From Aspiration to Inspiration: Paris Lawson
Oprah Winfrey, Lisa Saunders, Soledad O’Brien and Robin Roberts are names that most news and sports fans should know. They are luminaries in journalism who have created impressive and distinguished careers.
Their other common trait is that they were role models for young girls like Paris Lawson. They were the ones who paved the way for Lawson to actually believe she could make her own path and become one of the break-out personalities in NBA coverage.
“I had a lot of incredible people that I looked up to that looked like me in a very similar role,” Lawson said. “I still look up to those people today.”
Now, more than decade later, Lawson is carrying that mantle as a role model herself. As a broadcast and digital reporter for the Oklahoma City Thunder, she has become one of the public faces for the multi-million-dollar franchise.
Because of that, Lawson, 24, knows every time she appears on TV or on a podcast or when her byline shows up next to a story, someone special is watching her every move, hoping to be inspired in the same manner.
“I do realize that there's probably a little Black girl somewhere looking on her TV and [she] might see me, and I want to be sure to not only do a good job for me, but also represent and do a good job for her as well,” Lawson said. “That's the biggest thing, right, is just making sure that everybody feels like they can do what they want to do. I take pride in the role that I have now.”
Growing up, it may have been hard for Lawson to envision herself being in a position to inspire others.
Basketball and storytelling have been a major part of her life since she was a girl growing up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. After graduating from Oakland High, she accepted a scholarship to play basketball at Belmont University in Nashville and majored in Communications.
However, it didn’t take long for Lawson to meet her first obstacles when she tore her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) during her freshman season in 2015. From there, the injuries continued to pile up.
“I rehabbed, came back, played my sophomore year, and then junior year tore the ACL on the same knee, again,” Lawson said. “Everything started to feel a little different this time, but nonetheless I was still determined. I was like, ‘I'm still going to play. I still have eligibility, it'll be fine. I've done this before so I can get through this rehab again.’ So I did that. I rehabbed, I came back, and then my senior season, started the very first game, my first ever start, my senior year, and tore my right ACL.”
For those that are counting, that was three ACL tears on two knees in four years. With the help of one of her favorite books, Lawson had already accepted that her basketball playing days were not going to go much farther.
As she grappled with reimagining her future, a book she was reading spoke to her soul. “The Obstacle is the Way, that book, especially going through my season-ending injuries, making the decision to not go back and play basketball, but instead pursue a career,” Lawson said, “that book helped me a lot in terms of my mindset and how I approach adversity in life.”
Fortunately, Lawson had already begun to feed her other storytelling passion by working in Belmont’s communication department.
“I always knew that I wanted to go into communications of some sort, whether that was writing or TV or video production,” Lawson said. “I didn't really know until I sideline-reported for the first time and I wrote my first story, and I realized that it didn't have to be one or the other. It's all-encompassing and it all falls under the umbrella of storytelling. And that's where I really found my niche.”
Once Lawson found that niche, she attacked it head-on. She took every opportunity to soak up as much knowledge and experience as she could.
“Luckily for me, at Belmont we had an online streaming network for all of our sports games, and so I was very fortunate that our sport broadcast production crew let me hang around and be in their ear all the time,” Lawson said. “And they put me behind the camera for a softball game, and the next thing you know, for volleyball I was sideline reporting. And I also got the chance to write for our student news outlet. And so all of this was ... It was all while I was injured, at home, but it was all great experience.”
Lawson also found time to intern with the Nashville Soccer Club and do some reporting for the local ABC affiliate. By the time Lashewson graduated from Belmont in May of 2019, she already had an impressive resume. But like most college graduates, that was no guarantee of finding a job.
So when Lawson saw that the Oklahoma City Thunder had an opening for a digital content reporter, she didn’t hesitate to apply for the position. “I'm looking through all of the responsibilities, and I'm like, ‘This is perfect. This is exactly what I'm looking for,’” Lawson said. “It's a team. I've been a part of a team for 16 years playing basketball. That's what I want to do. And it's every angle of storytelling. You're writing, you're on air. And so it's the NBA, obviously. It's the Thunder. And so that was a job that I knew that's where I need to be. That's what I got to do. So I applied for it and yeah, that next thing you know, I'm in interviews and got the job.”
Lawson moved to Oklahoma in time for the 2019-20 season and teamed up with Nick Gallo to become the team’s reporting crew. However, in the middle of her first year, a global pandemic hit. So while dealing with the pressures of learning a new job, she had the same issues as everyone else in a COVID-19 world. Yet that didn’t slow Lawson down; she joined the broadcast team full-time and continues to write and find ways to tell stories on a variety of platforms.
“When I think five to 10 years down the road, the biggest thing is mastering my craft,” Lawson said. “I am doing a lot of things now. I would love to continue growing my writing and would love to continue growing in the broadcast and podcast space. That’s my ultimate goal, just be better in all of those areas.”