Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories about NBA All-Star Weekend by students in an IU Media School sports reporting class. Read the rest of the stories on our website.
Chris Denari, like every other young child who grew up around basketball, always dreamed of a career where he could be surrounded by the sport he loved.
He used to broadcast imaginary basketball games into a tape recorder and call high school basketball games for five dollars each. Now, he’s emceed the opening event for NBA All-Star Weekend over 40 years later and will be on hand for the Pacers throughout the weekend as the team hosts the event in Indianapolis for the first time since 1985.
Denari has made a name for himself as the voice of the Indiana Pacers, a role he earned through decades of dedication fueled by his passion for basketball. He never lost sight of his dream, and not a day goes by where he doesn’t appreciate what he is able to do.
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A native of Westfield, IN, Denari played basketball through high school with his father as the coach and was raised during the heyday of Indiana basketball. Bob Knight was named the head coach for the Indiana men’s basketball when Denari was in middle school, and by the time he graduated from high school in 1979 the Hoosiers had won an NCAA Championship and were one year away from winning another.
Denari remained in Indiana for college, heading to Wabash to start pursuing his goal of working in basketball in some capacity. He had the opportunity to broadcast games throughout his college career but stepped away from play-by-play after graduating when he began working for local news.
Fresh out of college, a golden opportunity dropped in his lap. A brand new television station in Indianapolis was trying to get its foot off the ground with a crop of young broadcasters. They needed a sports director. Who did they hire? A recent Wabash graduate, who had been out of school for barely six months and was working in radio down in Columbus, Indiana.
It wasn’t just basketball, it wasn’t play-by-play, but it was an opportunity. Denari jumped at the chance.
“It’s not like it made a ton of money, but it was a great chance to work in Indianapolis and be on air,” Denari said.
Little did he know, Denari would soon get the opportunity many sports reporters only dream about. The 1984 All-Star Game was in Denver, CO, but the basketball game that was about to take place in Indianapolis was arguably even better.
After all, how can you beat covering Bob Knight’s Team USA going up against the NBA All-Star team? Team USA — full of college players at that point led by Michael Jordan and Indiana native Steve Alford — had needed to prepare for the upcoming Olympics. There’s not really any better competition than the best professional basketball players in the country.
The two teams traveled around the U.S. in the summer of 1984, playing a total of nine exhibition games. On July 9, they came to the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Denari was there, covering the game for WPDS-TV Channel 59, currently known as WXIN-TV Fox 59.
It was his first time covering NBA players, but it certainly wasn’t his last. In fact, it was just the beginning.
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To truly trace the origins of Denari’s passion for basketball and broadcasting, though, means going back to his childhood and the days of Strat-O-Matic Basketball.
As a young child, Denari spent hours flipping cards and rolling dice to determine outcomes, like 3-pointers or defensive turnovers, of a fake basketball game using Strat-O-Matic cards. He wasn’t just playing the game, though. He was broadcasting it.
“He would sit there and play that game and do the play-by-play out loud,” Tom Denari, Chris’ younger brother, said. “Sometimes he would record it, for fun, on a tape recorder.”
Because Chris was so focused on his play-by-play, Tom never really played the game with his brother. But sometimes, the two would team up to put together a real, full-fledged broadcast.
“There were times where he would do a commercial break, and sometimes I would do the commercials,” Tom said. “It was just like you were listening to a real live broadcast, and he was 10 years old.”
Fast-forward a decade and a half, Chris, in his mid-20s, was on his way to reaching his goal of working in basketball. It was seven months after Team USA played the NBA All-Stars, and he was back at the Hoosier Dome and so was the NBA All-Star team.
NBA players Denari had only ever seen on television or on cardstock in his Strat-O-Matic Basketball game were in front of him, walking, talking and playing basketball together.
“I would play those games and have the real NBA players as I’d flip over cards,” Denari said. “And here, all of a sudden, I was at the NBA All-Star Game. So it was sort of a little bit of a pinch-me moment, if you will, for me to cover something like that when I had dreamed about doing something like that my entire life.”
Covering the 1985 All-Star Game was the realization of a lifelong goal for Denari, and it was also a lightbulb moment for the young reporter. He realized in that moment, he was on track to fulfilling a goal the younger version of him had already envisioned.
“Going to those games [All-Star games] told me I wanted to be a part of the game,” he said.
He wanted to be immersed in the action, up close and personal, for each and every game. With those aspirations in mind, Denari began working at Butler University in 1989, taking on the role of the radio play-by-play voice of Butler basketball.
In 2000, Denari added to his broadcasting duties by becoming the voice of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. He continued to call games for the Bulldogs and the Fever until 2017, when he joined the Indiana Pacers as the team’s television play-by-play announcer.
2017, however, wasn’t the first time Denari had called a game for the Pacers. His first time calling the NBA came on the Pacers radio, when he filled in one night as the play-by-play announcer. It might not have been the most memorable broadcast of Chris’ career, but it was one his brother remembers quite well.
“I remember listening to that, and that was significant for me,” Tom said. “I got kind of choked up listening to it. I was like, ‘Wow, he’s doing it.’”
Now, Tom drives around Indianapolis and hears his brother on the radio or sees him on the television talking about the Pacers on a regular basis. Tom is currently the President of Young & Laramore Advertising in Indianapolis, and the two brothers are both living out their career dreams. Remember when Tom used to do the commercials for Chris’ Strat-O-Matic games?
“He and I are fortunate enough to be doing exactly what we want to be doing,” Tom said. “He appreciates what he has, where I think a lot of people in his situation don’t. He understands he has his dream job.”
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In total, Denari has been broadcasting in and around Indianapolis for 40 years, and is in the middle of his 18th season with the Pacers. Just because he’s been working in basketball for decades doesn’t mean that those initial feelings of awe and excitement have faded, though.
“I don’t take it for granted,” Denari said. “There are still certain things that hit you that are pretty special.”
Take being in an elevator with Larry Bird, for example. Bird, an Indiana legend, was the president of basketball operations for the Pacers from 2003 to 2012. He played for the Boston Celtics for 13 years and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. Bird was also part of the 1984 and 1985 All-Star teams Denari covered, and he might have even been on those Strat-O-Matic basketball cards.
“There are those moments,” Denari said. “I’d get on an elevator with Larry and I’d go ‘Man, I’m on an elevator with Larry Bird!’”
During the 2024 All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, Pacers alumni and players will be out in full force, showing what the city of Indianapolis and the Pacers organization are all about. Who knows, Denari might even end up in the same elevator as Bird once again?
Indiana is known as the basketball state for a reason, and the state’s love for the sport is on full display this weekend. The first example of that: a tip-off event — one of many in Indianapolis this weekend — which took place Thursday night, hosted by Denari and his broadcast partner Quinn Buckner and centered around former Pacers players.
“It’s pretty cool to be a part of the event that’s going to sort of tip everything off,” Denari said before the event.
The 2024 All-Star Game this Sunday will be the first Denari has attended since 1985; he typically takes the All-Star week off to travel to Florida and go golfing, escaping the grind of the basketball season. But, when the game happens in your city and your team is helping organize it — and asks you to help out — it’s difficult to say no.
There’s a very small likelihood that the NBA players walking around Gainbridge Fieldhouse this weekend will be players on Denari’s Strat-O-Matic basketball cards — unless he happens to have one of the more recent versions of the game. That doesn’t mean the weekend won’t be just as special as the one 39 years ago. It will just be special in a different way.
Instead of being the young reporter, Denari will be one of the people everyone recognizes and wants to talk to. He’ll have the respect and admiration of those around him, a testament to the work he’s put in for the last 40 years.
Denari won’t be broadcasting any of the events, nor will he be reporting on anything. Instead, he’ll just be available for whatever the Pacers and the NBA need him for. In a way, perhaps that’s even more important; his experience and knowledge put him in the position to be a “go-to” guy if the need for one arises.
“He’s worked really hard to get where he’s gotten,” Tom said. “For him to be able to do something like that is great for him to be a part of.”
Tom knows all about his brother’s hard work, talent, and gratefulness. So do the Pacers, and everyone else Chris has worked with over the years. That’s why he’s in the position he’s in, calling NBA games and helping to put on one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
And it all started by pretending to broadcast made-up basketball games into a tape recorder.
