Malika Andrews, one of the top hosts and reporters on ESPN’s NBA coverage, credits trusting the process for where she’s at today. But Andrews, also attributes it to a little bit of luck, which she says “favors the prepared.”
On the latest episode of The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, Sports Business Journal reporter John Ourand enjoyed Andrews’ answer but pressed her about a big break that helped launch her career. And believe it or not, it’s related to one of her now colleagues at ESPN in a unique way.
“I don’t know that this was the thing that launched my career, but it’s serendipitous in a way that I don’t know, I still think about,” Andrews said.
Andrews was super competitive with her best friend, Claire Duffy, who now works at CNN when the two were students at the University of Portland. Andrews credits Duffy as one of the reasons she got involved in her college newspaper, The Beacon.
Andrews was the Editor in Chief, while Duffy was the Managing Editor. According to Andrews, they rarely fought, or their disagreements were minimal. One of those disagreements was a bit fortuitous for Andrews’ future because, without it, she might not have been discovered by Adrian Wojnarowski.
“One disagreement we got into was whether or not Terry Porter’s hiring should be a front-page, above-the-fold, University of Portland newspaper, UP Beacon story,” she said. “I really believed that this story, the news value of the story, deserved to be above the fold. So, we ended up putting it above the fold.”
It just so happened that Wojnarowski, who was still with Yahoo! Sports at the time, was in town to interview Porter—the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Portland from 2016-21—for his podcast.
“He’s walking around campus and he picks up a copy of the newspaper. He reads the paper and he puts it in his bag,” Andrews recalled. “Maybe a week later, I went to the Nike Hoops Summit and I saw [Wojnarowski].”
She introduced herself and he knew who she was from reading the story.
“I was floored that someone of his stature in reporting had taken the time to read it,” she said. “I remember going back to my newspaper and telling the story as ‘you never know who’s reading.’ But from that moment on, he checked in with me throughout my New York Times career and when I was told untimely no that I couldn’t stay at the New York Times, which was crushing for me… then ultimately when I came to ESPN, he was really a big part of being a sounding board for me in that process.
“I’m not sure that story is the story that made my career, but I do think those links… like that’s what this is. This whole business is such a building block process. And for me, that just doesn’t happen. That kind of thing, it doesn’t happen. It’s still a little bit wild to me.”
You never know who may be reading your writing. And while Wojnarowski isn’t necessarily responsible for where Andrews is today, she put in a lot of that work herself, it certainly couldn’t have hurt to have him as an influence/mentor in this industry.
[The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast]
