Portland Trail Blazers Rookie C.J. McCollum Interviews Adam Silver
By Stu White
Good news to all your journalism majors out there! You too can go from a degree many people deride as being “worthless” to being a multimillionaire interviewing the likes of NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver! I mean, C.J. McCollum graduated from Lehigh with a journalism degree and he did just that. (Maybe it helps that the Portland Trail Blazers selected him with the tenth pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. That could be an “in,” I suppose.)
The interview can be read over at Forbes. It’s pretty interesting; McCollum does a good job asking provocative questions and Silver is gracious with his responses. They discuss, amongst other things, Lehigh’s game versus Duke (Silver is a Blue Devil), David Stern, and dogs. My personal favorite part, though, is Silver’s advice to McCollum about making sure his degree is put to good use.
"One of the things I’d suggest you do is exactly what you are doing now. Use that degree while you play in the NBA…Write as much as you can. I think that writing is a muscle – same thing as working out – and I think if you find opportunities to write blog entries, stories and essays throughout the year that it would be great for you. I think that most great writers are also great readers, so I recommend reading as well. The discipline of writing and sharing what you write with other journalists and writers and asking for feedback, is like asking others to give you feedback on your game. It’s the same thing."
Adam Silver shoulda been an English teacher.
[Source: Forbes]