the game.”

Despite his many decades already in the profession, Jones said he’s still living his career dream.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do. Just NBA,” he said. “I get a full dose and it has been a life-changing experience for me. I believe my best work is ahead.”