LOOKING BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE, WHAT WERE THE INITIAL STEPS YOU TOOK TO GAIN EXPERIENCE?

Taylor: Most of it was in college. When I was a freshman, I started this blog called the “Online Sideline” and in that blog I interviewed whoever I could- team managers, my family,  or someone I knew from high school. I just wanted to get better at storytelling and interviewing. I was a sophomore and wanted to get really good interviews on my reel so I can build it up and show that I can do this. I told myself I was going to go to All-Star Weekend, get my credentials and interview Kobe Bryant, Lebron and all these other people. I’m hounding the NBA Communications people about giving me the credentials and just kept emailing and emailing. They gave me the credentials, so me and my two friends drove to Orlando and I just got as many interviews as I could. I posted them and some of them got picked up because people were watching and Fox Sports eventually saw my blog. I got to interview Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and Kobe Bryant. I was sticking my mic in everyone’s face! When I was at All-Star Weekend, I was obviously totally inexperienced- I didn’t know how to interview and I didn’t know how the scrum works. When it was all done, I didn’t get to interview Kevin Durant. I went to his media person and his security guard and they said he wasn’t doing any interviews and he was done, but he said he would. He did the interview  and I always say that when you’re young and you’re trying to get stuff done and you are trying to make it big, a lot of people tell you “no.”  I always remember Kevin because he said “yes” when he really didn’t have to. All-Star Weekend was really an awakening for me like, “You can do this!” I posted my stuff and Fox called me and asked me to intern with them my junior and senior years and I covered Illinois football, basketball and recruiting. When I graduated, I got the job offer from Big Ten Network, worked there for two years, and then came to SNY.

WHO ARE THE MENTORS THAT HAVE GUIDED YOU ALONG THE WAY PROFESSIONALLY?

Taylor: Cari Champion is a big mentor of mine and she is my favorite person on Earth. She’s such a boss and is good at what she does. The thing I admire most about her is that she is herself. Sometimes people get into this job and feel like they have to compromise parts of themselves- they can’t be too much and they have to tone themselves down. But Cari is like, “This is who I am and who I am is going to get me to where I want to be.” I think she has really mastered being comfortable with who she is and making people love her for who she is. She’s always there when I need advice. There are also people that I haven’t met like Robin Roberts and Doris Burke.