Tom Tolbert

Byron Thomas "Tom" Tolbert (born October 16 1965 in Long Beach, California) is a retired American professional basketball player and a radio sports talk personality in the San Francisco Bay Area. He played a total of seven seasons in the National Basketball Association. [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/tolbeto01.html Tom Tolbert Statistics - Basketball-Reference.com ] ]

Basketball career

Tom graduated from Artesia High School in Lakewood, California in 1983. Following high school, Tolbert played college basketball at University of California, Irvine (1983-1985), Cerritos College (1985-86), and the University of Arizona (1986-1988). While at Arizona, Tolbert played under coach Lute Olson, helping the team to an appearance in the 1988 Final Four. In 1988, Tolbert was a second-round draft pick (9th pick, 34th overall) of the Charlotte Hornets. Tolbert spent seven seasons playing for a number of NBA teams, including Charlotte (1988-89, 94-95), the Golden State Warriors (1989-92), the Orlando Magic (1992-93), and the Los Angeles Clippers (1993-94). He retired following the 1994-95 season.

Broadcasting career

Radio

In 1996, Tolbert was hired by KNBR, a San Francisco-based local sports radio station, to co-host a radio talk show titled "The Razor and Mr. T" with a longtime Bay Area sports radio host Ralph Barbieri. The show, which has been the highest rated show in the Bay Area in the 25-54 male demographic since 2000, [cite news |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=2003-06-13 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/13/SP274255.DTL |title=KNBR makes moves] catapulted Tolbert's broadcasting career into television.

Television

In addition to his radio work in San Francisco, Tolbert was a color commentator for NBA telecasts on NBC before moving on to ESPN. He was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work as commentator on NBC. In 2003, Tolbert - along with Brad Nessler and Bill Walton - called the NBA Finals for ABC.

Trivia

*Tolbert appeared as an NBC analyst in the movie, "Like Mike". [imdb name|2617732]
*On June 14, 2000, before a day game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds at Pacific Bell Park (now known as AT&T Park), Tolbert took a 25-pitch batting practice against Mike Krukow, a former Giants pitcher and a current Giants broadcaster. [cite news |work=Sports Illustrated |date=2002-04-22 |url=http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1025570/2/index.htm |title=Tv Talk: Former NBA scrub Tom Tolbert is an All-Star on the air] The showdown started as a friendly bet on whether Tolbert would be able to hit a home run in a batting practice. Tolbert eventually lost the contest, the farthest ball he hit landing on the warning track.

References

External links

* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/tolbeto01.html Basketball-Reference.com stats]