Ramona Shelburne is one of the pre-eminent sports journalists in the country, earning a reputation as a dogged investigative reporter, compelling writer and storyteller who has earned the trust and respect of the most important figures in sports.
She’s been a senior writer at ESPN since 2009, appearing across all platforms on the network’s NBA coverage, while winning numerous Pro Basketball Writers of America awards for her coverage. Her reporting on disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling led the network’s coverage. In 2019, she expanded her reporting into the award-winning 30 for 30 podcast “The Sterling Affairs” (2019), which earned a Gracie Award for Best Investigative Podcast, the National Association of Black Journalists Award for Best Sports Podcast, a Webby Award and an iHeartRadio Award. In 2024, Shelburne served as an Executive Producer as FX/Hulu adapted her podcast into the limited series, Clipped. Shelburne is also a popular host on 710 ESPN Los Angeles radio.
She is best known for her stories and coverage of icons like the late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, former Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, Olympic track and field star Allyson Felix, Dodgers manager Joe Torre and pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Name a star athlete, coach or owner from the past two decades and Shelburne has probably profiled them.
She’s drawn to stories about greatness: how athletes attain it, hold on to it and how it inspires those around them. She’s also adept at covering sports business and law stories, as her coverage of Sterling illustrated. When there’s difficult breaking news, like Tiger Woods’ car crash in 2021, or Kobe Bryant’s tragic helicopter crash in 2020, she’s the reporter ESPN trusts to be first on the scene.
Before ESPN, she was the lead columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News, working her way up from covering high school football to the NBA Finals by building relationships with the power brokers in Los Angeles. She became an authority on the Lakers, Dodgers, USC football, UCLA basketball and the Clippers while at the newspaper. When ESPN launched a local site in Los Angeles in 2009, she was one of its first hires.
Shelburne graduated from Stanford University with both a master’s degree in Communication and a bachelor’s degree in American Studies. During her years at Stanford (1997-2001), she was a three-time Academic All-American athlete in softball and played on the first Stanford team to make the NCAA tournament in 1998 and Women’s College World Series in 2001. Her teammate was fellow ESPN baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza.
