When Al Nolen’s mom told him to get out of the house as a child, the last thing he expected to find was a career in basketball. His first love was football, but a legacy on the court awaited him.

He started playing in pick-up games at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center in St. Paul when a few teammates spoke to him and made him recognize his talent. The motivation from his peers inspired him to give the sport a more serious shot.

The people in Nolen’s community became the bedrock of his aspirations, and he wanted to pay them back. Their voices encouraged him to choose basketball and now it was time for him to add his own.

Nolen was hired on Sept. 25 to be the new radio color commentator of Gophers men’s basketball. However, the former Gopher has been the voice of Minneapolis basketball for years.

He took his skills through the University of Minnesota (from 2007-11), as far up as the G League and as far away as Germany. After years of playing basketball — that being all he knew — he decided to hang up the sneakers.

For Nolen, he had a “good divorce” from basketball. Although the decision made him nervous, he knew that his reputation would precede him in future endeavors.

“I continued to play because I played all my life and I did not know what the next step was,” Nolen said. “I played a little longer than probably I should have, and once I walked away from it, I kind of just put it in the closet, shut the door and I moved along.”

After his retirement from basketball, he pivoted to a career in coaching children across Minnesota. The events surrounding the death of George Floyd changed his perspective on his career, pushing him to give back to youth in the inner city.

“I wanted to figure out exactly how to support my community and how to offer it for kids,” Nolen said. “I also worked in a school system for over a decade, so I was familiar with the youth, the educational piece and the basketball piece and I thought, ‘Man, I should start a foundation.’”

Through his namesake foundation, Nolen carried on his mission to educate his community through basketball. He turned his sessions into free-of-charge camps and paired them with classes that taught social and emotional learning skills, financial literacy and health and wellness. The interactions with the younger generation were contagious and caught the attention of many prominent voices in the Twin Cities.

Paul Allen, the play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Vikings and KFAN radio host, said when he noticed Nolen’s charitable work, his ears perked and he sought to help. The devout Christian started by donating to Nolen’s foundation and then opened his morning radio show for him to come in and talk about Gophers basketball.

“Al tried to settle into a different kind of identity or segue his life professionally and I just found him to be quite open, quite honest, more vulnerable than most men I’m either ministering to or chatting with when it comes to their careers,” Allen said.

Nolen’s time on Allen’s talk show became the foundation of his prominence on air. 

Whenever a college basketball scenario emerged as a trending topic, Nolen would be the first Allen would call to discuss. Soon, repetition over the radio readily bolstered his resume as a broadcaster.

When former Gophers center Spencer Tollackson stepped down after 13 seasons of adding color to Minnesota basketball games, an opportunity Nolen never expected to inherit opened up.

The University called Nolen “out of the blue,” asking if he was interested. According to sources who spoke with The Minnesota Daily, the pool of candidates who either were interviewed or expressed interest in the opening included, but were not limited to, Andre Hollins, Vince Grier and John Thomas, all of whom are former Minnesota student-basketball players.

Greg Gerlach, vice president and general manager of Gopher Sports Properties, oversaw hiring for the new position and interviewed the potential new hires. Gerlach said when going through the process, he wanted to avoid pushing people who have done a good job inside the company out of earning promotions.

“All [candidates] don’t tend to have all those qualities,” Gerlach said. “It’s more about who’s available at the time and interested in the job, how does it look.”

Athletes are uniquely positioned to use their sports experiences as leverage in the broadcasting industry. Not every athlete can do this well, let alone in front of thousands of people turning in live multiple times a week, but their involvement adds an element of personal engagement for long-time fans.

Tollackson learned early that, despite “viewing the world through maroon and gold-shaded glasses,” objectivity is the utmost important aspect of commentating. He said it is an aspect athletes have to be wary about and when listeners realize it is missing, their credibility goes with it.

“In order to have the longevity and the scalability in the industry, you have to be honest,” Tollackson said.

After finishing last in the Big Ten in 2022, Minnesota men’s basketball’s recent history of play has drawn a fair share of concerns. The players’ development, the job security of coaches and recruiting have all been questioned. Navigating these grounds will put Nolen’s ability to objectively speak on the program under the same attentive light.

To keep his integrity as an analyst alive, Nolen studied how Tollackson and Gophers play-by-play announcer Mike Grimm operated with each other. He recalled hearing how efficiently Grimm would steer the commentary, swerving between analyzing and calling plays live and how quickly Tollackson would take the wheel to add a quip of his own.

Nolen appreciates what he has learned so far from sitting in the passenger seat next to Grimm. The experience has given him a new admiration for sports commentating and has drawn a few memories to his playing days.

When asked about the growing trend of athletes entering the media industry, Nolen said it is a good thing.

“However, there’s a difference between journalism and being an analyst and I think there’s a fine line,” Nolen said. “Working with Mike Grimm, I’m coming in and wanting to be a student first … I see how Mike preps, his preparation for his research, how he goes about his day and it’s like, ‘Oh, this is just like being a basketball player.’”

While Nolen learns to define the line dividing the types of sports radio commentators, Allen and Grimm have long recognized the perspectives former athletes bring to the industry and appreciate the subjective contributions.

In their respective journeys, both concluded that, if broadcasting hopefuls want to “make it,” they must unapologetically use what they are given.

“Now, if that advantage happened to be you’re a Division I basketball player with a name that is known more than most names, well, that’s your lot in life,” Allen said. “You’re not flaunting it or keeping others down by doing something deceitful, you’re just using what you have earned to get into a spot.”

For Grimm, whose job depends more on consistency rather than day-to-day content, he seeks a partner who not only utilizes their strengths but can build a strong relationship. Before completing a full season of calling games with Nolen, Grimm sees the positive potential in their partnership.

“You’d want someone who can communicate well, has a firm grasp of explaining something, someone who’s an expert in basketball,” Grimm said. “We spend a lot of time together on the road and that’s part of why Spencer and I became great friends, it’s why Al and I will likely become better friends as we hang out more and get more comfortable with each other.”

Nolen’s actions off the court have propelled him to a platform he can leverage into something greater. His work in the community is not finished and he plans to resume his basketball camps come summertime.

“The kids are my main thing at the end of the day,” Nolen said. “That’s what it’s all about, my community. That’s bigger than basketball, bigger than anything and everything to me.”

Meanwhile, Nolen has a job to do, a job which will only get harder as the season progresses. If he has learned anything since picking up a basketball, it is to prioritize and serve the community that helped him get to where he is today.

The transition from the court to the sideline will take time, but time is on his side. As long as his platform remains, so will his voice.