The School of Communication and Design hosted an evening in March with Marc Spears, a veteran NBA reporter and recent Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, to discuss the cross-section of race and sports, and how race and culture intersect.
Spears has worked as a national NBA reporter for ESPN's Andscape, a Black-led media platform that tells the diverse stories of Black identity, since 2016, said Gregory Lee Jr., the Marion M. and John S. Stokes Jr. Visiting Professor in Race and Culture in Media.
Lee invited Spears to speak at Loyola to give Mass Communication students the chance to learn from a journalist who is working in the field and writing about the topics he is presenting in class.
“We want to give them exposure – the opportunity to hear from someone on the ground – not only from an NBA standpoint but on the ground level of covering a major entity at the crossroads of race, culture and sports,” Lee said.
In addition to his work at Andscape, Spears regularly contributes to other ESPN platforms, and has covered the NBA for more than two decades, including 18 NBA All-Star Games and 18 NBA Finals.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Spears last year and named the longtime reporter as its 2023 Curt Gowdy Media Award winner. The organization presents the award to print, electronic, and transformative media members whose efforts have significantly contributed to the game of basketball.
Lee and Spears have long been friends, with Lee even helping to get Spears hired at the Boston Globe when he was an editor there. He noted that Spears has strong ties to the area, calling New Orleans a “third home,” as his mother lives in the city. In addition, Spears obtained his master’s degree in sports business management from LSU.
