In this episode of Pickleballers, Dave Fleming sits down with co-hosts Roscoe Bellamy and Jared Paul to trace his winding path to the pickleball mic — from calling high school sports in Memphis to ball boying and interviewing tennis legends as a teenager, and finally becoming the defining voice of the sport’s biggest broadcasts.

Dave breaks down his origin story in detail: Growing up in a sports-obsessed family, his early TV career, and the chance golf cart conversation with Hank Haney that connected Tom Dundon and Connor Pardoe — a meeting that helped shape the modern PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball. He also shares how he almost missed his own start in broadcasting after years working outside sports media entirely.

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Dave also opens up about the craft behind the mic: Where catchphrases like “snowman,” “crooked number,” and “the floor is lava” actually came from, how he handles online criticism by blocking and moving on, and his predictions for which discipline — gender doubles, mixed doubles or singles — will be the one to break pickleball into the mainstream.

The Kitchen Pickleball Discounts.