Vanessa Richardson is coming back to ESPN’s Hoop Streams for another season.
The Rockets sideline reporter signed a new deal with the network to keep hosting the digital pregame show that streams before games on ESPN’s app, YouTube, and Facebook. Thursday’s Rockets-Lakers Christmas game marks her first show of the season, where she’ll work with ESPN NBA reporters Dave McMenamin and Marc J. Spears from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
ESPN has reached a multi-year extension with @SportsVanessa
The @ESPNNBA ‘Hoop Streams’ host is back for a special Christmas edition of the show
🏀 Thursday | 7p ET | ESPN YouTube, Facebook pic.twitter.com/PaPkrlQIcN
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 23, 2025
Richardson took over Hoop Streams last spring during the playoffs and worked through the Finals between Oklahoma City and Indiana with Iman Shumpert. She ended up doing more than just hosting when Lisa Salters had to miss three Finals games to be with her mother, stepping in to handle radio sideline duties in addition to the pregame show. The debut episode pulled close to a million impressions and gave ESPN a digital pregame option that looked nothing like NBA Countdown.
“This is really a free-flowing, conversational pregame show,” Richardson told the Houston Chronicle back in May. “We’re not trying to emulate NBA Countdown.”
ESPN also used Richardson on summer league sideline coverage and had her guest-host NBA Today during the offseason.
Richardson has been the Rockets’ sideline reporter since late 2021 and also hosts their weekly show, Rockets All Access. Before that, she worked at Houston’s NBC affiliate and hosted a radio show on ESPN 97.5 FM.