Dick Vitale Faces Another Setback, Postpones His Return To Booth

Dick Vitale was expected to make a long-awaited return to the college basketball booth a week from today. Unfortunately, we will have to wait even longer for that to happen.

On Friday, ESPN announced that Vitale would be back in the booth for the Duke Blue Devils’ game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on January 25th. He had just beaten vocal cord cancer and was allowed to make his return to action (he had not called a game since 2023). However, he's hit a major setback just a day after getting the good news.

Evidently, he had an accident at his home in Florida in which he injured himself. For the foreseeable future, he will have to wait longer. He released a statement on X detailing his situation.

"I’m devastated that I won’t be courtside with my ESPN buddy Dave O’Brien and with all the players and fans, especially because of the overwhelming response I received when news of my planned return was announced."

Fortunately, he’s not going to be out of the game for very long. Assuming nothing else happens, he should be able to recover in short order.

"I’m not exactly sure when that will be," he said. "Yet I’m expected to make a full recovery and will provide updates when I have more information."

While it's devastating to hear that this warrior has experienced yet another road bump, the silver lining is that quick recovery time. Let’s hope nothing else comes up and that we hear his joyous voice soon.