Malika Andrews and Dave McMenamin are two of ESPN’s top NBA reporters who got married last year. What basketball fans may not realize is that their relationship stretches back further than their time at the Worldwide Leader. They began dating in 2018 when McMenamin was covering the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers for ESPN, and Andrews was a sports reporter for the New York Times.
Despite working together, they kept their relationship private. In a recent interview on the Straight to Cam podcast with Cameron Brink and Sydel Curry-Lee, Andrews shared how they navigated their relationship under the scrutiny of the sports media. She highlighted the distinction between being “private” and keeping a “secret.” “Anybody who knew us, even a fan in the arena, you could see us walking down the street together. We would walk into arenas together. He would give me a peck,” she explained. “If you observed us in person, you would know, and it wasn’t something that was, like, a secret. But it was something that was private from… Instagram, social media, those sorts of things. That was sort of the line that we made.”
Understandably, Andrews is cautious about what she shares. Since becoming ESPN’s top NBA host, she has faced increased scrutiny and backlash compared to the typical sportscaster. Fans have accused her of racism and poor journalistic ethics due to her coverage of outside-the-lines NBA stories. Consequently, as their relationship became public, she prioritized blocking out negative online commentary. “I think I’ve graduated from the place in my life where I want to give away my power to other people’s opinions,” Andrews stated. “We talked about it, but we always knew that we wanted to do it that way.”
Andrews, who has also been open about her lifelong struggle with mental illness, acknowledges that the scrutiny is part of her role. However, her personal life and relationship take precedence over the opinions of online commenters. “When people don’t have information, oftentimes they fill in the blanks with whatever they come up with,” she said. “We certainly had to contend with that, but that was always something that I just was comfortable with because that’s your prerogative, I suppose.”
