This is the most frequently asked topic in Weibo during my interview in the United States for four years, and it is also the question that I personally think about the most and answer the most times. In my opinion, there are four basic requirements for becoming a famous NBA reporter in the United States.

First of all, we should love basketball and NBA. This sentence sounds as empty as patriotism and love for home. Perhaps the first reaction of most fans is to reply disapprovingly: "I don't like how to pay attention to NBA games?" That's true, but the love I'm talking about here has deeper requirements

The NBA once had a highly respected slogan: "I love this sport!" " The Chinese translation is actually "I love NBA". The love behind this slogan is multifaceted: for players, it is boring training and competition that exceeds 10 hours every day in the middle of the season, it is a long recovery period that lasts for weeks or even months after injury, and it is the hardship that others can go home and fall asleep after watching the ball, but they have to catch a plane overnight to prepare for the next away game; For the coach, it may be that he has been training all the year round to prepare for the competition, and he has been sleepless day and night, racking his brains to find ways to improve high voltage test, who has broken the enemy, and he is worried that he may be dismissed at any time because of his poor performance. For fans, love may mean supporting your team as always, regardless of winning or losing.

So what is this love for journalists? It is the attitude of reporting every training and every game on time, the responsibility of carefully preparing every interview and writing every manuscript, the love for the job of basketball reporter, and the most basic duty and ethics of media people. It may not be difficult to be a qualified NBA reporter in the United States for a day, a week or a month. The difficult thing is to persist for eight or nine months in a season. In a foreign country far from family and friends, what beliefs do American journalists rely on to support themselves? Only a true and lasting love for basketball.

With this love, you will complete the annual training and competition report conscientiously, you will always be enthusiastic, take the initiative to explore and learn the industry trends you don't know yet, and you will be curious about those unknown fields, thus enriching your work and life in the United States. Don't take this sentence "because of love" as empty talk. Love is not spoken, but expressed by action.

Secondly, learn English well, especially practice oral English. This is actually the obstacle that many fans can't become NBA reporters and editors.

I once worked as an English teacher in a university for one year. I have taught undergraduate and graduate students. English learning seems to be a long-term problem for China students regardless of their age. Even the students with good English scores are mostly good at reading and writing, and they can't keep up with listening and speaking, which greatly affects their oral expression. I personally feel the same way about this. I also studied exam-oriented English before the third year of high school, which is called "dumb English". I got good grades in the exam, but I can hardly speak it. Correcting the causes, inferiority and lack of practice are the fundamental reasons.

Fortunately, I came up with a set of English learning methods suitable for me in senior three, and the core is reading early. In the year of the sprint of the college entrance examination, I spent an hour reading English texts by myself every morning. I didn't stop even when I went home on holiday. I also had the experience of waking my neighbors. What should I do if I can't persist? Whenever I am bored, I will take out the materials that I am interested in when reading, such as the English story about Jordan, so that I can regain the pleasure of reading in the morning. I have always been very supportive of idolize, a student fan now. I hope they can pass on the indomitable perseverance of idols to their study and life, and encourage themselves to overcome difficulties and forge ahead.

After two or three months of morning reading, the effect appeared. I have found the confidence to speak English. I will hint and motivate myself to speak more English in class and actively interact with teachers. Slowly, these interactions become catalysts, which help me stick to morning reading better. With this virtuous circle, it is no longer so difficult to insist on reading every morning, which has become a habit. In the college entrance examination, I got 130 in English. To my delight, I got full marks in the oral English exam.

I majored in English in college and English in undergraduate. After graduate school, my major is cross-cultural communication. Morning reading has been with me for seven years without interruption. I still remember that just because I arrived in the classroom early at the beginning of my freshman year, I insisted on doing morning reading every day. At the beginning of the first semester of my freshman year, I was elected as a study committee member by my classmates, which was an unexpected "welfare" for me.

Basketball English is a key point and a good starting point in the process of learning English, because interest is the best teacher. Now that the Internet is developed, fans can directly find original English reports through websites such as NBA.com, ESPN and Yahoo. You can start with Recap, get to know the characteristics of Basketball English, and have a basic understanding of written expression. Then you can get in touch with the original NBA video news, learn from each other, and ask friends and teachers who know what you don't know in time. These are all ways to improve English ability.

I said so much just to show that there is no shortcut to learning English. If you want to break through this difficulty, you must work hard and find a suitable learning method as soon as possible. This method can be reading in the morning, signing up for a training class, or watching American dramas and listening to English songs. After finding a way, it is more important to persevere and overcome difficulties. Everything comes to him who waits, as Kobe said, look at your heart.

Third, Chinese writing is fluent. If you want to be a journalist, you must be able to write, but journalists are not writers. Writing an article doesn't have to be rhetoric and whimsy. What news reports need more is the ability to present facts quickly and accurately. NBA reporters who are specific to the United States need to have a fluent writing style and be able to present the post-game dynamics and training interviews to fans from a certain angle at the first time. Fluency in writing is not a big threshold. There are only some conventional news writing methods, which are not difficult for laymen to master. My experience is that writing less long sentences, more short sentences, more active sentences, less passive sentences and less adjectives in regular reports can make the article read more objectively.

There is a tricky method. If there are journalists and experts you like in the basketball media industry, you might as well start by learning to imitate their writing styles. As long as you practice writing often, you can practice writing fluently. It is worth reminding that writing articles is not behind closed doors. Usually take the initiative to communicate with friends around you. Now Weibo, WeChat friends circle and basketball forum are all good platforms. Good wine is not afraid of deep alleys. If the article is sharp enough and novel enough, someone will notice you sooner or later, and it may become a stepping stone to your career.

This article also involves a very common question, that is, what major to choose in universities. Many high school students once asked me in Weibo, what major should I study if I want to be a journalist in the United States? If you have a choice, sports news, Chinese and English are relatively corresponding, which can directly improve your ability in this area. However, major is really not the most important factor. I made a rough statistics on the university professional background of our major. More than half of the people are not majoring in the above. They come from jewelry, chemicals, e-commerce and so on. Today's undergraduate course has actually become a training ground for comprehensive ability. Besides major, you can fully develop one or several hobbies.

Personally, I majored in English for Science and Technology, but as soon as I entered the university, I found a news club in the school, worked as a reporter editor in the campus media, and also took relevant courses in journalism and read relevant books, which is equivalent to mastering the basic knowledge of news interview by myself.

Fourth, I like to deal with people. There is a saying in the media circle that the news is written in seven points and three points. This test is the interpersonal skills of journalists. As a reporter in the United States, fluency in spoken English mentioned above is the basic condition for interviews, while interviews in the NBA require reporters to wipe their mouths with coaches and players every day. It is obviously not feasible to dislike dealing with people.

For the simplest example, the same player, giving you the same time, how can you make the interview more brilliant? There is no other way, that is, you spend more time in advance to understand the background and characteristics of the player, to master the details and stories that may even be ignored by him, so as to impress him and let him open his heart to chat with you. In the summer of 2009, Rockets guard AaronBrooks went to Beijing to attend the basketball camp. One of my colleagues in the basketball pioneer went to interview him. As soon as he heard the interview request, he refused it directly. At that time, editor-in-chief Su Qun asked me to try again the next day. I didn't know at first. This is the character of Xiao Bu. If he wants to talk, even if he finally sits down with you, he may not be able to talk. When preparing for the interview, I found that he came with his brother. Xiao Bu regarded his brother as an idol since he was a child, but his brother finally chose a different life path. In the interview the next day, I first connected Xiaobu's brother and learned some interesting things about Xiaobu. When I interviewed Xiao Bu again, his brother enthusiastically introduced my brother to me. The interview began with the brotherhood of the two brothers and told stories in all kinds of joy.

Journalists must like to communicate with people. This personality will not only help us to finish the interview better, but also gain personal resources in our daily communication and contribute to the future interview. These people can be players, coaches, team staff and even stadium security guards. 20 10- 1 1 season, McGrady came to Miami for an away game on behalf of the pistons. I want to do an interview. NBA stars are very smart. If they want to avoid the interview before the game, just before the locker room is open to the media, they sneak into the physical therapy room and hide. I know that in order to catch McGrady, they must find a way to enter the locker room early, even for a short time, because they talked to Michael, the security guard outside the locker room of the Heat.

In addition to these four basic conditions, there are some icing on the cake. For example, if you can drive, the United States is vast and sparsely populated, and many cities don't have as developed public transportation as China, so you need to drive to and from stadiums and training halls. For example, I can cook and stay in America all the year round. Once you can't adapt to western food, you can only do it yourself.

Having said so many rules and regulations, there is still one thing I have to mention. NBA reporters in the United States are not a tall industry in terms of treatment. Even in the United States, NBA reporters are not a very glamorous industry. If they do well, they will be middle-income class. This shows that people who just started are not well treated. Nine times out of ten, people of the same age who choose this line are all because of their love for basketball. To sum up, if you want to enter this industry in order to make money, then I suggest changing careers as soon as possible.

More specifically, how did I become an American NBA reporter? I like playing basketball since I was a child. How much do you love it? I remember when I was in primary school, I had a good time in the clay court and the dust. In order to solve the problem of no ball to play after school, many of our friends discussed it together, cutting trees in the depths of the forest, carrying them to the sawmill to cut, making a simple backboard, then finding a hoop to fix on the backboard and making a basket to stand in the neighbor's yard. When I set up the basketball stand, in order to dunk, I selfishly chose the height I could dunk, while other children could not reach the height of the basket. Looking back now, those playing times are undoubtedly paradise-like happiness.

Probably when I was in middle school, I was not very tall, but my love for basketball increased. I jumped on the court as soon as I had time after school, and then I began to contact Titan Sports and basketball magazines. My dream of becoming an NBA reporter began to take root and my goal gradually became clear.

In the college entrance examination, I missed studying journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and finally entered the Foreign Languages Department of China Geo University (Beijing), but this did not make me give up my basketball dream, joined the school's news club, started my own English magazine and organized a basketball league. More importantly, I have always had great enthusiasm for the NBA, not only watching games, but also studying them. By reading foreign news reports, watching game videos and interviewing after the game, I have accumulated knowledge about the history of Basketball English and NBA.

When I graduated from college, I sent a carefully prepared recommendation letter to Su Qunfa, editor-in-chief of Basketball Pioneer, and received a reply soon. He made an exception and interviewed me when the newspaper had confirmed the number of interns at that time. The question of the exam is very simple. Let me listen to and translate a post-match interview on the NBA website with my back to the computer. I remember AmirJohnson's vague black tone. Fortunately, for me, I have accumulated before and have more contacts. Teacher Su didn't look at my TEM-8 certificate of English major at all, nor did she investigate my professional background, so she examined my practical ability. Finally, he gave me an internship and an opportunity to enter the industry. Teacher Su is my idol in middle school, and also my guide and mentor. I have always been grateful to him.

In the summer of 20 10, Sina became an official partner of NBA. They found me and wanted to send me to the United States as a reporter. I joined Basketball Pioneer as a reporter at that time, but I waited for two years and didn't wait for the right opportunity. When the opportunity of Sina appeared, I agreed without hesitation. Even though I am disappointed with the basketball pioneer, I know that the opportunity to realize my dream has come, and I must take it into my own hands.

Up to now, I have been in America for four years, mostly in Miami. I am the only China reporter who witnessed the formation, running-in, winning and defending of the Big Three. During the 20 12- 13 season, I was stationed in Los Angeles to do the semi-annual report of the Lakers and Clippers, but in the playoffs that year, the Lakers were swept by the Spurs in the first round, and I returned to Miami to continue the heat.

Where there is a will, there is a way. If you don't talk verbally, but really love this industry from the heart, then improve your ability in a targeted manner. Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. There is still a dream, in case it comes true one day.