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By Root 2401 0

I kept going back and forth—“Should I ask Robin to look at my tape and get back to me, give her my card and maybe get some constructive criticism from this woman I’ve admired for years? Or should I bring it home?” Because I had promised my parents. So I went back and forth, and finally I gave it to Robin. I said, “Excuse me” and woke her up. And she said she’d be glad to take a look at it. And then half an hour later we got off the plane. She had been sitting up front, I was way in the back. And when I got off, she was standing out there, she’d waited a good five or six minutes for the whole plane to empty and for this kid to come off, then walked the whole way down to baggage claim to tell me she’d get back to me. And two weeks later, she did. She took the time for some nobody kid who threw a VHS tape at her and gave me this awesome feedback.

Then, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in 2009, toward the end of this big breakfast with about five hundred people there, Robin Roberts was thanking everybody, and out of the blue she looked at me and said, “Sage, keep it up.” And she got choked up and she said, “I can’t believe I’m getting choked up right now. But when I watch you every morning, I see so much of me in you. You are amazing. You’re setting a great example for young women everywhere, especially young black women who don’t know if there’s a chance of getting into this business.” And she said, “You’re fabulous. I am so proud of you.” And I just couldn’t believe it! Because this is the woman I strive to be like. I don’t even really know her, and in front of all these people she called me out. She got emotional talking about me and how I reminded her of herself, and it just floored me.

I’m not impressed by very many people. Athletes, politicians, I really don’t care. But because of the way she handled herself as a professional—and I had really studied her through the years, and when I got to ESPN I watched how she handled herself through the good and the bad there, how she carried herself on the air to this day, how she battled breast cancer, how her father was a Tuskegee airman, so she had the military connection, too, military brat—it had just meant more to me than anything in the world, more than anything anyone had ever said to me in this business. I still doubt myself. On days when maybe that doubt creeps in for a second, I think back to Robin Roberts on the podium that day and what she said to me.

JOHN ANDERSON:

I wouldn’t have a career here, I don’t think, without Linda Cohn. She’s been instrumental, because when I went to SportsCenter, I wound up sitting next to her. Now, she had been here for a while. She’s a made guy at that point. And she could have very well gone to her bosses and said, “Who’s this guy who nobody knows that you stuck me with?” But she was just the opposite. She couldn’t have been more helpful and more welcoming, and she’s great to anchor with because she pays attention. I’m really grateful because she accepted me right off the bat and treated me like an equal from day one, and she didn’t have to do that. There have been a lot of times when we ended shows where she said, “Good night, I’m Linda Cohn,” and I’d go, “I’m the guy next to Linda.”

DONNA ORENDER, President, WNBA:

What would I change about our relationship with ESPN? For one, I would like the perception out there to be that we are a prioritized partner of theirs. I’d like to see more of us on SportsCenter. I think our fans would like to see that too. I think young girls would like to see that. I think the daughters of the people who are putting on the coverage would like to see that. SportsCenter is a litmus test of what’s important. It’s a validater. And athletes want to be validated. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about taking the big voices—meaning the big guys with a lot of presence—and having them call WNBA games. Why? Because that’s an indicator of importance and relevance. And ESPN’s been very open to doing that. I think you’ll see a lot more of that coming up. Dick Vitale covered a Connecticut