Summary
Host Rachel DeMita reflects on her ten-year sports hosting career by sharing her top three most embarrassing professional moments. She details a paralyzing encounter with Damian Lillard regarding a rap freestyle, a technical audio disaster during a live broadcast for NBA TV during the 2017 NBA Finals, and a discouraging, short-lived interview with basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Through these stories, she discusses the challenges of live reporting, the reality of meeting famous idols, and the necessity of being able to laugh at one's own mistakes to survive in the media industry.
Key Insights
In-ear monitoring failures on live television require quick-thinking improvisation but can lead to professional setbacks.
During a live hit for NBA TV at Oracle Arena, DeMita experienced severe audio troubleshooting where she could only hear every other word from the studio. Despite using two earpieces taped to her ears, she had to guess the content of the questions and improvise answers. This resulted in a disjointed performance that she believes contributed to her not being rehired by that network, highlighting how technical issues beyond a reporter's control can impact their perceived competence.
The 'don't meet your idols' adage often holds true in the high-stakes environment of professional sports journalism.
DeMita recounts a highly anticipated interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that was scheduled for an hour but cut to ten minutes due to the legend's cold demeanor and lack of engagement. The host found the experience to be a 'dream crusher,' as the lack of eye contact, unfriendly handshake, and monosyllabic answers made the process feel like 'pulling teeth.' This serves as a reminder that personal expectations when meeting legendary figures can often lead to professional disappointment.
Vulnerability and the ability to find humor in mistakes are essential survival skills for media personalities.
Throughout the video, DeMita emphasizes that while she is typically well-prepared, human errors—like calling Doug McDermott by the wrong name or congratulating a player on a loss—are inevitable. She argues that being able to laugh at oneself prevents embarrassment from becoming debilitating. This approach helps in building rapport with subjects, as seen when she eventually made an intimidating Spike Lee giggle, breaking a tense atmosphere.
Sections
The Damian Lillard Rap Freestyle Debacle
Rachel DeMita describes one of her first major interviews with NBA star Damian Lillard for East Bay magazine.
Early in her career, around the age of 22 or 23, DeMita was tasked with interviewing Damian Lillard for East Bay magazine. At the time, Lillard was just beginning his rap career. The producers at East Bay specifically requested that she ask Lillard to perform a freestyle rap about shoes during the interview. While she was nervous, she prepared the question as part of her notes and conducted the main part of the interview successfully until reaching the rap request.
The interview took an embarrassing turn when Lillard challenged DeMita to freestyle first, causing her to freeze completely.
When DeMita asked Lillard for an 'East Bay shoe rap,' he looked her in the face and challenged her to rap first. Despite never having stage fright before, DeMita completely froze and could not think of a single rhyming word. She felt she was too young and green to 'weasel' her way out of the situation or laugh it off. She eventually blurted out 'hair and a chair' before admitting she couldn't do it. Consequently, Lillard refused to rap, and she left the interview feeling like she had failed the company and cried afterward.
Technical Disaster During the 2017 NBA Finals
DeMita recounts her struggle with a malfunctioning earpiece during a live NBA TV broadcast at Oracle Arena.
During the 2017 NBA Finals between the Warriors and Cavs, DeMita was stationed at Oracle Arena for a live hit with the TNT/NBA TV crew including Shaq and Kenny Smith. Shortly before going live, her in-ear monitor began failing. The audio was muffled and choppy, possibly due to frequency interference from the massive crowd. Technicians tried taping two earpieces into her ears and hiding them with her hair, but the sound quality remained extremely poor, making it nearly impossible to hear the questions from the studio.
The host was forced to guess questions and improvise her reporting, leading to an awkward and disjointed television segment.
As the live segment began, DeMita could only catch every other word of the studio's questions. She had to use context clues from the fragments she heard to guess what was being asked. When asked a question about whether fans wanted the Warriors to win in Cleveland or back at home, she found the logic of the question (as she heard it) confusing but answered anyway, stumbling over her lines. She had further difficulty with the follow-up question and had to entirely 'BS' her way through it, which she felt looked like a disaster for a live TV debut on that network.
Challenging Interviews: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spike Lee
An interview with legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar proved to be a significant professional disappointment due to his standoffish behavior.
For a 2K TV segment, DeMita was scheduled for an hour-long interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. However, the experience was unpleasant from the start; the basketball legend was unfriendly, avoided eye contact, and had an unusual handshake. Despite her efforts to be upbeat and friendly, the interview was cut down to just ten minutes because it felt like 'pulling teeth' to get responses. DeMita notes that she never wants to feel like she is holding a subject 'hostage,' and the lack of engagement from such a legend was a major 'dream crusher' for her.
DeMita discusses how her own 'awkward' personality helps her eventually break the ice with difficult or intimidating subjects.
Comparing her experience with Abdul-Jabbar to an interview with Spike Lee, she notes that Lee was also very intimidating for the first five minutes, refusing to smile or make eye contact. However, by being 'chill' and leveraging her own natural awkwardness, she managed to flip a switch and make him giggle, which saved the interview. She believes that because she doesn't project a facade of being perfect, her vulnerability makes her subjects feel less threatened and more comfortable being the 'star' of the segment.
Rachel shares minor blunders involving wrong names and incorrect scores that highlight the humanity of sports media.
The host admits to recent errors, such as accidentally calling San Antonio Spurs player Doug McDermott 'Dan.' She also recalls a time she congratulated a player on a 'big win' when they had actually lost a double-overtime game the night before because she misread the scores. She explains that while these moments are embarrassing, they are usually resolved by laughing with the athlete. She concludes that keeping a professional reputation for being prepared allows for these human moments to be seen as minor dorkiness rather than incompetence.
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