This interview has been edited for clarity.
I kind of knew what I wanted to do from the beginning. I came here (Syracuse University) in fall 2000. I wanted to major in broadcast journalism. So that's what I did. I was involved heavily in student media. I was the sports director at WAER my senior year. So it was fun four years.
After graduation, um, shortly after graduation I ended up going to Boston to visit some family out there, and while I was out there they had an open casting call or audition for this reality show called "dream jobs" through ESPN. I did that, made the show. I got to the final three, before I got kicked off — which is probably the best thing to ever happen. The winner was guaranteed a one year contract. I ended up getting kicked off. I lost, kind of figured out what I wanted to do. So I moved back home.So I freelanced for a little while after at a place called College Sports Television. Now it's CBS college sports.
I realized I needed to cut my teeth. I needed to pay my dues.
It wasn't really a huge gig. I needed to go somewhere where I can experiment, get better, work on my craft and have a little bit more creative freedom. Not that I didn't have there, it's just that I was doing updates. I wasn't growing. So I went out West and got a job in Yakima Washington. I ran the sports department at our little satellite station. One man sports department. So I didn't run the department I was the department. That's kind of where I've shaped who I am career wise. That was where I was able to kind of try new things and really hone my storytelling skills there. I was there for almost two years.
The lifeline actually ended up being Syracuse. Channel nine in Syracuse where I interned as a student had an opening. They were familiar with my work and I ended up getting that job. There was one of the judges from the ESPN show, Al Jaffe, who was always complimentary of my work. I just shot him an email giving him an update who love to send you like some clips just to get some feedback. And I had sent him some stuff maybe six months before, nine months before and he had liked the progression that I was making you. So he said, "hey, we might have openings coming up. Would you be interested in interviewing and auditioning?" It was totally out of left field but I said sure. I was under contract in Syracuse and breaking that contract was a harrowing experience.
They were willing to give me the interview and the audition on appointments that I could get out of my contracts. So I like to play this? I went to my boss and said this is the opportunity I have. I know I've only been here three months but I don't want you to hear this from somebody else. He said, okay go for it. But a week before my interview he comes to me and says "I changed my mind."
I was floored. So I was kind of in a bad place mentally leading up to that. But I got some good advice from some people around here and about a week after my audition they offered me the job. I accepted on the spot and then had to figure out my exit strategy.
So the guy I admired growing up was Bob Costas. Costas is a phenomenal and gifted writer and he made the words sing. Got you. Extra ramped up for the game. And so for me, it wasn't just getting there in time for the opening tip, I could not miss the NBC game open that Costas did because it was just that good. So that was kind of knowing before you knew I really for some reason gravitated toward. I liked to write and read as a kid and I love sports. And so the other thing that really got me interested is baseball cards. I have this treasure trove of information. There's not very many professions you can apply that to. So I would tell people all the time I want to get it and I want to cover sports.
It's not a job you can just kind of graduate college and say this is what I want to do. In some ways you've always been preparing for that job since you were six or seven years old.
Me and my friends used to play basketball in the driveway and I would do full play-by-play. You know, I was an 11 year old with a high pitched voice and that was that. But that's kind of where it started. You sort of knew before you knew. When I started of looking at schools I saw all the guys that went to Syracuse. I thought this is the place.
Nobody ever told me, this is what you have to be or this is what you can't be. As I got older I found out that was not normal. That, for me, came from the community at large. I didn't understand that for a long time. The thing bothers me is the hypocrisy. It's like me wanting a career in journalism has a much reduced risk than you leaving everything to move across the world and to start over. It's not even the same ballpark. And I actually think that encouragement helps because then what I see is because you're discouraged, oftentimes you'll work as hard.
Kids can be something different. They can make a difference, but you kind of have to let them and you have to know when to get out of there way.
My whole Tedx Talk was literally for every Desi parent. Culturally there's a lot of hypocrisy because nobody wants to support you at the beginning. Nobody wants to support you when you're halfway through. But then like when you make it now you represent, now you're one of us. And so it took me a long time to kind of wrap my head around that.
And I think part of that stems from not being encouraged and you're doing a good job, work at this to get better as opposed to or whatever you're doing. So where's your incentive to actually grow and own your craft? And I think it starts with that.
It's hard. I'm aware there's external factors. I was up for a job in Toledo once and they really liked my tape. They said, "here's the deal. We already have a guy in our sports department whose name is Hakim. And we can't have a Hakim and an Anish in our sports department. I get that. But I think sometimes we make it like 99% about that and 1% about what we can do. So my perspective is why not help us grow so we're the best candidate possible. We can do it we're skilled enough.
So, we just kinda need to turn that mirror on ourselves and say, why are we not encouraging the next generation to do the same? How many never even got that opportunity because they weren't encouraged. They were denied.
I cover lacrosse and that's something I hear all the time. I hear,"Oh we have a black kid on the team." But if you ask that one player, if the team is diverse, there's no shot. To be perfectly honest, I never really thought about it until I had to.
At some point I think where I struggled with it is being that ambassador. I did that later because I was bitter for a while. As much as you want to be a role model and you want to do this I never ever felt supported. What does what I want to do with my life have anything to do with how I identify?
Motivations change. I have a young daughter now. The end all be all used to be success. But now I'll take the late flight to Syracuse so I can have a few extra hours with my wife and daughter.I would hate to be defined by what I do
The biggest challenge is being able to evolve especially once you school. Also the challenge for me is that my career's been a lot of detours. I started as a studio anchor and transitioned to a host and play-by-play and now I do play-by-play full time. So I was like I got this anchor thing down. I can host. And then you move into this new arena and see all these other guys just doing it and suddenly you're trying to play catch up. That was challenging. But I think it's kind of pushing the boundaries and constantly evolving and changing.
I'm reading this biography right now about Da Vinci. There's this innate curiosity that he had, which I find fascinating. Be more than just what you are. So take Picasso's work. Man in a Beret: That was one of his earliest work. The point being is if you really pay close attention you can see how he plays with fading and shading and how he plays with hues. You can see sort of the genesis of what he would become.
He went from that to experimenting with the blue hues. And then all of a sudden there's this kind of intellectual creative leap which gets him into the cubism. It's a genre in itself because of him.
This idea of knowing the fundamentals and knowing with what the rules are and then breaking them. It's all about finding that next thing outside of yourself, finding that next endeavor. So I don't look at what I do, this is the be all end. I want to write a novel one day. I've got the beginnings of a screen play on my laptop that I've been working on for three years and one of these days I want to finish it.
I just don't want to be defined as a sports person.
Actaully, for me it's reading. I'm always reading. That to me is refilling your quiver with arrows. You're sort of replenishing your creativity. I've got probably dozens of notebooks starting when I was in college I take one with me every road trip and anytime I see a word or phrase that I like, that sticks with me I just write it down.
I'll just flip through it before the game, just to put some thoughts in my head. I've been doing that for 15 years. The curiosity is a necessity in this business.
So this was actually when I was in college. Salman Rushdie and I think I was the only student who was part of the media. I was in a room with four other people and I got to interview him. He's one of my favorite authors.
Don't do it. chuckles). No, I'll say you gotta be all in. If you go in with one foot in the water, I just don't think you could do it. You have to be, because it could go into it. One for the water. The downside of us choosing to do what we love is that there really is no clock we can punch. We're on the clock all the time. We're constantly trying to get better soak up more knowledge. It's an all-in profession.