Name: Brian Windhorst
Position: ESPN Senior NBA Writer
Age: 38
Where I'm from: Akron, Ohio
Where I call home: Omaha, Neb.
Focusing on right now: It’s late in the NBA Playoffs, so I’m literally working every single day right now on those. Since about April 15 it’s been very heavy.
Best advice: Try not to focus on what you did yesterday. There’s a tendency in the industry for there to be a lot of congratulations for stuff that’s already happened, and I’m a big believer that you’re only as good as your next story. I really believe in moving forward and having all your focus on the task you have in front of you.
A must for a new hire: You have to do an extraordinary amount of reading. When you cover something that is as widely covered as a professional sports league, these are very large scale beats that matter to a lot of people. Judgement is the most vital thing you can have in terms of taking something from what maybe 500 people have seen and finding out why it’s important and what it means. You have to be obsessive about not only what’s going on with your particular beat but also general trends.
Exec I admire most: Heat President PAT RILEY for his ability to set culture, inspire loyalty, focus on the main thing and his incredible depth of experiences that he’s able to apply.
First thing in the morning: I read for as long as I possibly can before I start the day.
Talking tech: The most important apparatus in my life is my headphones for my phone because I talk on them, or listen to content on them probably 8-10 hours a day. Also, the Fly Delta app because I fly Delta. It's something I use a great deal.
Book shelf: I was so into “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” on FX that I read JEFFREY TOOBIN’s “THE RUN OF HIS LIFE: THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON."
Must-have music: I’m a big fan of THE LUMINEERS. They just put out a new album, CLEOPATRA, that I waited three years for and I was very happy with it.
Food for thought: Anyone who knows me knows I can tell you my favorite Italian restaurant in every NBA city.
How I unwind: I love watching movies, but the problem is very few movies that come out between January and October interest me. I don’t like big action or superhero movies, I love smaller movies. Ironically though the last five years have been frustrating because the only time I really can watch movies is in the summer.
Day in the life: It’s not unusual for me to do live television, radio, record a podcast and write a story before noon. My favorite thing about working at ESPN is the various platforms. I completely immerse myself in that. I’m fortunate enough to have a studio in my house and I can have an extraordinarily wall-to-wall busy day where I don’t have more than 15 minutes of free time and appear on numerous NBA shows and platforms and never actually leave my office.
