As one of the greatest broadcasters this country has produced, Dan Shulman has experienced just about everything in a career that has spanned four decades.
Shulman’s resumé speaks for itself. The Thornhill native was a host of Primetime Sports on The Fan in his early days, and he covered hockey at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics for CTV. A year later, he was named the Blue Jays’ lead play-by-play announcer for TSN.
Shulman became a household name internationally as the voice of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball,” while also calling professional and college basketball. After more than 15 years abroad, he returned to the Jays, citing a desire to spend more time with his family, but he still spends his winters broadcasting NCAA games.
There have been plenty of accolades along the way. Shulman was the first Canadian-born announcer to win the national sportscaster of the year award in the U.S., getting the honour in 2011. A decade later, he was named the best play-by-play announcer at the Canadian Screen Awards. And he was a finalist last year for the Ford C. Frick Award for baseball broadcasting, which includes entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame for winner. He has already won the Jack Graney Award, Canada’s equivalent.
Despite the accomplishments, there was something missing. Basketball has been ingrained in Shulman’s DNA dating back to his days at Western University in the 1980s. It was his dream to cover the Canadian men’s and women’s national teams at the Olympics and, while the 57-year-old didn’t know if the opportunity would ever arise, he planned ahead just in case it did.
During initial negotiations with ESPN in 2001, Shulman had an odd request. He asked for a clause that would allow him to take a leave of absence if anybody in Canada was interested in hiring him to cover Olympic basketball. At first, his future bosses didn’t know what to think.
“From ESPN’s perspective, they were like, ‘What’s happening? What are we talking about right now?’ ” Shulman said. “But I was like, it’s my bucket list thing. I’d love to do it, and it never happened.”
Until recently. Shulman agreed to call basketball for CBC at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but the experience wasn’t quite what he had initially envisioned. Shulman didn’t travel to Japan because of the pandemic and instead worked remotely. The Canadian men also failed to qualify.
The situation will be much different at the Paris Games. Shulman took a leave from Jays broadcasts on Thursday so he could travel to France, where, he will be covering the first Canadian men’s Olympic basketball games since 2000 and a women’s team that is looking for its first medal.
“I’m a big basketball fan and a proud Canadian,” Shulman said. “So it’s kind of an everything clicks. It has been at least 20 years where I wanted to do this … it has been in my contract with ESPN forever.”
Anyone familiar with Shulman’s work knows he is one of the most well-prepared broadcasters, and the way he crammed for these Games would put the most studious university students to shame.
Shulman will be calling all of Canada’s games on the men’s and women’s side and will be responsible for some international games as well. With 12 teams in both tournament, there are a lot of players, coaches and schemes he needs to familiarize himself with.
The CBC’s research department helped get him up to speed. He became an expert at navigating and Google translator. Most of his mornings have been spent watching international friendlies and he has created a Word document for every team he might cover, all while maintaining his regular duties with Sportsnet.
One of Shulman’s calling cards is his ability to remain neutral. He rose to fame during a time when homerism was on the rise and yet he has always gone to great lengths to avoid the appearance of bias. It’s a refreshing approach that isn’t nearly as common as it used to be.
Covering the Olympics, however, is a different beast. Shulman doesn’t hide his love for Canadian sports and the national teams present a rare opportunity to let his emotions show. Paris 2024 isn’t a job, after all, it’s a passion project.
“Did you watch the World Cup games?” a seemingly giddy Shulman asked, referencing last summer’s men’s tournament. “I think (the passion) came out, and I’m OK with that. Whether it should or not, I guess, is for each individual to decide, but it does feel different. I never said ‘we’ go up by 10, I know it was ‘Canada, Canada, Canada’ but I also know there was a little more emotion in my voice.”
As there should be. A third-place finish at that World Cup boosted the men’s team into its first Olympics since the days of Steve Nash. The women have never finished higher than fourth at the Summer Games. This year, both sides have an opportunity to achieve signature moments.
Shulman will be there every step of the way. After waiting more than two decades for the opportunity, this is one tournament he wasn’t going to miss.
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