Background
Sage Steele was born in 1972, of African-American and Irish/Italian descent into an American Army family living in the Panama Canal Zone.
Sage Steele was born in 1972, of African-American and Irish/Italian descent into an American Army family living in the Panama Canal Zone.
After attending Thomas B. Doherty High School in Colorado Springs for two years, she moved to Carmel, Indiana and attended Carmel High School as a senior, graduating in 1990. She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in sports communication.
Foreign 5 years prior to the National Basketball Association assignment, Steele was a full-time co-host of SportsCenter, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network"s flagship show, and has previously contributed to Entertainment and Sports Programming Network First Take, Mike & Mike in the Morning, and SportsNation. Steele hosted SportsCenter"s daytime coverage of the National Basketball Association Finals in 2012 and 2013. The Army stationed Steele"s family in several different states and countries, including Greece and Belgium, before moving back stateside to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1984 for her seventh grade year.
Exactly 20 years later, she was the commencement speaker at the 2015 Indiana University undergraduate commencement, which she considers the greatest honor of her career.
Steele"s first television sports reporting job was at WSBT-television, the Columbia Broadcasting System affiliate in South Bend, Indiana, as a news producer and reporter from 1995 to 1997. Steele then worked at Columbia Broadcasting System affiliate WISH-television in Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1997-1998 as the weekend morning sports anchor and weekday reporter.
Her reporting duties included the Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 auto races, and local college and high school sports. Steele worked at American Broadcasting Company affiliate WFTS in Tampa, Florida, from 1998 to 2001, where she was a sports reporter with former WFTS sports director and current SportsCenter host Jay Crawford and current "NFL RedZone" host Scott Hanson.
She also worked at Fox Sports Florida as a reporter, continuing to cover teams throughout Central Florida such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Orlando Magic, Tampa Bay Lightning and University of South Florida Bulls.
She then worked at Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic in Bethesda, Maryland, where she was an anchor and reporter for the network"s nightly local sports news program, SportsNite, covering all sports in the Washington, District of Columbia/Baltimore region. Steele was one of Comcast SportsNet"s original personalities, joining that network when it launched in 2001. During her six years at Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear Mid-Atlantic (2001–2007), she was a main anchor and also the beat reporter for the Baltimore Ravens.
Steele then joined Entertainment and Sports Programming Network and debuted on March 16, 2007, on the 6:00 p.m.
ET edition of SportsCenter. Beginning in the 2013-2014 National Basketball Association season, Steele became the host of National Basketball Association Countdown on Entertainment and Sports Programming Network and American Broadcasting Company. Steele created controversy when cutting off Canadian and Arcade Fire front man Win Butler during his Most Valuable Player speech at the National Basketball Association All Star Game in Toronto as he urged American voters to think carefully during 2016"s presidential election.