Since retiring from the WNBA, Rebecca Lobo has joined the broadcast booth, where she currently calls league games. But who is her husband, Steve Rushin, and what is his connection to sports? Let’s take a deeper look.
Meet Steve Rushin: Award-Winning Sports Journalist and Rebecca Lobo’s Husband
Steve Rushin, born Sept. 22, 1966, in Elmhurst, Illinois, is a respected American journalist and novelist known for his influential voice in sports writing. He was raised in Bloomington, Minnesota, and developed an early passion for athletics.
After earning his degree from Marquette in 1988, Rushin joined Sports Illustrated, where he rose to become one of the publication’s youngest senior writers at 25. His coverage spanned major events like Wimbledon and the World Series. He was even named National Sportswriter of the Year by the NSSA in 2005.
His dispatches took readers from the India-Pakistan border to Java and Greenland. From 1998 to 2007, his column “Air & Space” offered a sharp, cultural take on sports.
He briefly left Sports Illustrated in 2007 but returned as a contributor in 2010. His essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Time, and Golf Digest. His writing has been featured in The Best American Sports Writing, Travel Writing, and Magazine Writing series.
In 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Marquette University for his contributions to journalism.
As an author, Rushin’s bibliography includes Road Swing (1998), named a “Best Book” by Publishers Weekly and ranked among Sports Illustrated’s “Top 100 Sports Books of All Time.” His other works include The Caddie Was a Reindeer (2004), The Pint Man (2010), The 34-Ton Bat (2013), and his memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons (2017), which reflects on his 1970s upbringing.
Rushin married Rebecca Lobo—1995 NCAA champion with UConn, 1996 Olympic gold medalist, and WNBA pioneer—on April 12, 2003, at the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Lobo, later inducted into both the Women’s and Naismith Memorial Basketball Halls of Fame, now works as a basketball analyst. The couple lives in Connecticut with their four children and co-hosts the Ball & Chain Podcast, blending sports commentary with family stories.
Rebecca Lobo Speaks On Paige Bueckers, Her Potential WNBA Impact
Lobo sees Paige Bueckers as the next rookie capable of making an immediate mark on the league. During ESPN’s 2025 WNBA Draft coverage, Lobo compared Bueckers’ potential to that of Caitlin Clark, who earned Rookie of the Year honors in 2024.
“A year ago, we saw a player, Caitlin Clark, come into the WNBA with a lot of expectations,” Lobo said. “How was her game going to translate? Well, it translated beautifully. And I think we’re going to see something very similar with Paige Bueckers this year.”
RELATED: Gary Knox’s Iconic Paige Bueckers Tweet Goes Viral After No. 1 WNBA Pick: ‘Best 6th Grade G’
Bueckers, fresh off an NCAA championship with Connecticut, was selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Wings. Clark, who averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game, helped the Indiana Fever return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Lobo believes Bueckers could deliver the same kind of transformation for Dallas.
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