“You’re about to interview Vinny del Negro, what do ask him?”
Wait, what?! I’m going up there? But I have no idea what to say!
It took me a few seconds to realize that the sports anchor’s question was only hypothetical. I was sitting on the court at Staples Center watching the Oklahoma City Thunder warm up in preparation to play the Clippers. Even though I was just there to hold the mic for post game interviews, the anchor made it clear to me that I had to be prepared for anything. He explained that if anything happened to him, all of a sudden I would be the one on camera interviewing del Negro (Clippers head coach). He showed me the extensive notes he took on both teams and how he outlined what he was going to say and questions for interviews.
After he showed me how he prepared for live shots at games, he once again made me pretend that I was doing it myself.
“I want you to realize how real this is,” he explained. “You need to treat this as if you were the one going on camera.”
Everything he told me made perfect sense. I do want to be a sideline reporter and what better way to prepare myself than pretend like I’m actually going to report while I’m sitting on the court with players, coaches, cameras, and everything? After the pep talk, I immediately started looking up stats for both teams and their players, diligently taking notes. Then I pretended like I was going to do an opening shot to the game and interview Chris Paul (Clippers point guard). I outlined what I would say and rehearsed it over and over again in my head until I felt like I could walk in front of the camera right then and do it.
When fans started filing into the arena and the players started warming up more seriously, the cameraman and I went back to the press room. I wound up watching about half the game in there and half up in the press box. Halfway through the fourth quarter, the cameraman and I headed over toward the Clippers locker room. We lined up outside with reporters and cameramen from many other stations and waited for the players to go in. The cameraman (or “photog” as they are called) warned me that things got a little aggressive in the locker room and I might have to throw a few bows to get my mic in.
When we were finally allowed in the locker room, everyone started pushing, running almost, to get to the players. I thought I would fall over in my heels! We went to the back of the locker room where everyone was crowded around Blake Griffin. He had a massive dunk in a big win against the top team in the NBA. After a little adjusting, I managed to snake my arm through the swarm of reporters and get it in front of him. I was concentrating so hard on making sure my mic was positioned properly that I didn’t get a chance to calm my nerves and ask a question. It was fun watching him being interviewed right in front of me, though. He talked for so long my arm started shaking a little. It takes some muscle to hold up a mic while fully extending your arm for a long period of time! (I’m going to have to do some extra tricep workouts for my next game.)
After getting sound from Griffin and Chris Paul, the cameraman and I ran back to the truck so that the producers could get the footage into the news, which was airing in only twenty minutes. The footage getting successfully sent in signified the end of my work for the night. I had survived my first game as a member of the press!
Many of my friends have commented on how awesome it was that I get to go to high profile games and talk to famous athletes as part of my work. Don’t get me wrong, I had a ton of fun and loved the experience, but it’s not all fun and games. I realized how different it is to work at a game than to watch one as a fan. Working a game involves a lot of preparation, research, and rehearsal. Watching a game for work means paying attention and taking notes the whole time so you can ask good questions after. Also, this job involves a lot of running in heels! How does everyone do it? Too many times I was scared I was going to fall flat on my face.
Overall, the game was a great experience and being there put some things in perspective for me. Everything was so real when it was happening right in front of me. I am very excited to go to more games (I’ll be working at a few Lakers games soon) and will definitely show up much more prepared. Maybe I’ll even gather the courage to ask Kobe a few questions!