She spoke to The New York Times about reporting from the bubble and the challenges of being a Black woman in a sports journalism industry that is mostly white and mostly male.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
What were your most meaningful interviews?
Fred VanVleet always comes to mind because I talked to Fred right after everyone saw the video of Jacob Blake, George Floyd.
He wasnt taking basketball questions. He was very visibly emotional. And what he saw was visibly weighing on him. And he had a bunch of mics in his face, bunch of cameras in his face, and everybody was like: OK, are you guys going to play? What are you going to do? But when they got to me I just asked him how he was doing. I was just like, mentally, how are you? And he just gave this long, two-minute answer about how this has affected him mentally, how it brings up really old wounds, how it makes him think about when his dad was shot and killed. He said he was going through a really hard time in this bubble.
And I was like, I bet you nobody has just asked him how he was. And as a Black person, I know that when you see those videos, youre not doing well.
How do you approach interviews and source-building so that you are able to get candid responses?
When Im interviewing people, they understand that I am asking questions to understand. Im not asking questions to criticize or judge. So from that and through time youre like, she is trying to just make sure that my voice is heard and shes telling the story in the right way.
I think being Black in this space does have certain advantages because I think the players look at me and theres a level of relatability and theres a level of understanding. I think players trust me. I have been doing this for quite some time, so a lot of these players I have known for years. I have known Kevin Durant since I was 19. Ive known Jayson Tatum since he was 15. Ive known CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard for seven years at this point.read more
Taylor Rooks Gets the N.B.A. Interviews That Go Viral
