SAN JOSE, Calif. — Caren and Mike Andrews stuck to a routine. Family dinner. Every night. Everyone at the table.
For their two daughters, Malika and Kendra, family dinner became more than a nightly ritual. The dinner table in their Oakland Hills home transformed into a SportsCenter desk, where the family of four would trade opinions about the games they watched.
Years later, Malika and Kendra moved that dinner roundtable to national television.
The Andrews sisters both cover the NBA for ESPN. Malika, 26, is the host of the network's show NBA Today. Kendra, 24, made her debut on the network Tuesday, taking over as ESPN's Golden State Warriors beat writer.
"I can't think of two sisters, this young, who have accomplished this much when it comes to landing at what is the de facto, biggest sports media brand in the United States, and perhaps the world," said Richard Deitsch, sports media writer for The Athletic.
Sports were Malika and Kendra's main source of entertainment as kids. A few hours of television a day meant an afternoon watching the 49ers (Caren's team) or, maybe, Mike's team, the Raiders.
Most nights, though, it meant watching the Warriors.
"If we wanted to stay up and watch cartoons, that wasn't allowed," Malika said.
Over dinner, Mike or Caren would share their thoughts on the game and then open the floor to Malika and Kendra. What did they see in the game? Across the table they'd discuss Mickaël Piétrus, Monta Ellis and Baron Davis. They'd talk strategy, what went right and — typically for these Warriors teams — what went wrong.
"Mike and I joke now that they monetized our dinner conversation," said Caren, an art teacher, Mike is a personal trainer.
One night, Kendra, then 15, and Mike were watching a Warriors game. It wasn't the players who stuck out, this time. But the announcers.
"These announcer guys, do they make money doing this? Is this their job?" Kendra asked.
"Uh, yeah," Mike replied.
"I wanna do that," she declared.
"Good, honey," Mike told his daughter, "you can do whatever you want."
Since that day, Kendra made it a goal to work in sports journalism. She obsessed over learning what she didn't know. When Colin Kaepernick's 49ers made their playoff runs, Kendra made detailed flashcards on the stats and the Xs and Os.
"I told myself to learn football and everything I need to know," Kendra said.
As a high school senior, she shadowed Associated Press reporter Janie McCauley. She joined the newspaper at Gonzaga University as soon as she reached campus.
Kendra became the Denver Nuggets beat writer at The Athletic soon after graduation, then returned home to cover the Warriors for NBC Sports Bay Area. There she appeared on TV for the first time, save for a few broadcasting classes at college, at age 23.
Now, the self-proclaimed planner is out of boxes to check on her career list. She hadn't planned this far, assuming it'd take at least seven years.
While Kendra's career took a rapid ascent, her older sister was already under the brightest lights — where Caren and Mike knew she'd end up one day.
Malika could talk before turning a year old, and people crossed the street to marvel at her. Every teacher would praise her wit.
"She was always a shining human," Caren said. "In some ways, Mike and I recognize that she was born to be a star."
But the lights dimmed when Malika, then 14, was kicked out of the prestigious Head-Royce School. it was a rough patch in which she developed an eating disorder and went into a tailspin.
Overcoming those dark days, her family said, might explain Malika's poise on TV at such a young age.
"It makes you wonder what you pick up from the future," Caren said. "Did she have an idea of what was coming?"
Malika attended the University of Portland, where she stumbled into her calling: Journalism. Not only did she have a knack for reporting, but she charmed everyone around her. Even other reporters.
"When I saw this young Black woman in the locker room, that was a rare sight. You don't see young Black women in locker rooms at that time six years ago," said Marc J. Spears, a reporter with The Undefeated. Spears was one of many big-time reporters — including Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne — to take Malika under their wing.
She moved to the Midwest to cover the Milwaukee Bucks, where she broke news on budding star Giannis Antetokounmpo's discontent with a franchise then unable to get over the hump.
Biggest of all, she volunteered to spend more than 100 days in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla., during the pandemic, writing, reporting and appearing on camera for a national audience in some of her first television appearances.
Caren remembers Malika calling from the bubble, singing Broadway musical Hamilton's "My Shot."
"I am not throwing away my shot!" Malika sang to her mom from her Disney World hotel room. She was one of a handful of reporters from ESPN covering the event. Malika became a trusted voice in sports amid crippling global uncertainty.
"The bubble was a big domino for me," Malika said. "How many moments do you get where you know the whole world is watching?"
Opportunity knocked again when the host spot for ESPN's daily NBA show, previously held by Rachel Nichols, came open. Malika was next in line to be the face of the NBA on ESPN.
Malika and Kendra may be too busy for family dinner these days, but Caren and Mike can find the sisters on nearly any television screen.
Mike's after-work beer on the couch now includes Malika on ESPN. For the past year before her new gig, daily Warriors games meant watching Kendra on NBC Sports' postgame show.
Caren listens to Kendra's podcast on her BART ride to work every morning. During her lunch break, she'll watch Malika's show.
"It's amazing to me. ESPN is just amazing," Mike said. "I keep waiting to wake up."
