Originally published by LakersNation.com
The Los Angeles Lakers announced Derrin Horton as the team’s new public address announcer for the 2026-27 NBA season.
“Horton will succeed the late Lawrence Tanter whose unmistakable voice served as the soundtrack to Lakers basketball for the past 43 seasons,” the Lakers said in a press release.
Horton is expected to announce his first Lakers game Thursday, Oct. 8 during the preseason contest against the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena. One thing he will not do though is attempt to emulate and fill the shoes of the legendary Tanter, per Benjamin Royer of the Southern California News Group:
“It’s a dream,” Horton said Thursday, speaking with local media for the first time since taking over for Tanter. “I mean, are you kidding me? The Lakers? …”
“When I heard about LT and the opportunity here, I reached out and I had a chance to communicate with LT. He was such a legend, and I considered him to be a friend. So now to be here, obviously, there’s no way you can fill his shoes, and so you just come here with a passion and a goal to be informative and entertaining and be a part of ‘Showtime’.”
Tanter held the role of Lakers public address announcer for the last 43 years, but he unfortunately had a stroke that kept him out of action to end last season. After announcing his retirement earlier this offseason, Tanter recently passed away at the age of 76.
While Tanter is certainly a tough act to follow, Horton is taking the right mindset by trying to create his own path as opposed to copying what made Tanter so great.
Derrin Horton background info
Horton has more than 35 years of sports broadcasting experience working as an anchor, reporter, host and play-by-play announcer. He has covered professional and collegiate sports for a range of local and national broadcasters, including the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, College Football Playoff National Championship and Final Four.
Horton’s first job in broadcasting was as the public address announcer for Holy Cross basketball.
Los Angeles sports fans may recognize Horton as he spent 15 years as the sports anchor at KTLA. He is a seven-time Emmy Award winner and has been based in Southern California for more than 25 years.
Originally though, Horton is a native of New York and graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1991. He and his wife, Elise, have two children, Caleb and Hannah.
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The Los Angeles Lakers announced Derrin Horton as the team’s new public address announcer for the 2026-27 NBA season.
“Horton will succeed the late Lawrence Tanter whose unmistakable voice served as the soundtrack to Lakers basketball for the past 43 seasons,” the Lakers said in a press release.
Horton is expected to announce his first Lakers game Thursday, Oct. 8 during the preseason contest against the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena. One thing he will not do though is attempt to emulate and fill the shoes of the legendary Tanter, per Benjamin Royer of the Southern California News Group:
“It’s a dream,” Horton said Thursday, speaking with local media for the first time since taking over for Tanter. “I mean, are you kidding me? The Lakers? …”
“When I heard about LT and the opportunity here, I reached out and I had a chance to communicate with LT. He was such a legend, and I considered him to be a friend. So now to be here, obviously, there’s no way you can fill his shoes, and so you just come here with a passion and a goal to be informative and entertaining and be a part of ‘Showtime’.”
Tanter held the role of Lakers public address announcer for the last 43 years, but he unfortunately had a stroke that kept him out of action to end last season. After announcing his retirement earlier this offseason, Tanter recently passed away at the age of 76.
While Tanter is certainly a tough act to follow, Horton is taking the right mindset by trying to create his own path as opposed to copying what made Tanter so great.
Derrin Horton background info
Horton has more than 35 years of sports broadcasting experience working as an anchor, reporter, host and play-by-play announcer. He has covered professional and collegiate sports for a range of local and national broadcasters, including the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, College Football Playoff National Championship and Final Four.
Horton’s first job in broadcasting was as the public address announcer for Holy Cross basketball.
Los Angeles sports fans may recognize Horton as he spent 15 years as the sports anchor at KTLA. He is a seven-time Emmy Award winner and has been based in Southern California for more than 25 years.
Originally though, Horton is a native of New York and graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1991. He and his wife, Elise, have two children, Caleb and Hannah.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
