For a young Taylor Rooks, that day felt like, well, the worst day of her life. The now renowned broadcaster is attending Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Georgia, and is getting ready for a high school track meet when, suddenly, she’s told she’s going to compete in an entirely new event. Not the 100, or the 200 like she’s used to. But the 400.
Rooks starts off hot. But then she forgets to pace herself. The final result? She comes in second to last in the race.
I’m never doing this again, she says to herself as she goes up to her parents, who are anticipating an emotional Rooks to be very upset after the loss. Failing at the 400 isn’t what necessarily led her to pursue a career in sports media, but the lessons she did learn growing up and running track, as well as volleyball, soccer and tennis, did help guide her in that direction.
“I knew I was not going to be like Serena,” she says on hoop(ish), a new show by SLAM and LeagueFits. “I was like, I either want to be the greatest to ever play or I’m not gonna do this. And I knew I wasn’t going to be the best.”
Today, Rooks is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant interviewers and media personalities. Not only does she know the game but she really knows the athletes, too, so much so that she’s gotten players like DeMar DeRozan to open up like never before. Her ability to resonate with her subjects also stems from her upbringing and being raised in a sports family: her dad was a running back at the University of Illinois, her late-uncle, Lou Brock, was a Hall of Famer with the Cardinals and her other uncle, Marv Woodson played for the Steelers and the Saints. She was also raised by “one of the biggest sports fans you will ever meet,” she says of her mother, who got her into playing fantasy football and watching the games alongside her dad.
It’s their influence, as well as her own experiences, that have shaped the way she holds her own in the industry.
“I think that knowing so personally how difficult it is to be an athlete, kind of makes me not be like the kind of person that thinks I know more about playing the sport than them,” she tells hosts Ian and Sway, later adding: “My style is: I know what I’m talking about. I watch the game, I know the personnel, I know the players. I understand the things that make them tick, what they are interested in. And that is how I try to approach the way I discuss sports.”
And that’s what’s set her apart. In an age where everyone can have an opinion—and post about it all over social media—Rooks’ conversational nature and humanistic approach gives her subjects the space to open up, and be heard. She’s always been fascinated by people and the way they interact, and almost ended up minoring in sociology while studying at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“I’m very much so a people person,” she tells us. “I like to get to know others. I like to learn about them. I like having conversations. And I don’t know if people are always trying to genuinely get to know other people, but I enjoy that aspect of life. I think that bleeds into the work, too.”
When she was little, Rooks loved to watch the news and was fascinated by how newscasters sounded and the cadence of their voices. She’d sit with her mother and watch news anchors like Monica Kaufman Pearson in awe, “enamored by how it was her job to tell everybody what happened.” Then there was pioneers like Oprah, who inspired her by not only how she captivated audiences, but “had a voice that held weight” amongst culture and society.
Young Taylor would set up her camcorder and interview herself, just like the women she saw on television. She’d pretend to be someone different every time, whether it be a singer, actor, or a tennis player and go back and forth asking “ridiculous questions.” When asked what her younger self would think of her now, seeing that she’s interviewing not only the biggest names in sports, but music legends like Lil Wayne and more, Rooks keeps it real:
“I say this very genuinely: I think that little Taylor would not be surprised. I have had an idea of what I want in my life to be for a really long time, and I have always tried to take the steps for my life to look like that. There was never a time that I thought I wouldn’t be able to accomplish all of the things that I set out to. So a lot of the time when I’m doing things, I’m saying this is what was supposed to happen because this is what I worked for.”
As her career continues to reach new heights, Rooks has also emerged into her own bonafide star in her own right. While others stick to the script, Rooks challenges the traditional notion that journalist are supposed to be just “flies on the wall” by being front and center: she can interview your favorite player or rapper, appear in commercials and cover the biggest events, including this year’s highly anticipated NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis. She’s built an audience that cares just as much about breaking news as they do her on-air fits, hair care routine and what books she’s reading.
In an ever-changing industry, Rooks is showing aspiring creatives and Black women in sports that they, too, can create their own lane. All the while, she’s still solidifying herself as the best in the game.
“That’s really what I want to be known as,” she says. “I want to be the person that if you wanted to sit and have a real conversation about the game, about yourself, about your why, about your what [then] you say, okay, I want to sit down with Taylor. That is the kind of environment that I try to foster when I’m doing the interviews, and not just because I think that it is very true to myself, I also think it is more interesting.
I always say, of course I care about, like, why you missed the last shot or why you’re not making your free throws, or why you didn’t win the big game. But I’m really interested in what it was like feeling those feelings alone and at home and how you bounce back from those. And like that to me is is more interesting because anyone can sit and talk about the X’s and O’s, um, and what the coach did wrong and the bad defense on the play. But I don’t know if everyone can get the other person to discuss those things…I think that is a very specific specialty that isn’t always relevant or paramount in the space. I feel like it fills a need.”
Get to know Taylor in the first episode of hoop(ish). Stream here.
Photos via Getty Images.
