David Kaplan

Early life and career Kaplan grew up in Skokie, Illinois, and graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English. He has been married twice previously. He also worked as a scout for two NBA teams, the Indiana Pacers and the Seattle SuperSonics. In December 2010, following Metheny’s departure, Kaplan signed a long-term contract to remain at WGN Radio, becoming the primary host of a new evening talk show called WGN Sports Night.

Comcast SportsNet and Chicago Tribune Live In January 2008, Kaplan was named the host of Chicago Tribune Live on Comcast SportsNet (CSN). In November 2009, he and the Chicago Tribune Live team were awarded an Emmy Award for Best Interview Program. In 2013, the show was rebranded as Sports Talk Live, which Kaplan hosted until its cancellation in August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional television appearances Kaplan appeared as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and featured in the acclaimed documentary Hoop Dreams during his basketball scouting career. In 2011, he appeared in the ESPN documentary Catching Hell, which chronicled the story of the 2003 Chicago Cubs and fan Steve Bartman’s controversial role in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

College basketball and NBC Sports Network In November 2012, Kaplan was hired by NBC Sports Network to call college basketball games, after previously working as a basketball announcer for ESPN. He also calls college basketball games for various conferences, including the Atlantic 10 Conference on NBCSN, the Missouri Valley Conference, and the Horizon League. Kaplan has also served as an announcer for the Chicago Machine and the Chicago Shamrox.

Cubs Pre- and Postgame coverage Kaplan hosted pregame and postgame shows for the Chicago Cubs on either WGN Radio or television for 25 seasons from 1995 to 2019. He was the former pregame and postgame host for NBC Sports Chicago’s Chicago Cubs broadcasts, partnering with former Cubs outfielders Todd Hollandsworth, David DeJesus, and Doug Glanville.

Unfiltered with David Kaplan On March 28, 2022, NBC Sports Chicago announced that Kaplan would host a new 30-minute weeknight sports talk show titled Unfiltered with David Kaplan, which premiered on April 4, 2022. In November 2022, Kaplan announced that he would leave NBC Sports Chicago at the end of the year to focus on his ESPN radio show and his growing YouTube channel.

Awards Kaplan was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. He has won three Emmy Awards for his television work, including two at Comcast SportsNet and one for hosting A Piece of the Game, a nationally aired sports memorabilia show that has received multiple awards for excellence.

From 2009 to 2011, Kaplan co-authored the award-winning Around Town column in the Chicago Tribune with longtime writer Fred Mitchell. He was inducted into the WGN Radio Walk of Fame in May 2018 and was also inducted into both the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame and the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2017.