Cronkite alumna returns to Phoenix sideline reporting for the Utah Jazz

When you check out the Utah Jazz you see every play on the court and interviews from players and coaches, and behind the mic is Cronkite alum Lauren Green.

After graduating from Cronkite in 2022 with a master's degree in sports journalism, Green quickly found her footing in what she says is her dream job. 

She will be back in Phoenix this week as the Suns host the Jazz on Feb. 7. She shared with us why she loves her job and how Cronkite helped her prepare for it. 

Note: The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

 

Q: What is your favorite part of your job? 

A: There are so many things. Again, it's like a dream job. I pinch myself every day. The people I work with and the work ethic that I'm surrounded by are amazing. That pushes me so much. It makes my job easy. 

Second, the travel. I travel all the time, a little spoiled by the way we travel and where we stay, but traveling everywhere, I get to see friends from all over the country and get to explore different things and see the world. 

And three, the NBA has been a dream. I can do my pre-game hit and LeBron (James) is warming up behind me. That's not something 12-year-old Lauren pictured when she was playing (NBA) 2k with her friends, using LeBron. It's pretty surreal to sit here and be around generational greats and just be able to watch basketball. I have the coolest job in the world. It's amazing. 

Q: What is your job like day-to-day? What are your tasks and responsibilities? 

A: As a sideline reporter, I work for the team, so I'm internal with them as well. But I'm going to practice every single day, or at the end of practice for media availability. We talk to a player, and if I need to pull anyone aside, like our coach or any other players to grab some things, I do that.  I'm still writing little packages which is funny, for anyone who doesn't think local news helps, which is where I was before this, I still like exercise that muscle to write little stories. So every day looks pretty much like practice if it's not a game day, or if there are random events, like players this year have, turkey drives, or a Christmas shopping spree I just covered. So we go and record that, and I get interviews, and then I put that together and write it.

Then there are game days. So I'll go to shoot around. We'll have a meeting with my production or our broadcast team, so like our play-by-play, our color, producer, directors and pre-game show stuff, we all just meet about what we want to talk about. I pitch or get some of my hits together that I want to bring up in the middle of the game. I have a pre-game meeting in the middle of the day because I'm on the pre-game show about 90% of the time. 

Then we go to the game. We go to pre-game press conferences with all the coaches. If there are any players I need to talk to before the game, I can during the open locker room period. Then we're just in the game, and then I'm going full speed. I grab a coach's halftime interview and then post-game, I'm either talking to our coach in a press conference or go in the locker room as soon as I can for interviews. 

Question: After doing your undergrad at the University of Nevada, why did you choose to come to Cronkite?

A: I think the reason Cronkite stood out was because there weren't a lot of schools that specialized in just sports journalism. I didn't even know that was a thing, and the fact that Cronkite had a whole master's program dedicated to just studying sports, I thought that was a match made in heaven. You could go to any other school and try to just study sports, but we were so immersed at Cronkite, so hands-on, and the opportunities, I was looking on the website, (and) people (were) covering the Olympics and different things. I was like, "'Oh, this school looks amazing.' So that's originally when I was like, "'I have to apply to this.'

Q: In your time at Cronkite, what did you do to help prepare you for this job? 

A: I tried to join or say yes to any opportunity. I was a (production assistant) on a documentary that had nothing to do with sports, but I was networking in that sense, and have a really good mentor from that documentary. Saying yes to everything, I joined Inferno Intel, just exercising as many muscles as possible. 

I think a lot of people get glued to being like, "'I'm doing broadcast, so I'm only going to take broadcast classes.' I enjoyed writing, I learned to enjoy more reporting from a writing sense in grad school. I ended up taking a column writing class with Bill Rhoden, which was cool. That was an awesome class to keep exercising my thinking muscle in a different sense. Being open to so many things, especially with writing helped me as a broadcaster. Just saying yes to everything, even if your plate is full and is a mess.

Q: What advice do you have for students? 

A: Don't get too caught up in following everyone else's paths. It's cool to look up to other people and to see what they did. But know that it's not a race, and it's not a linear path, especially the jobs that we do. So be open to everything, because the world of journalism has changed so much. Just stay on your path and choose what feels right to you, even if it might be tough, trust your instincts. But don't compare. Don't compare.

Q: If you checked into a Jazz game for 30 minutes, how many points are you scoring? 

A:  I don't know if I'm putting anything up. Well, you know what? I'm putting up at least a good four. I'm driving to the bucket and getting a foul. I'm drawing a foul, even if it's a flop. We're scoring on the free-throw line, but it's not going to be many.