Celtics

As he did with Celtics, Eddie House has fit right in as analyst with NBC Sports Boston

House has easy chemistry with former teammates and fellow analysts Brian Scalabrine and Kendrick Perkins as well as host Amina Smith.

Eddie House was a popular member of the 2008 Celtics. Jim Davis/Globe Staff

By Chad Finn, The Boston Globe

May 28, 2022

The Celtics weren’t the only ones that made a savvy in-season acquisition of an experienced veteran guard. So did NBC Sports Boston for its broadcasts of the team’s games and the surrounding programming.

While the Celtics have enjoyed the benefits in the playoffs of the February trade with the Spurs for versatile Derrick White, viewers of the pre- and postgame shows on the regional cable network have welcomed a familiar face in a new role.

Eddie House spent nearly three seasons with the Celtics as a popular sharpshooting guard, playing an important role off the bench for the 2008 NBA champions. He was traded to the Knicks in February 2010 and retired following the next season, but somewhat unexpectedly, he returned to Celtics fans’ consciousness this year as an in-season addition to NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics studio programs.

House has been nothing short of excellent. He has easy chemistry with former teammates and fellow analysts Brian Scalabrine and Kendrick Perkins as well as host Amina Smith. House is concise, opinionated, informed, and effortlessly funny, and he’s been a huge hit with NBC Sports Boston viewers.

Your friendly neighborhood media columnist (hi there) has received more e-mails and social-media messages about House’s addition to the broadcasts — virtually all of them overwhelmingly positive — than on any other local media topic in recent months.

“Hey, man, well let’s keep it going, right?’’ said House when told of the positive response. “It’s something that I really enjoy doing, and I think people enjoy the energy and the humor and the camaraderie that this group brings together.

“I love working with everybody here, on air and behind the scenes,’’ he added. “Everybody brings great energy, and they’re also very knowledgeable. It’s not like talking to a novice or somebody that’s just doing one thing behind the scenes, but really don’t understand the game. Everyone here does. It’s really refreshing.

“And with Scal and Perk, I mean, we won a title together, and we like to give each other a hard time about things, good-naturedly. That whole team was like that. It was special, and I think viewers know that and can see that.”

House, who lives in Phoenix, first tried coaching after he retired — his eldest son, Jaelen, plays for the University of New Mexico, and twin sons Kalek and Kaden are highly regarded high school freshmen — but the usual modern-day hassles of youth sports got to him, including that all-too-familiar bane, overbearing parents.

He still cared about the NBA and felt as if he had things to say, so even though he never considered a media career during his playing days, he decided to see what might be out there.

“I reached out to some people and the first thing I ever went on was ‘First Take,’ when Skip Bayless was back there [at ESPN],’’ he said. “It went well, and when he moved over to Fox, then I just started doing some stuff with him.”

Soon, House, a former Arizona State star, landed a gig as a color analyst on the Pac-10 Network’s college basketball broadcasts. He also does some games on FSI and CBS. But landing at NBC Sports Boston during the season was a combination of serendipity and some smart talent scouting by the network.

“He wasn’t in the plans to start the season but we were looking to see if there were others out there that could be a good fit,’’ said Kevin Miller, NBC Sports Boston vice president, content creation and strategy, in an e-mail.

In December, the production model that the network used to produce games was changing, and, “we needed to do a couple test games,’’ said Miller. “For those games, we had two game talent teams — Mike [Gorman] and Scal on the actual broadcast and a secondary team for the test game. For one of those games, we used Eddie as a color analyst. He did a very good job.

Miller talked to House afterward about potentially doing some studio dates. There was one complication — House lives in Phoenix. “My home base,’’ he calls it.

“Obviously,’’ said Miller, “We do a ton of remote guests and analysts, so it wasn’t like we couldn’t use him remote, but better to have people in studio when we can. We did a couple remote shows with him and liked his tone and fit with our group.”

House solidified his spot in the rotation in March, when he was in town for the Kevin Garnett number retirement ceremony. NBC Sports Boston had him in studio for several games while the Celtics were on a road trip out west. House hadn’t done studio work before, but Miller recognized that he was getting better and more comfortable with each game.

“After that stretch, we knew it was a good match,’’ he said. “We weren’t able to use him for all games, but made sure to pick and choose some that he could do [remotely] and a few in person. Once we got to the playoffs, we’ve been able to use him with greater frequency.”

NBC Sports Boston will continue to use House through the Finals should the Celtics reach them. When asked if he’ll be back next season, House said animatedly, ‘’That is the plan, that is the plan, that is the plan. I really love doing it and love the people I get to work with, and it means a lot when people say they have enjoyed seeing me and hearing what I have to say.”