Abby Chin Takes the Mic at Hoop Dreams 2025
This year’s Hoop Dreams featured a new special guest: NBC Sports Boston courtside reporter and journalist Abby Chin. Chin has been covering the Celtics for NBC since 2013, the year that Hoop Dreams Co-host Brad Stevens joined the team as head coach. Since then, Chin has witnessed triumphs, defeats, playoff runs, and of course a Finals victory that brought the Celtics their first championship since 2008 and their 18th overall. Chin has also found time to lend her knowledge and experience to a variety of high-profile international sporting events, including the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
Chin grew up in a sports-obsessed household, but it wasn’t until college that she began to think about the possibility of having sports be a part of her career. After taking a sports broadcasting class during her sophomore year however, things fell into place. “Once I realized that sports broadcasting was a viable career path, I was hooked,” she says.
After college, Chin got a job at ESPN Classic working on long-form documentaries — something of a rarity in the world of sports television, especially back then. She credits the role for helping her get her foot in the door and learn the ins and outs of the industry: “It was an amazing job and I learned so much about the business side of sports.” When ESPN Classic dissolved, she transitioned over to remote broadcast production, working in a number of different spaces including the NFL, X Games, college basketball, and more before eventually landing her first sports broadcasting role in Montgomery, Alabama covering college football.
Now in her thirteenth year covering the Celtics, Chin knows the challenges of being a woman in a predominantly male workplace, both internal and external. “A lot of my development came from feeling like I belonged,” she says. “Being in a male-dominated space, I knew I had to believe in myself above everything else.” She also feels strongly about imparting that lesson to women just starting out in their careers: “You have to continue to take up space.” Chin’s podcast Women’s League, which she co-hosts with former Bruins reporter Naoko Funayama, serves as an important means of giving women working in the sports industry a platform to share their stories.
Beyond her professional duties, Chin is thrilled about the impact the Celtics are having on the community. She points to the array of community initiatives the team is involved with — everything from a mobile healthcare program for new mothers and newborns to youth basketball camps. “The Celtics are so interwoven with what it means to be from Boston,” she says. “The team does a wonderful job of tapping into the essence of the city and creating a welcoming environment.”
With the PWHL’s Boston Fleet launching in 2023, the Boston Legacy playing their first game in less than a year’s time, and the possibility of a WNBA team coming to Boston becoming more and more likely, Chin sees a bright future for women’s sports both in Boston and across the country. “There’s a real hunger for women’s sports in Boston,” she says. “When you invest in women and in women’s sports, there’s no ceiling for what’s possible.”
Learn more about Abby Chin and our other Hoop Dreams special guests, including Connecticut Sun forwards Aaliyah Edwards and Aneesah Morrow and President Jen Rizzotti, at abcdhoopdreams.org.