Learning to put aside my fandom

Today, Greg Bowers sat in the front of our class and talked about ethics. He told us, “Your fandom is what got you here, and now you have to throw it away.” I’m from Oakland. Everyone here at SJI knows it and most people back at the University of Portland know it. I grew up on the Golden State Warriors. I was excited when Baron Davis signed my hat for my 11^th birthday and, yeah, I am happy to see the team back in the finals. That said, I understand why Greg Lee winked and said “homer” before assigning me to write the Warriors vs. Thunder Game 7 from OKC’s point of view. In class, Bowers explained that the original job of sportswriters back in the 1920s was to write positively about a team. That is no longer a sportswriter’s job. My fandom is partly what got me into sports journalism. But I have always been a fan of writing. I have found a career path where I can combine my two loves and am learning to balance them. I don’t particularly struggle when I have to cover Golden State, the team I love. When the Trail Blazers blew them out earlier this season, I wrote two stories on a tight deadline for the AP and when it went out on the wire, I don’t think anyone could tell I had grown up a Warriors fan. But I learned something new today about the intersection of fandom and journalism. And I also was reminded of the importance of objectivity.  -- Malika Andrews