Knicks announcer Monica McNutt's spin move from the Beltway to Broadway

Monica McNutt is a Washington, D.C., product to the core — raised just outside the city, played at Georgetown, graduate school at Maryland, early jobs in and around the capital area, childhood fan of D.C. teams from the Nationals to the Capitals.

But being an I-95 immigrant has made her appreciate much more how far she has come as an adopted New Yorker — and how much the city has embraced her as one of its own as a Knicks radio and television announcer.

“When I officially moved to New York, I remember calling my mom, being like, ‘Mom, these folks are calling my name like I owe them money,’ ” McNutt said, laughing, in an interview with Newsday.

McNutt also noted how welcoming folks seemed to be.

Her mother’s response: “Well, you’re in New York. You need to be glad it's happening that way, because they will let you know if they don't like you, too.”

So far, so good, for McNutt, 35, who over the past five years has been on a rapid career rise both nationally and locally, with high-profile gigs on ESPN as well as on MSG Networks and ESPN New York radio covering the Knicks.

She is in her second season as the lead analyst for Knicks radio, for which she will work 55 games this season.

None of this seemed possible in early 2019, when she was in her family’s basement in Maryland awaiting a phone call. She had her response prepared.

“I had this whole speech for the debt collectors, the credit card folks,” she said. “It was like, ‘I promise, when I get it together, I’ll get back on track.’ ”

Instead, the call was from ESPN executive Pat Lowry, inviting her to work the ACC women’s basketball tournament for the ACC Network, an assignment that launched her increasingly varied work on ESPN networks.

It included an appearance on “SportsCenter” direct from that same basement in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It just went crazy from there,” she said.

Just this week, ESPN announced that McNutt will be one of the commentators for an animated Christmas Day simulcast of the Spurs-Knicks game starring iconic Disney characters.

McNutt also appears on “First Take,” where she created a viral moment in June when she confronted host Stephen A. Smith about the show’s commitment to discussing women’s sports.

Before ESPN made its move, though, MSG identified McNutt’s potential.

Late in the 2018-19 season, she was working at the online site “Overtime” when it partnered with MSG for an alternate telecast of a Knicks-Lakers game designed to appeal to younger fans. That was all it took.

“She just brought a knowledge of the game and a passion for the game and a casual way of talking about it that related to fans,” said Kevin Marotta, MSG’s senior vice president of content and marketing.

“We tried to give her as many opportunities as possible. With each opportunity, she hit it out of the park.”

McNutt first was cast on a nightly summer show in 2019 called “MSG 150” and has become a bigger and bigger presence in Knicks coverage.

“A lot of fans refer to her as ‘our Monica McNutt’ when they see her on ESPN,” Marotta said. “It speaks to the fact that they've embraced her knowing that she's not a New Yorker, but she's an adopted New Yorker.”

McNutt moved to the city in 2021 and now is more entrenched than ever after marrying Justin Jackson, an executive with the NBA Players Association.

Their engagement was featured in a photo spread in Essence magazine in May and their wedding in August was reported on by The New York Times.

“Life comes at you fast,” she said of the celebrity treatment. “Wow.”

Now McNutt is the one welcoming new people, in this case Tyler Murray, who is in his first year as the radio play-by-play voice of the Knicks.

“There’s a reason she’s a star,” Murray said. “To be able to share the mic with her is huge. If I’m doing my job right, we get as much Monica on the mic as possible. She’s the absolute best. “

McNutt, who is 5-11, was a second-team All-Big East guard at Georgetown as a junior, averaging 11.2 points in 2009-10. In her senior year, Georgetown reached the NCAA Sweet 16 before losing by five points to Connecticut.

But she sensed she was not WNBA material as a player.

She was an English major who caught the journalism bug late in her undergraduate years, then got a master's degree in journalism at Maryland.

Now she is “just riding the wave” rather than making long-term career plans.

Her schedule makes it difficult to find time for pickup games, but she plays when she can and appreciates what the sport has done for her.

“I have to give credit to the game we all love, right?” she said. “You talk about sports as an opportunity, and basketball has been really good to me.

“I'm really, really fortunate that through the game, through my connections with the work and the commitment, I've been able to be me and resonate, particularly in New York.

“Like I always say, Knicks fans have my back in a way that I could never have anticipated. I'm very grateful.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.