Meet the New Lakers Sideline Reporter: The Beautiful Heidi Watney

After the Lakers decided to move John Ireland from sideline guy to radio play-by-play voice, they finally found a replacement. She’s none other than the beautiful Heidi Watney, and she’ll join the team when and if the NBA ever ends the lockout.

Watney’s departure from NESN was announced today, where she was the Red Sox in-game reporter for the last four seasons, and ESPNLA has confirmed the big signing. According to Bostoninnovation.com, the terms of the deal with Time Warner and the Lakers have yet to be finalized:

"Terms of Watney’s deal with Time Warner have not been disclosed, probably in part because the deal itself hasn’t been confirmed. But if anybody were to guess, it’s likely that the network – which obtained the rights to the Lakers broadcasts by agreeing to a 20-year deal which is reported to be worth more than $2.5 billion – probably paid a pretty penny to acquire her rights."

It’ll be a return home of sorts for Watney, who graduated from the University of San Diego in 2003 and was a the first runner-up to Miss California in 2002. Now, are you really surprised about that? I think not.

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