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The WHAT Podcast goes live today, covering the Portland Trail Blazers and folks in their orbit, this week including AJ McCord, sports reporter for Portland’s KOIN 6 TV. After exchanging holiday baking stories, Tara and Cassidy briefly discuss Portland Trail Blazers highlights from 2018. They wonder why the can’t remember anything before last season’s playoffs and look forward to the Blazers getting through this really tough stretch.
Then stay tuned for our conversation with McCord. She grew up an athlete, learned about sports from her mom and grandma (Go Chargers!), and has great stories about covering the Blazers including talking to Damian Lillard about the shoes he wore opening night in honor of Paul Allen, traveling to New Orleans to cover the NBA Playoffs, and how she is able to relate to the players after a big loss.
1:00 Pastry talk
2:45 Why can’t we remember anything that happened before the playoffs?
6:30 Go vote for Damian Lillard for All Star! We’ll wait.
11:00 How are we feeling about the rest of the Blazer’s season.
13:20 Relax everyone, LeBron James is intact.
15:05 Introducing AJ McCord, sports reporter and anchor at KOIN 6. Grew up in San Diego. College in San Diego, internships and adventure sports in Colorado. Sports reporter in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
21:05 Growing up, her Mom and Grandma were the ones who explained sports to her.
23:50 Covering the Olympic qualifying events in the run up to the 2014 Olympics. Discovering the excitement for and her love of the Paralympics.
29:00 How did being an athlete prepare her for her job covering sports?
31:05 Blazers game day routine. The most important parts for her are the pre-pregame warm-ups and the post game locker room.
33:45 Highlights from her time in Portland (so far): Traveling to cover the NBA Playoffs in New Orleans, talking to Damian Lillard about his opening night shoes that he wore in honor of Paul Allen, and getting to know the players.
38:00 Thoughts on Blazers locker room and what is good about good chemistry.
41:00 Having guys get along in the locker room is important, but does a locker room need some fire to really succeed?
44:30 Find AJ on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She would love to hear you ideas for local sports stories: aj.mccord@koin.com.
Get Social
Follow Blazer’s Edge on Twitter @blazersedge, WHAT Pod @HoopsAndTalks, Tara @tcbbiggs, and Cassidy @CassidyGemmet. This week’s guest: AJ McCord @AJ_McCord.
Women’s Hoops And Talks (W.H.A.T.)
Join the Women’s Hoops And Talks Facebook group to talk about Trail Blazers with others who identify as women who love basketball.
Music used in the episode: “Happy Alley” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License